Re: Sharpness, contone (was Re: Useful results from gum tests & what a gum print should look like

From: TERRYAKING@aol.com
Date: 04/12/06-10:25:04 AM Z
Message-id: <38b.3b8308.316e83e0@aol.com>

Katherine quoting Peter said:

> but it does address the more 
> > general question of whether dots are better for gum than continuous 
> > tone.
>

Dots, as Peter suggested earlier are easy as the tonal range is represented
by dots all of the same tone. It is because it is the easy out that I did not
follow Peter's suggestion in the 1970s. It is fine if the comparison is with
an 'autodeveloped' print but neither of these approaches gives the control
which, to me, justifies all the trouble of making gum print in the first
place. Have a look at Demachy and Puyo again ( I Pittorialisti, ISBN
88-7292-111-2) Go back to The 1908 Studio Book of Colour Photography. See if you can get
the originals in the college library or your own collection. Look at Margaret
Harker's 'The Linked Ring'. These will tell you what Pictorialism is about and
what gum prints are.

Hoses and brushes and sponges are what you need to develop a gum print. They
give the control.

There was a fashion a hundred years ago for calling the things 'photo
aquarelles' so why not 'photo water colours' or 'photo acrylics' for the ones where
the purity of the surface has been disturbed with tools.

Terry

Terry King FRPS

RPS Historical Group (Chairman)

www.hands-on-pictures.com/

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Received on Wed Apr 12 10:27:32 2006

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