On Wednesday, January 16, 2002, at 09:40 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote: > Horsefeathers. The > emulsion layer of RC and fiber based papers is the same: silver halide > crystals in gelatin emulsion.
Most of the time when I'm printing fibre, it's Ilford's graded Galerie stuff. I've found that I can produce a print with the same apparent contrast as one I've made on RC, but with significantly more detail in the richest, deepest blacks and some more detail in the brightest highlights. My prints on Agfa's Multicontrast Classic fibre have displayed similar, but not as extreme, results. Trying to pull this black detail out in an RC print invariably results in a wimpy black. > What's more, in terms of what was > described, it seems that most practitioners of FB printing can't hope to > make more than one or two final prints in a session, given the time that > has to be devoted to washing and drying. Once one knows how a paper reacts when it dries, one can continue testing and printing without waiting for every test to dry. One also does not have to stop printing while waiting for prints to wash. Personally, when I am doing more than a couple of fibre prints at a time, I set up three wash stations: one in the big darkroom sink, one in the small darkroom sink, and one in the big bathroom sink. This way, subsequent prints do not mess up the wash time of the ones already in there. I have found that the only thing slowing me down with fibre, vs. RC, is the longer developer time. Of course, the prints take longer to dry, but so what? I leave them overnight. A quick note on the RC vs. FB longevity debate: much of my objection to RC prints comes from machine-processed RC prints. Most labs do not process their RC in trays. A properly tray processed and washed RC print can last a good long time. However, when you reduce the full develop-fix-wash time down to 90 seconds, you are making some serious compromises, significantly in the wash. The only prints I have seen of my own that have bronzed or discoloured are from when I was at Sheridan, using their paper processor (a badly maintained Ilfospeed machine). The prints that were exposed to a significant amount of sunlight (on the wall in a well-lit bedroom) bronzed in less than five years. -Aaron - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
