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#1
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print flattening update
February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,
My darkroom is pretty much functional again after a hiatus. Yesterday I put my print flattener back into service. It's the high-tech version -- a stack of heavy flat things with a weight on top. Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of glass and some are melamine-covered particle boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic covered both sides). Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had to clean all the heavy flat things, both sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would show. They were surprisingly clean, actually, even though I've been a bit careless with them recently. I used some ammonia and distilled water on clean rags to swab them. This post is about the tiny things we do that can contaminate our process. While cleaning my plastic covered boards, I found some (mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought they would be permanent, but I noticed the ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and applying a thumbnail broke them up if they were wet with ammonia. Well, it didn't take long to figure out the source of the specks. I sign my prints with India ink. Obviously I have not been patient enough to let the ink dry every time I use it. I'm just glad there were not more black specks. It should be no problem to flatten prints with boards that have dried India ink on them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not transfer. But the presence of the specks gives the flattening devices a dirty look, and makes examining them for real dirt take much longer. It also means I have been careless in handling my prints in the past! I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted. (Hm - none I noticed, at least ...). So, an unnecessary update. Take more care (even more care ...) with print finishing. Do not allow dirt to accumulate on print flattening devices. India ink on the glass flat things scraped off in an instant. (On glass I could use a razor scraper, but not on the melamine.) India ink on melamine is tenacious and tedious. In the past I've always done print spotting and signing before flattening. I'm not sure why, since flat prints would be easier to spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother flattening prints I decided not to spot and sign. But no signed prints under the flattener would mean no ink transfer ... regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
#2
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print flattening update
Good advice here. Thanks. I always keep clean white mat between my prints
and weights or dry mount press. A hint of dirt and they are replaced. "Lloyd Erlick" Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote in message ... February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, My darkroom is pretty much functional again after a hiatus. Yesterday I put my print flattener back into service. It's the high-tech version -- a stack of heavy flat things with a weight on top. Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of glass and some are melamine-covered particle boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic covered both sides). Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had to clean all the heavy flat things, both sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would show. They were surprisingly clean, actually, even though I've been a bit careless with them recently. I used some ammonia and distilled water on clean rags to swab them. This post is about the tiny things we do that can contaminate our process. While cleaning my plastic covered boards, I found some (mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought they would be permanent, but I noticed the ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and applying a thumbnail broke them up if they were wet with ammonia. Well, it didn't take long to figure out the source of the specks. I sign my prints with India ink. Obviously I have not been patient enough to let the ink dry every time I use it. I'm just glad there were not more black specks. It should be no problem to flatten prints with boards that have dried India ink on them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not transfer. But the presence of the specks gives the flattening devices a dirty look, and makes examining them for real dirt take much longer. It also means I have been careless in handling my prints in the past! I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted. (Hm - none I noticed, at least ...). So, an unnecessary update. Take more care (even more care ...) with print finishing. Do not allow dirt to accumulate on print flattening devices. India ink on the glass flat things scraped off in an instant. (On glass I could use a razor scraper, but not on the melamine.) India ink on melamine is tenacious and tedious. In the past I've always done print spotting and signing before flattening. I'm not sure why, since flat prints would be easier to spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother flattening prints I decided not to spot and sign. But no signed prints under the flattener would mean no ink transfer ... regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
#3
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print flattening update
"Lloyd Erlick" Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote in message ... February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, My darkroom is pretty much functional again after a hiatus. Yesterday I put my print flattener back into service. It's the high-tech version -- a stack of heavy flat things with a weight on top. Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of glass and some are melamine-covered particle boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic covered both sides). Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had to clean all the heavy flat things, both sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would show. They were surprisingly clean, actually, even though I've been a bit careless with them recently. I used some ammonia and distilled water on clean rags to swab them. This post is about the tiny things we do that can contaminate our process. While cleaning my plastic covered boards, I found some (mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought they would be permanent, but I noticed the ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and applying a thumbnail broke them up if they were wet with ammonia. Well, it didn't take long to figure out the source of the specks. I sign my prints with India ink. Obviously I have not been patient enough to let the ink dry every time I use it. I'm just glad there were not more black specks. It should be no problem to flatten prints with boards that have dried India ink on them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not transfer. But the presence of the specks gives the flattening devices a dirty look, and makes examining them for real dirt take much longer. It also means I have been careless in handling my prints in the past! I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted. (Hm - none I noticed, at least ...). So, an unnecessary update. Take more care (even more care ...) with print finishing. Do not allow dirt to accumulate on print flattening devices. India ink on the glass flat things scraped off in an instant. (On glass I could use a razor scraper, but not on the melamine.) India ink on melamine is tenacious and tedious. In the past I've always done print spotting and signing before flattening. I'm not sure why, since flat prints would be easier to spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother flattening prints I decided not to spot and sign. But no signed prints under the flattener would mean no ink transfer ... regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- Interesting. I use a dry mounting press for flattening. Flattening is part of the prep for dry mounting but one can simply flatten the prints. the prints are put into the press with a sheet of release tissue on the emulsion side and a couple of sheets of thick "construction" or kraft paper on either side. The paper is dryed out in the press before using it. I close the press on the sandwich and leave it for about 2 minutes, it isn't necessary to lock the press. Then I put the whole sandwich under a flat weight. While a thick sheet of Aluminum is best even flat plywood will do. Even though there is some padding from the paper the weight still has to be free of particals because they will emboss the print surface. The print needs only a couple of minutes under the weight, just long enough to cool. The idea of the release tissue is to prevent drying of the emulsion. The paper drys out from the support side which tends to equalize the shrinkage of support and emulsion. I've found that prints flattened this way stay flat even with fairly wide variations in relative humidity. -- --- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
