Re: "speckling" v "staining " (was New Orleans/glut) SEE SCANS

Hi Chris,

regarding the infamous speckles. As mentioned, there were two papers coated
used:

Fabriano Artistico Extra White with Gelatin sizing hardened with
Gluteraldehyde

Rives BFK with Gelatin sizing hardened with Glyoxal

The Rives BFK is a more textured paper than the Farbriano—I do not know if it
was cold press or what, but had obvious more texture.

I wondered if the paper had been scuffed when sized, causing the peaks of the
texture to not clear, however when I looked at it with a loupe, it appeared
that the "speckles" are located more in the valleys of the texture. Then I
wondered if it was just loose pigment gathering in the valleys, but that isn't
true because when they were developed in the water, I tried to remove the
"speckles" with a spray and abrasion and it wouldn't go away. The area that of
the RIVES that I scanned is the area under the most dense steps of the 31 film
step tablet (not digital step tablet) that received relatively no exposure...
there was no indication of "tone" at all at those steps or on the Artistico at
the same steps. So whatever occured, happened without exposure and was
fairly even all over the paper regardless of how much exposure it received.

Here are the links to the two spectacular speckled scans for you to speculate
upon:

Frabriano Artistico Glut & Rives BFK Glyoxal at 3x
Rives BFK Glyoxal at 24x

I do also recall rather vividly when feeling the papers before coating them
that the Fabriano had a smooth feel while the Rives had a gritty feel. Very
much like when you spray something very lightly with a varnish and the tiny
droplet dry and leave a rough feel to the surface...or a very fine grit
sandpaper.

These are just my observations and I draw no conclusions. I would like to
have seen the same to papers with the hardners reversed. However, I would
probably not waste my time and just go with the Fabriano sized in the manner it
was, because it printed beautifully. Not as sharp as PT/PD, but not bad—
hehehehe

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson
Purchase the eBook & PDN System for Your Own Custom Digital Negative Workflow
@
Precision Digital Negatives
PDN's Own 31-Step Tablet Now Available—produced by Stouffer Industries
Coming Soon—Curve Calculator II will let you choose your toes!
www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com

In a message dated 9/6/05 9:41:26 PM, zphoto@montana.net writes:

> I sent some images to Darryl (thanks, Darryl) but have to await Mark
> sending
> scans of the two Stouffers to Darryl to see speckling, unless I can find a
> speckled image amongst my stuff.
>
Received on Wed Sep 7 00:58:17 2005