Carbon/Carbro

Stefan Stecher (sstecher@linux1.rz.htw-kempten.de)
Mon, 13 Nov 1995 12:32:40 +0100 (MET)

> Sandy,

> BTW, I have been printing in carbon since the early 1980s, and have
> done both monochrome and B&W work. I work mostly with a 5X7
> camera and make a lot of contact prints in this size, using the
> negative emulsion side to tissue, which of course gives incorrect
> orientation but in most of my work this is irrevelant. I also do
> some work in ultra-large format (11X14 and 12X20 inches).
> I also do a lot of carbro from my 5X7 negatives, in sizes up to 20X24
> inches. Many people have trouble with carbro but I get excellent
> results with the process.

Nice to hear something about your work.

I am worry about the reduced permanence of my negs and the health hazards
which could be both caused by dichromates left in the neg emulsion of the
original neg, so I use a doub neg everytime. What do you think about this?

The reasons for peoples problems (including myself) seems to be the
supercoating of modern bromides. With brand/type of paper do you use or
do you use films instead of bromids? I tryed it with Ilford RC paper and
the single bath sensitizer but it didn t work well. I also tried the
Gelabrome process with Ilford Gallery bromide.

> I am not sure why you are having the problems described in your
> first post. It may be as you suggest due to the heat of your light
> source (what is it?), but I strongly suggest that it is related to
> your method of pre-sensitizing.

For some people it could be boring to talk about MY problems again and
again so let me say a last word:
Both methods do cause the problem, so its not the pre sensitizing step.
I have NO! fog problems 8-)) , the results I get by my method are perfect
(at least for me) but the way to achieve it seems to be more troublesome
than yours and Luis (long developeing times, heavy agitation). I try to
find out the reasons and then mail it to alt.photo hoping it will help
other people.

> I have not experienced the problem
> of uneveness due to senziting that you mention. I sensitize in a tray,
> squeegee the tissue face down on a sheet of plate glass, and get
> very even results.

Your method sounds good, I will try it!

Please tell me, do you dry tissues by leaving them on the plate until
they peel off when dry or do you lift them after squeegeeing to dry by
hanging?

Stefan Stecher