#4
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print flattening update
Lloyd Erlick wrote:
Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of glass and some are melamine-covered particle boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic covered both sides). ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com Heavy, flat, water proof, sheets. Your prints then are dry prior to flattening? Nothing separates your prints either side from the weighty sheets? Dan |
#5
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print flattening update
Lloyd Erlick wrote:
February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, My darkroom is pretty much functional again after a hiatus. Yesterday I put my print flattener back into service. It's the high-tech version -- a stack of heavy flat things with a weight on top. Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of glass and some are melamine-covered particle boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic covered both sides). Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had to clean all the heavy flat things, both sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would show. They were surprisingly clean, actually, even though I've been a bit careless with them recently. I used some ammonia and distilled water on clean rags to swab them. This post is about the tiny things we do that can contaminate our process. While cleaning my plastic covered boards, I found some (mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought they would be permanent, but I noticed the ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and applying a thumbnail broke them up if they were wet with ammonia. Well, it didn't take long to figure out the source of the specks. I sign my prints with India ink. Obviously I have not been patient enough to let the ink dry every time I use it. I'm just glad there were not more black specks. It should be no problem to flatten prints with boards that have dried India ink on them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not transfer. But the presence of the specks gives the flattening devices a dirty look, and makes examining them for real dirt take much longer. It also means I have been careless in handling my prints in the past! I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted. (Hm - none I noticed, at least ...). So, an unnecessary update. Take more care (even more care ...) with print finishing. Do not allow dirt to accumulate on print flattening devices. India ink on the glass flat things scraped off in an instant. (On glass I could use a razor scraper, but not on the melamine.) India ink on melamine is tenacious and tedious. In the past I've always done print spotting and signing before flattening. I'm not sure why, since flat prints would be easier to spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother flattening prints I decided not to spot and sign. But no signed prints under the flattener would mean no ink transfer ... regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ FYI: re; India Ink Pilot has several models of rollerball pens which write on photo paper and are permanent. At least they are easier than India ink! gr |
#6
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print flattening update
On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 05:05:36 GMT, gr
wrote: FYI: re; India Ink Pilot has several models of rollerball pens which write on photo paper and are permanent. At least they are easier than India ink! gr February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, I know, but I'm a loon about stuff on my prints. India ink is a fairly known object. It's even dealt with surprisingly extensively in Wilhelm and Brower (their 1993 conservation epic). Here is a synopsis of my own unscientific look at signing in ink (my favorite India ink is Winsor and Newton 951 Black Indian Ink.)— --------------------------------------- October 30, 1998, 4:01:34 PM. Lately I've been trying various India inks on pieces of photo paper, mostly Ilford MGW Warmtone FB, and some Portriga. I've tried: Koh-I-Noor ( 2 types: 3074F and 3080F), The prime recommendation of Wilhelm and Brower is 3074F. They rank it above all others. Next they like 3080. My bottle of 3074F settled out and became a hard lump in the container (after a few years …), so I don’t like this ink. 3080 is not bad, and it writes fairly smoothly. The point drags a bit, but less badly than some other inks. Higgins type 4415 (which happens to be a 20-year-old bottle I've had around), I considered this the best for some time. It writes quite smoothly on photo paper, the line is moderately wide. It suits the 512 point and the C6. Blackness of the result is very deep, not too glossy a surface to the line. Speedball Black India, Makes quite a bit of resistance as the point moves over the paper. Also, the line is quite narrow. Blackness is fine. I don’t like this ink. Pelikan drawing ink A ( no. 17), Not much to say, because the blackness of the dried line is more of a dark gray compared to other inks. Winsor and Newton 951 Black Indian Ink. My favorite now (Oct 30/98). It produces a nice width of line in the 512 point, and also the C6. It flows well and the paper seems to offer no resistance. The dried ink has a fairly high, but very attractive, gloss. It is one of the blackest inks I've tried. --------------------- regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
#7
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print flattening update
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:20:06 GMT, "Pieter
Litchfield" wrote: I always keep clean white mat between my prints and weights or dry mount press. February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, A good idea. I wonder why I never did it? I think I'll go get some clean mat board. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
#8
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print flattening update
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:53:00 GMT, "Richard
Knoppow" wrote: I use a dry mounting press for flattening. Flattening is part of the prep for dry mounting but one can simply flatten the prints. February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, Well, a dry mounting press would be quite a luxury! Maybe eventually one will present itself for cheap. Stranger things have happened. I bought a water distiller for ten dollars, and it is dribbling into a bucket for me at this very moment. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
#10
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print flattening update
On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 05:05:36 GMT, gr
wrote: At least they are easier than India ink! February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick, I've actually come to enjoy using India ink. It always used to fill me with anxiety, because in school I could never control the stuff. I could only create blobs and smears. After reading Wilhelm and Brower I decided to try out India ink, and eventually found I could use it with ordinary care. I only rarely destroy a print with ink. I like to sign on the face of the actual piece of paper, in the margin, not the mount or back of the print. I still can't use India ink for anything but the most rudimentary lettering, but at least I can do that. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. voice: 416-686-0326 email: net: www.heylloyd.com ________________________________ -- |
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