Alt-Process Prints from Digital Negatives or Positives

[sanking]

Sandy, I don't have any qtr profiles yet for platinum or gum only for carbon so use Photoshop still to print those. I'm still in my infancy with qtr but I have a palladium curve 95% there. The step tablet looks good but it always prints too light from what my monitor shows. I think I need to adjust my monitors brightness to match the print rather than adjust the print to my monitor?

Erik,

Well, if you are printing a 21 step digital file you should not need to adjust it at all if printing with QTR. The values from 0% to 100% are just what they should be. You just make sure that the step wedge is is grayscale, gama 2.2, and print it with No Color Management. The first time you print it you invert the file and print a negative, then create a curve and insert it into your QTR profile.

You may indeed need to adjust the monitor for an actual print, where you don't know what the actual density readings should be. What I would suggest, after calibration with a good device like Spyder, ColorMunki or iOne, is to adjust the brightness and contrast of the monitor with a 21 step wedge file opened (no changes applied, just make sure it is in gray scale with gama 2.2) to match a positive print of a 21 step wedge like the Tiffen Gray scale. You just compare the two and adjust the monitor so that the step wedge file on the screen matches the print as best you can.

You also need to make sure that when you adjust brightness and contrast for an image file you look carefully at the Info window with the eyedropper tool. If there is an area in the image on the screen that should be 95% to 100% on the print you want to make sure that you have the contrast and density adjusted so that this area reads 95% to 100% with the eyedropper tool. This step is absolutely essential for me because my eyes tend to adjust to a low contrast image on the screen and find it OK, but when printed the shadow areas are obviously much too weak.

Sandy

[Erik Larsen]

Erik,

Well, if you are printing a 21 step digital file you should not need to adjust it at all if printing with QTR. The values from 0% to 100% are just what they should be. You just make sure that the step wedge is is grayscale, gama 2.2, and print it with No Color Management. The first time you print it you invert the file and print a negative, then create a curve and insert it into your QTR profile.

You may indeed need to adjust the monitor for an actual print, where you don't know what the actual density readings should be. What I would suggest, after calibration with a good device like Spyder, ColorMunki or iOne, is to adjust the brightness and contrast of the monitor with a 21 step wedge file opened (no changes applied, just make sure it is in gray scale with gama 2.2) to match a positive print of a 21 step wedge like the Tiffen Gray scale. You just compare the two and adjust the monitor so that the step wedge file on the screen matches the print as best you can.

You also need to make sure that when you adjust brightness and contrast for an image file you look carefully at the Info window with the eyedropper tool. If there is an area in the image on the screen that should be 95% to 100% on the print you want to make sure that you have the contrast and density adjusted so that this area reads 95% to 100% with the eyedropper tool. This step is absolutely essential for me because my eyes tend to adjust to a low contrast image on the screen and find it OK, but when printed the shadow areas are obviously much too weak.

Sandy

Thanks Sandy,
My printed step wedge is almost dead on. I find like you have stated that my shadows are weak in printed form but look how I want them to look on my monitor. It's frustrating, but the eye dropper tool tells the truth. I'm still trying to train myself in the difference between a shadow of 90% and 75% and how it translates to a print. It will become intuitive with practice I hope. I don't have a calibration tool yet other than the software built into my monitor, I'll have to remedy that. I have noticed that if I set my monitor to gamma 1.8 that the print more resembles the monitor than when it is at gamma 2.2 but don't know if that is a recommended practice? My highlights are pretty much wysiwig with the monitor but my shadows on a first print can be lighter than I want necessitating a second print to correct for that. I'm pretty convinced it's my iMacs monitor or my inability to judge how a photo on a monitor translates into a print. I will try to your suggestion to match a printed step wedge to one on the monitor and see how that works for my situation.

[bob carnie]

I am doing a 10 person workshop next weekend on Gum over Palladium- to accomodate the group I am expanding my space into my silver darkroom... right now I have daylight bulbs in the room,,, I see I can buy 3000k bulbs to fit the existing mounts..

My question by lowering the k value to 3000 this light should be good for gum printing - Yes / No -this will give me much more needed Safe space... In my dim room I use tungsten bulbs but my larger darkroom is set up with banks of fluorescence bulbs that are indeed daylight balanced.

[sanking]

Sandy - just google registration marks and a large grouping will come up which you can download to your desktop ... once on your desktop you can retrive them by activating the move tool - then go into file and then down to PLACE and it will lead you to your desktop and you click on the icon for registration... it will show up in the middle of your image and you can move it to a position in your white canvas surrounding your image....
I do this three times so I have three points of registration..l then flatten the layers and you are good to separate from this main master positive canvas.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the info. What you describe works well.

Sandy

[D. Bryant]

Some use LF cameras, scan the negative and make an enlarged digital negative so they can print much larger without having to deal with a much larger camera - for a variety of reasons.

The size and weight difference in carrying a 4x5 compared to a 12x20 outfit are major. Digital negatives make larger final contact prints a viable process.

Not to mention the fact that ALL of the old duplicating films formerly made for creating enlarged internegs are no longer produced.

[bob carnie]

Not to mention the fact that ALL of the old duplicating films formerly made for creating enlarged internegs are no longer produced.

Hi Don

long time no hear... I think Ilford Ortho Pan is still available and FP4 is available , that is what I used to make enlarged negs before digital.

Bob

[sanking]

A three-color carbon print. Image size is 7X11" on 12X16" albumen/dichromate sized Yupo. Made with the single transfer method in the order Yellow>Magenta>Cyan.

Print was still wet when I made the snap, thus some surface irregularities.

Sandy

[bob carnie]

A three-color carbon print. Image size is 7X11" on 12X16" albumen/dichromate sized Yupo. Made with the single transfer method in the order Yellow>Magenta>Cyan.

Print was still wet when I made the snap, thus some surface irregularities.

Sandy

Quite nice Sandy , could you describe the transfer method... me thinks yellow on yupo , Magenta on yupo , and Cyan on yupo all trasferred to a single sheet of paper???

[sanking]

Quite nice Sandy , could you describe the transfer method... me thinks yellow on yupo , Magenta on yupo , and Cyan on yupo all trasferred to a single sheet of paper???

The three negatives are exposed in register to the cyan, magenta and yellow tissues, and then developed in register in warm water on a final support that is dimensionally stable. With single transfer they are developed in the order yellow>magenta>cyan. So in practice the exposed yellow tissue is developed first on the support, then allowed to dry. Then the magenta relief is developed over the yellow image, and allowed to dry. Finally the cyan is developed over the yellow and magenta, and when dry you have a full three-color image.

One can develop directly on the Yupo but I often get small bubbles with carbon if I do this, so I first size the paper with a very thin coating of albumen mixed with a bit of dichromate, and then hang the paper to dry in the sun. This hardens the albumen size.

In double transfer the reliefs are developed the same way, but in the order cyan>magenta>, then flipped to a final paper support that has been sized with a fairly thick layer of gelatin that has retained the ability to absorb water and expand. This final transfer is done in cool water.


Sandy

[bob carnie]

I am really glad you are doing this Sandy , by doing the three layers separately and on Yupo you are not worried about registration issues due to shrinkage? Is this the way John is doing his tri.
Ever thought of doing a final black carbon to create the skeleton image to put the colours over. This would be a piece of cake for you , just one more layer to add.


what I do is when first setting up I do a black and white conversion and draw out the colours that I will later put back in... I like this method more than the K separation negative.