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Thread: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

  1. #31
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Just Google it. The Dye Tranfer Forum is run by Jim Browning, who has a lot to do with the
    successful revival of the key materials. He also holds patents on the Chromira. Kodak dyes
    weren't unique - they were just high purity versions of common dyes. Tanning developer
    is easily made, but I personally prefer a technique more similar to old wash-off relief. What
    I have done is modernize separation negative technique, but all darkroom. I get enough of
    damn computers here in the office!

  2. #32

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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    If you guys want me to do a fade test, will any of you send me a sample of a cibachrome, a high grade type C, Fujicolor Crystal Archive and some high grade inkjet print sample prints to add to the dye transfer fade test?

    I will expose them in my window to the sun for 6 months and see what happens. I'm willing to use one of my 8 x 10 dye transfers and a commercial inkjet print from a 5 color Canon. And I can get a cheap C print. That is all I can contribute.

    Note: all my dye transfers I'm willing to test are from the late 40's to early 50's. I do have a few transfers I made in the 70's. But they are not for testing. So if any of you want to add a modern transfer to the test to compare dye stabilty to an older transfer, send me one.

    I will post the results with scans of the test images when I'm done back to this thread. Half of each image will be exposed to the sun and half covered with alum foil. 8 x 10 would be a good print size, down to a 5 x 7 as a minimum, unless you got something rare to test. They don't have to be great prints, just good enough to test the dyes.

    PM me if you got something to contribute to the test.
    Last edited by slackercruster; 15-May-2012 at 18:27.

  3. #33

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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by Sevo View Post
    No. They were proud of that all plastics base and considered it one of their sales points...

    But at least up to the late eighties they still had a paper based material (not fibre based, more like PE) - cheaper and less well regarded, unsuitable for their small volume amateur process, and at least by the time I became aware of it, only available in a high contrast version suitable for direct colour photocopies.


    Well they can be proud of it all they want. The proof shows a cibachrome looks like hell after it gets handled some. It reminds me of a new shiny black car . Looks great the first day out of the showroom...and it is all downhill from there.

    The black car, as well as the super shiny ciba, shows all defects, scratches, fingerprints, dust. Color wise the ciba is very good. And fade resistance it is excellent. But the shiny surface ruined it. If it was type F semi-gloss surface they would have had a winner.




  4. #34

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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    I have my own facility for printing up to 30X40 C-prints, but am trying to decide whether to add a 50" processor. I have been making high-end Cibas since the product first came out, so am extremely familiar with it. Dye transfer is intended more as a retirement hobby,
    since it's so time intensive. There is one major local lab still doing custom C-prints the
    traditional enlarger manner, but several others using the expensive digital printers. I prefer
    the more seamless look of straight optical printing, but the advantage of the big digital
    printers is that they can take files from color negs, transparencies, or direct digital capture. Crystal Archive is has much better light resistance than Ciba, or better display life, but will eventually discolor (tend to yellow), so is inferior in terms of dark storage life.

    Think about going injet. Inkjet is our future. When all cylinders are firing an inkjet is the dye transfer of the digital age. From prelim tests it is outstanding with fade resistance. And the colors are xlnt. Even the cheap 5 color injet printers produce xlnt work.




    ...4 x 5 print made from a cheap $75 inkjet printer form Walmart

  5. #35

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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by Oren Grad View Post
    I'm a little suspicious of this Ctein guy - he seems very proud of himself.

    Bruce, don't let that relatively minor bit of promotional puffery on Ctein's home page put you off. Some years back I had the opportunity to visit with Ctein and look at his dye portfolio. The prints he showed me did indeed reflect a very high level of technical command of a difficult medium, and on a personal level he was a gracious, friendly and unpretentious host. Whether his pictures are to your taste esthetically is of course up to you, but there's nothing that anyone needs to be "suspicious" of.
    Bob Pace used to say a dye man's ability could be judged with skin tones. When looking at a printers work, see how the skin tones look. Are they peachy and natural or are they off. TBS, nowadays most dye printers print landscapes or close up of plants. They seem to avoid skin tones like the plague. Maybe just by chance or maybe by desire?



    ...dye transfer print circa 1948 - 1954 U.S Print Co. Portland, OR

  6. #36
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by slackercruster View Post
    Well they can be proud of it all they want. The proof shows a cibachrome looks like hell after it gets handled some. It reminds me of a new shiny black car . Looks great the first day out of the showroom...and it is all downhill from there.

    The black car, as well as the super shiny ciba, shows all defects, scratches, fingerprints, dust. Color wise the ciba is very good. And fade resistance it is excellent. But the shiny surface ruined it. If it was type F semi-gloss surface they would have had a winner.
    I had a big batch of cibachromes done for an exhibit back in the 1990's. Someone else printed them, and I framed them.

    This warning brings back much to the front of my mind regarding handling them. They were easy to dimple, scratch, fingerprint. My solution was to minimize handling and contact till they were behind glass. If you can be careful and minimize handling, they will stay looking nice and will seem worthwhile. But like a new black car, you want to handle them so bad.

  7. #37

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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by jp498 View Post
    I had a big batch of cibachromes done for an exhibit back in the 1990's. Someone else printed them, and I framed them.

    This warning brings back much to the front of my mind regarding handling them. They were easy to dimple, scratch, fingerprint. My solution was to minimize handling and contact till they were behind glass. If you can be careful and minimize handling, they will stay looking nice and will seem worthwhile. But like a new black car, you want to handle them so bad.
    How do they work behind glass? Do they exhibit problems other glossy prints do when in contact with glass mounts? Or must their be an air space bewteen the glass and print?

  8. #38
    Dominik
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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    I work part time in an archive and I can tell you that a lot of archivist do not trust the findings of the WIR. They only proof they accept is prints actually surviving a certain time accelerated test are nice but they leave out a lot variables and there findings are often far from reality. Especially Inkjet prints are far from archival even the so called archival ones do exhibit fading.
    BTW recently found out that Orwo/Filmotec produces paper for the Dye transfer process and it's exclusively sold by http://www.dyetransfer.de/ they also produce Dye transfers from your images

    Dominik

  9. #39
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    Quote Originally Posted by slackercruster View Post
    How do they work behind glass? Do they exhibit problems other glossy prints do when in contact with glass mounts? Or must their be an air space bewteen the glass and print?
    I wouldn't think of having them touch the glass. There is a space caused by the matting.

  10. #40
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Archival stability of dye-transfer prints

    I've got hundreds of Cibas, at least small ones (nearly all the big ones are sold). Not one
    of them is scratched. Kink marks were a bigger risk, esp handling large sheets in the dark.
    I made a special sled to transfer big sheets onto the vacuum easel. No different than handling polyester base in any other media, including Fuji Supergloss. You learn to never
    touch the image itself and how to correctly frame it. But one time I did get a defective
    batch of Ciba which has a remarkable 3D lustre to it, not like their pearl RC paper, but not
    high gloss either. They said it was a bad batch of gelatin. Never seen anything like it again.
    A beautiful surface.

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