Re: palladium vs. cyanotype sharpness—link to comparison

See Chris's Comments below regarding PD & Cyano sharpness.
Here is the link to the comparison: PD vs Cyano 1 Pixel Grid

I'm assuming that the two papers were comparable in texture? They look
pretty much the same to me in terms of sharpness. One thing to note, my guess is
that the prints look very much like the negative—that what appears as not
sharp in these prints was actually not sharp in the negative. As I mentioned in
an earlier post, a 1 pixel grid like this is very difficult for many output
devices to render. Also the dithering action of the printer driver works
against you when trying to render the checkerboard.

Enjoy,
Mark Nelson
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In a message dated 9/20/05 4:51:53 PM, zphoto@montana.net writes:

> Well, Loris,
>
> You may have made a liar out of me...
>
> I just scanned the side by side teeniest test target (the one pixel one) of
> cyanotype and palladium on Arches Platine, and side by side I am hard
> pressed to determine which is sharper.  The only issue with the cyanotype is
> that there is a slight fuzzy bleed to the color which contributes to a bit
> of softness, but this "bit" is so small of a difference from the palladium
> that it may not be enough to detect with the naked eye. So I would guess you
> are correct on this.
>
> I sent this scan to Mark (poor Mark, where is Darryl when I need him? Or,
> better yet, where is my own website?).
>
> Which goes to show that cyanotype is incredibly sharp...more than I
> expected, even more supportive of my original point that cyanotype looks
> crisper and sharper for a number of reasons.
>
> BTW this does not mean that it makes a better gum print, just that it is a
> nifty way of gum printing, which can have all kinds of possible expressions
> (comment directed to Carmen) over and above sharpness. It's not like we're
> searching for f64 in gum.
>
> However, I have to say I am very surprised that cyanotype rivals
> palladium....cool.  And cheap. Where's my tannic acid?
> Chris
>
Received on Tue Sep 20 16:53:04 2005