Re: Reply to judy

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 25 Jul 1995 02:08:44 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 24 Jul 1995, porky pig wrote:
> i cant afford continuous tone
> film that big, so i use a small good quality duplicating film to get a pos,
> then enlarge on big lith film (its super cheap and crappy stuff from
> freestyle in CA, but its the only big film in my price range). i process
>
That's pretty impressive. But I'm confused by
your using "duplicating film" to get a pos. Unless you're starting from a
chrome? (As I've heard the term, "duplicating" means direct duplicating,
which would do a neg from a neg?) In any event, having recently gone
berserk attempting to contact a 35 mm neg onto T-Max for a 35 mm pos, I
take you for a wizard -- unless you have a computer
"clean room" for the operation?

I don't know, incidentally, of many continuous tone films still made as
big as 20x24 for any price, but in any event don't knock the Freestyle
lith.....My tests show it's BETTER for continuous tone than
Kodalith, that is, less tendency to scoot up to high densities. If you're
trying to get a dense dot for repro, the "good" lith is better,
denser, quicker, but that's what we don't want.

> ive also tried to use 20x24
> paper negs from a xerox machine. they were ok, but of course the exposure
> time was unbelievable and the tone range sucked big time (but since the
>

A couple of my students had good results with paper negs on RC paper
-- exposure time about 20 to 25 minutes. The xerox machines we have
hardly do midtones, though some of the newer better ones probably do.
But if you have access to 20x24 "xerox" you can about cut exposure times
in half by waxing or oiling it. Heat with iron, rub on hunk of
parrafin. Or wipe on castor oil, let dry.

> register with run-of-the-mill sewing pins in four corners. id never do it
> for four color printing, but with mono and duo tones its ok.
>
> Kate Archie>

Sounds terrific.

Judy