Alternative Printing (P.O.P) question

[Steve Rowell]

Hi All,

The P.O.P. documentation suggests that using a thin sheet of mylar will protect the negative from the paper. For those of you who have done some P.O.P or Pt/Pd printing, do you think this is necessary? I'm finding working with .001" mylar tedious at best. By my count that's 6 surfaces to keep clean (not counting the paper). Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve

[D. Bryant]

Hi All,

The P.O.P. documentation suggests that using a thin sheet of mylar will protect the negative from the paper. For those of you who have done some P.O.P or Pt/Pd printing, do you think this is necessary? I'm finding working with .001" mylar tedious at best. By my count that's 6 surfaces to keep clean (not counting the paper). Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve
After ruining a few negatives keeping the film/mylar matrix clean will sound more appealing.

Don Bryant

[Kerik Kouklis]

Steve,

I've worked with POP a LOT in the past. I rolled the dice and never once had the neg stick... BUT, maybe I was just lucky.

[Steve Rowell]

Thanks guys,

I think I may experiment with a throw away negative and see what happens. Oh, also either of you know if one can get mylar already in roughly 8x10 (8 1/2 x 11, etc.)sheets? I'm currently cutting sheets down from a 40" roll.

Steve

[Ed K.]

POP = printing out process. DOP = develop out process.

Which of the many POP processes are you using?

If you are using silver chloride POP - Centennial POP paper doesn't need a mylar sheet if it is not wet. Silver POP paper, hand coated, works dry too, especially if it has gelatin in it. Negatives sticking haven't been an issue for me. Centennial is really good stuff - thick paper, nice surface, loads and loads of silver in it. The only trouble though is that it could stand to be a tad more contrasty, and adding dichromate in the initial wash doesn't help very much. Making your own of course fixes this, and optionally fixes the toning issue (because you can add gold chloride to the emulsion).

Ziatypes need humidity to work as a POP medium. Sure, not waiting too long to keep the coating on top is nice, and of course, a completely dry Zia won't have as much speed. Part of the reason for mylar in Zia's POP is to retain moisture - mylar under the paper too. However if you're worried, you can let the Zia coating dry completely and then either humidify it before exposure or use cold bath developer. I find that the cold bath developer method is a really great way to make up for a Zia that is a tad too dry or otherwise all the way dry. In other words, you can in many cases dry it nicely beyond the danger zone. Zia's can be POP with a DOP safety net, or even mostly DOP. There is a nice dmax and set of tonal possibilities when adding the simple, inexpensive cold bath to Zia. Another thing, if a Zia is too moist, (never dried quite enough in the first place), it can have smoothness issues. I haven't had ruined negative issues with Zias as POP or DOP though.

For Argyrotypes, (iron/silver POP) you can let those dry all the way and then control tone with room humidity. The speed will still be good. Same goes for Van Dykes.

You can buy Mylar or generic acetate film, such as Duralar in pads from a local art store such as, perhaps, Dick Blick. The sheets stay very clean in their pad, and most of the time, cleaning isn't much of an issue unless one has a dusty environment.

I haven't tried much albumen yet, however it works well when completely dried too.

While you're figuring new systems out - the mylar is certainly better than ruining a negative. After a while, you may wish to skip the mylar for a bit more sharpness if that is required. I find that any lack of full contact diminishes sharpness, even with a point light source. The mylar isn't bad at all, but it does make a difference.

[Steve Rowell]

Thanks Ed. I'm using the Centennial paper and I really like the look. Thanks especially for the heads up on sheets of mylar.

Steve