RE: Beginner Question: Digital Negative to Silver On Variable Contrast Paper

Good luck. Variable contrast plasticized papers are an excellent learning
experience and the resultant prints may be useful for reproduction in
publication, but be warned that they are not suitable for long-term storage
or display. They deteriorate gradually and noticeably in a few brief years.
It is possible that there is something new in the field that I am not aware
of , but I doubt it. Use fiber based graded papers for best long-term
results. Joachim.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Michael Koch-Schulte [mailto:mkochsch@shaw.ca]
  Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 5:04 PM
  To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
  Subject: Re: Beginner Question: Digital Negative to Silver On Variable
Contrast Paper

  Thanks Jack,

  I'm completely new to alt process and have only had my own darkroom less
than a year. I realize many on this list probaby don't consider silver
gelatin prints "alt" enough, but the way I see things these new digital
negative techniques are my going to be my "gateway" to a whole gamut of
different alt process in the future. I'm trying to work out my techniques in
the darkroom on silver paper first. If I can master that then it should be a
matter of adapting to different processes, right?

  I guess where I'm going with this is that with VC paper you can either use
polycontrast filters to set contrast from grade 0 to grade 6. Light yellow
to dark yellow going from grade 0 to 2.5 or 3, then light magenta to dark
magenta taking the contrast up the rest of the way to grade 6. Or, if you
don't use filters you can calibrate a colour dichro head to do the same
thing as the filters argueably with even more control.

  So, I'm guessing that since the nature of B&W VC paper is to respond
differently to yellow, magenta that I can use these colours and others (O/C
safelight orange for example) to control the contrast via color on the
negative output from my printer (an Epson R300 using dyes).

  My original question might be better put as "is VC paper a moving target,
therefore, harder to hit calibration wise" than say if I just used regular
grade 2 paper.

  Thanks.

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Jack Fulton
    To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
    Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 3:25 PM
    Subject: Re: Beginner Question: Digital Negative to Silver On Variable
Contrast Paper

    Yes, you can print to a material such as Epson backlight film and tailor
your curves for paper contrast. A nice prinet each time you expose.

    On Nov 5, 2004, at 8:31 PM, Michael Koch-Schulte wrote:

    This is my first post to this list, forgive my ignorance I'm still
learning. Am I crazy to think I can contact print or calibrate my digital
neg workflow to use Kodak Polycontrast (VC) paper? Would using "color table"
methods work better or worse because of VC paper's tendency to change
contrast with different color (e.g. filters). Thx.
Received on Sat Nov 6 18:59:05 2004