POP Paper

[John Miller]

Hi

I'm wondering has anyone used the Chicago Albumen (sp?) Works paper? What's it l ike? Is it easy to make good 8x10 contact prints with? What do they look like? A re you pleased with the process? Since trying to get Azo paper seems like a lot trouble to get in 11x14 sizes without buying more than you will ever need in you r lifetime, this seems like a good way to go for 8x10 contacts with a good sized border. Thanks for your help in advance.

FYI I really enjoy this forum, I find it most helpful and good reading plus the opinions given are honest and real. Thanks again.

Sincerely John

[Wayne Firth]

John, This paper is a printing out paper so the process is very different from Azo. The paper is doubleweight with a thick emulsion. There is no developer but in order to get a neutral graytone the image must be gold-toned. Without the toning, the image is orange. You can make really fine prints with this but it requires more effort than Azo. The shelf life of the Centennial Paper is short. The paper will develop a base fog in less than a year at room temp.

You might consider 20x24 Azo and cut it down to a custom size that will permit a large border for your 8x10s.

[William Marderness]

I use this paper and am happy with it. You need a high constrast negative (about N+2 development) to get a normal-contrast print. With gold toner, the color can be brownish red, rose, or nearly neutral. It depends on how long you tone and what formula you use. Gold toner made with borax gives a rose color. You also need to use plain hypo with this paper. Any commerical fixer will wipe out the image.

[Chad Jarvis]

I'm to the point now where I use Centennial almost exclusively. I think the finish is sweet, but as stated, you better be using negatives with a long tonal range if you want nice results. Contrary to popular belief, though, you don't have to tone in gold. I use selenium with great results (1:200 to 1:250), but my favorite is still gold borax. (Some people use platinum toner.) Try it. 50 sheets DW FB for $60 from B&S.

[Stephen Vaughan]

William......when you say plain fixer, not commercial fixer, could you give more detail please. I tried printing POP with limited success. The density of the blacks seemed to reduce during rinse/fix. I used Ilford Hypam fix (1+9). However, the process of making POP prints is very enjoyable, and it is easy to see that the potential for making fine contact prints is there if the technique can be controlled. Many thanks....

[William Marderness]

Stephen,

Uing plain hypo is suggested in the literature provided with the Chicago Albumen Works paper. The formula is 150 g Sodium Thiosulfate to 1 liter water. This has to be used within a few hours. Regular fixer will wash out the image.

[Chad Jarvis]

Even plain hypo will reduce blacks. Hypo with hardener, such as Kodak RapidFix, will flat-out BLEACH your paper. I use two-bath Rapid Fix without the hardener (part B), which is plain thiosulfate, mixed from 1:10 to 1:7, depending on my mood and how many prints (and with which toner) I'll be processing. As far as blacks being reduced, as I said, it is unavoidable. Even if you print out until your shadows are thoroughly "bronzed," you'll still get A LOT of detail once fixed. That's just the nature of the beast; it takes a special negative to get it just right.

[Ed K.]

POP Revived A Comment and Another Question for the Experts

So the POP arrived. Love it. Really great scale, nice thick paper, appears to self mask, exposure times around the same as Pd, works well with NuArc 1K exposure unit. Very nice high quality stuff, capable of dealing with contrasty as well as pretty normal negs so far. Nice and sharp too.

Above in this thread, Chad says selenium works well in high dillutions ( sounds like a money saving move too ). Kodak Brown Toner is a sulfide based toner that is archival with gel/silver regular papers and films. Kodak's notes say that Kodak Brown Toner gives archival qualities to both film and paper. The Kodak Brown Toner stuff is cheap, and so far, I'm not wild about the gold/borax tone range.

I'm looking for a brown range and good archival properties, however I'm no chemist, and if possible, I'd like to keep the general toxicity levels low. ( please, no plutonium toner recipes!) .

Anyone know how Kodak Brown Toner would work on Centennial POP?

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Yes, the brown toner will work with POP. You will have to experiment for best results. On another note, for those of you who are having problems with the fixers bleaching the image you can tone before you fix. Just make sure the print is washed very well before you fix.

[Mark_3632]

Toning a print in selenium before fixing produces, to me, the ugliest imaginable brown out there. Belive me I have tried.

The best thing to do with the bleaching when using selenium is to expose the hell out of the neg. I mean expose until the highlights begin to bronze out. Then fix and then put into the selenium. It takes practice, just like anything else, but you get some pretty pics. Nice choclate color.