Re: Gums a la Demachy and Puyo and all sorts of other things

Good morning all,
I've been very loosely following this thread, and I'm sure I've missed
bunches. But I just have to interject here experience and watching 15
students also experience doing just what is described below as being
inappropriate: using curves, standard development times, and I'll add
standard printing times, and standard emulsion mixes to doing gum prints.

As has been said numerous times, there are many ways to skin a cat with gum.
There are many looks in gum printing, too. Most are beautiful. Each
practitioner finds his/her way of working out the process and his/her "look"
to the final gum print. That's the beauty of gum is its infinite variety of
expression! Look at Ernestine's gum landscapes--bet she doesn't use a curve
for those.

What I find illogical is the acceptance of the validity of many different
ways of arriving at an end product EXCEPT the acceptance of a standardized
method. Why should that one way be unacceptable/inappropriate? It simply is
not true, in my experience. Unnecessary?--if your gum prints are gorgeous,
why would you need to change your practice anyway? If your gum practice
leaves something to be desired in your prints (which is true of more than a
few gummists), then this is ONE avenue you may want to explore.

For 3 years now I have been standardizing two things: my exposure time to 6
minutes UVBL, and using a different curve for each color (this with the
Epson 2200, 2400, and 4000 printers). This, of course, based on all my
other variables that make up my practice. For instance, Don Bryant with all
his variables may find a completely different time and curve down South.

BTW, It is simply not the whole story that exposure determines the curve as
was recently suggested. I have developed curves on different exposure times
for a pigment, and the SHAPE of the curve is the same, only moving up or
down the HD scale depending on exposure. The SHAPE of yellows and carbon
black, for instance, are entirely different than blues and magentas. I have
not yet tested this, but it seems that a really red orange pigment may be
different than a magenta--this stands to reason, I guess, since it would
lean more toward yellow. This was fascinating to observe this.

 So curves are different, in my experience, based on PIGMENT color (which
acts as a filter), not just exposure time. When I found this out it
explained why my yellow layer was usually the one not right --my original
one size fits all curve tended to "fit" better with magenta and blue.

 I agree there is no "one shot and you're out" like with pt/pd or iron
processes. Development varies, because I get to drinking coffee or reading
list emails and forget. Gum pigment mixes vary because sometimes I use more
muted, sometimes more brilliant colors. In other words, I employ
flexibility at these stages if I want to or not. BUT, since employing
curves and SPT with gum I have not found that the other variables make the
huge difference they are said to make. There were times I would have to
leave gums in the water all day and go to school, and when I came home, if I
made sure to be careful with the surface of the gum, they were fine.

In my experience and my students' also, there is nothing "inappropriate"
about this method of gum printing. I personally found that most problems
associated with gum were eliminated with standardization, and wonder if
gum's purported difficulty is actually due to lack of standardization.

But you all are perfect gum printers and so I am preaching to the choir.

Never would I deem "inappropriate" any other method of gum printing that
other practitioners have chosen if their gum prints come out. I am not that
bigoted in my process to assume others who are doing perfectly good gum
prints are using wrong processes. And THAT is the proof of our
technique--our gum prints!

I don't remember hearing any student in my class complain about
standardization, either, and I had some stellar final projects in tricolor
gum to boot, that even though were standardized, looked totally different
and unique from my prints. So standardization a) makes things ultimately
easier yet b) does not prevent other "looks" from being possible.

My two cents, but to each his own.
Chris
czaphotography.com

> As to curves, I do take them very serously, I have both of Dan's books
> and I
> would not have asked him to speak at APIS if I did not take curves
> seriously.. But that is for processes like platinum. applying curves to
> achieve standard
> development times is, as Katherine has pointed out, quite inappropriate
> for
> gum as emulsions are different every time you apply a coat and one has
> infinite
> control in development..
Received on 07/17/06-10:21:06 AM Z