RE: first prints

Thank you for you thoughts, and you may be right.I was fairly aggressive
with the foam brush I used.
Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Smigiel [mailto:jsmigiel@kvcc.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:53 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: first prints

>>> rskmd83@hamptons.com 02/14/05 2:11 PM >>>
I just completed my first cyanotypes and Van Dyke prints.All went rather
well except that the images lacked the detail I would have expected from
the
4x5 negatives I used.(They printed well on silver gelatin.) The Van Dyke
prints had white specks on the surface which looked to me to be paper
fibers
that were not coated by sensitizer. Similar with the cyanotypes but not
as
severe. I assume that the problem is related to the paper I used. I
belive
it was a cranes paper from Bostick and Sullivan. Any thoughts would be
appreciated.
  I used my recently built UV box containing 8 20 watt BL tubes.
Printing
times ran from 20-30 minutes.

Could be abrasion of the surface. What are you using to coat the
emulsion to the paper and how many passes are you making? My guess is
you are overworking the paper during coating perhaps with a brush that
is too coarse. Abrasion between prints during processing can also
remove bits of the emulsion. I wash prints one to a tray to avoid
abrasion. I regularly use Cranes' Kid Finish for those processes
without such problems.

Joe
Received on Mon Feb 14 14:55:17 2005