From: Christina Z. Anderson (zphoto@montana.net)
Date: 03/17/03-08:45:05 AM Z
Judy and list,
I think I better clarify something about the Zimmerman process before
everyone figures it is something different than it is, and excuse the
lengthy quotes, below that you have to plow thru. People are under the
mistaken opinion that Z used hardly any gum by his statement "use just
enough gum to hold the pigment together, and no more". Read the following
and you will see that he actually says to use 1:1 pigment to gum, HOWEVER,
he used powdered pigments. But he was going volume to volume, you know?
Anyway, read on and I'll make my point after:.
Zimmerman, p. 4 jpeg,
prefers powdered pigments. p.6 he uses gum, not the powdered kind but the
solid, mixed 2 parts solid gum to 3 parts water--a thick solution. P. 7
"Use just enough gum to hold the pigment together and no more." p. 7 or p.
215 of the original article says "take...pigment or powder...enough to heap
on the point of a penknife blade. Pour in of the thick gum solution *a
little more than the bulk of the pigment used*....if the gum takes up all of
the pigment in suspension then you are ready for the next step; if not, add
a few drops gum...[and further] a molecule of gum will hold a molecule of
pigment when the gum is hardened...all the gum that is used in excess of
molecule for molecule is wasted...[further, p. 216 or p. 8]...I am doing
something more radical than that, by advising you to use the gum sparingly,
and the sensitizer..somewhat ad libitum.There is this suggestion only as to
the latter, that if you use too little, the mixture will be too thick to
spread, and if too much, it will be too watery. The four to six proportion
of sensitizer to one of gum is about right for all purposes, and will give
the desired "creamy" consistency for a smooth coating."
This "creamy" word is what has me puzzled, because when I did the Z
method yesterday, it was NOT creamy, it was runny/watery, so I really think
in essence he is using thicker gum, or more, than people believe.
The nice thing about his method is mix n' go: take 1/4 tsp pigment,
1/4 tsp gum, and 2 tsp pot di, and it'll do a good 8x10. So it is easy
enough to test on your own--any takers?? Please report back.
My tests yesterday were this: Z against Livick. Livick was the 6g
pigment to 12ml gum formula, and I took my most staining color (quinacridone
violet) and I got FAR cleaner whites with L than with Z, in fact, with a
heavy stainer as the QV I would NEVER do Z's formula. It was a bust. I
also tested Z's formula with am di and pot di as another aside, half the
print of one and half of the other, same exposure same neg same time
obviously. The am di did WAY better than the pot di (still stained whites
tho) because, in my opinion, it is a faster exposure so it looks darker,
richer, contrastier, and didn't allow bleeding as much as the pot di did.
Chris
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