Re: palladium drydown and developer

Bob,

I also feel that your technique for just looking at a dried test
strip is the most reliable way to just deal with it directly. The
other post processing techniques I mentioned are just subtle things
that can give the print a little more 'pop' if you desire. The
fussier pre-printing techniques I tried were not worth the hassle, in
my opinion. I feel they basically amount to trying to polish a turd.

Clay

On Jul 21, 2006, at 6:11 AM, BOB KISS wrote:

> Hi all,
> It seems that there are some techniques for minimizing dry down
> and the
> discussion of the causes is very interesting but I feel, if you've
> got it,
> how do you live with it? Though I appreciate the commercial lab's
> techniques, I use a microwave oven (which I learned reading Ansel
> in the
> 80s). Used, they are pretty cheap and work very well for drying test
> strips. I lay the strip across the print in such a way to include the
> important highlight, midtone and shadow, when possible. I carry it
> through
> the process to about half way through the clearing, give it a 5
> minute wash
> and then microwave it for two or three minutes in one minute steps,
> depending on the size of the strip. Voila! A dried down print. I
> judge my
> densities and choose my exposure accordingly. This has proved to
> be VERY
> reliable and I hardly ever have a print that isn't the density I have
> chosen. Whether I have chosen well is another question ;-)) but I
> get what
> I asked for!
> I mentioned in a post about 1 1/2 to two years ago that I found
> that prints
> from digital negatives had a curious drying phenomenon that prints
> from
> camera original negs did not. In prints from digital negs, the
> shadows lost
> density but so did the highlights...they both got lighter!!! In
> prints from
> camera original negs the dry down was more standard, i.e. the
> highlights got
> darker and the shadows lighter.
> CHEERS!
> BOB
>
> Please check my website: http://www.bobkiss.com/
>
> "Live as if you are going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you are
> going to
> live forever". Mahatma Gandhi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Loris Medici [mailto:mail@loris.medici.name]
> Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 7:48 AM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
> Subject: RE: palladium drydown and developer
>
> Hi Clay,
>
> My take / understanding is: when you coat the paper with some kind of
> reflective medium (gelatine, gum, wax and polyurethane wood finish
> as I do),
> the reason of the darkening and contrast increse in the shadows is
> caused by
> the fact that the higher refractive index of the coat causes some
> of the
> refracting light stay in the layer... Think of the mirror effect water
> causes when the light hits it surface from beneath with angles
> lower than xx
> (was it 38? - don't remember exactly - whatever you understand what
> I mean).
> Since less light is reflected back (and kept in the coating), density
> increases.
>
> Maybe your theory with fibers is also effective in this phenomenon
> but I
> think the actual/main reason/cause of the dmax increase is what I
> describe
> above.
>
> Regards,
> Loris.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clay [mailto:wcharmon@wt.net]
> Sent: 21 Temmuz 2006 Cuma 13:51
> To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
> Subject: Re: palladium drydown and developer
>
> ...
>
> The other phenomenon that has not been mentioned is the microscopic
> 'fuzzing' of the paper surface that occurs as paper dries. This
> seems to
> affect the dark shadow areas much more. It is really more
> accurately called
> 'dry-up'. If you slap a wet pt/pd print on a reflection
> densitometer, you
> will get a much higher reading (in the
> 1.8 range) than you will a few hours later after it has dried. The
> tiny
> fibers of the paper then stand proud and cause a loss of reflection
> density
> that in the best of cases will give you reflection densities in the
> neighborhood of 1.4-1.5. This is almost a full stop of reflection
> density
> loss.
>
> As to what can be done to mitigate this effect, I have found that
> very light
> gelatin sizing (in the 1% range) can help to a degree.
> Another approach is to deal with this after the print is dry and apply
> either wax or subsequent gum coats. I have a waxed vellum print
> that has
> measured Dmax of 1.9 using several layers of Gamblin cold wax medium.
>
> My personal preference is for additional layers of expose gum,
> since it
> offers so many options for color manipulation of the image.
> Finally, a coat of Liquitex Gloss medium diluted 1:8 will also have
> the
> effect of causing a measurable (though relatively minor half
> stop) increase in Dmax. Again, I think this is because it causes the
> microscopic fibers to lay down and behave.
>
> ...
>
Received on 07/21/06-06:22:45 AM Z