Printing editions with Pictorico digital negatives

I was wondering if anyone that had thoughts on the longevity of Pictorico Ultra Premium UHP film digital negatives.

I've used Pictorico to make negatives for cyanotypes. The cyanotypes are exposed on a homemade vacuum lightbox with Phillips UV tube lights. Each exposure is 24 minutes long resulting in a fair amount of heat gain so the negatives are warm after each exposure.

I made Edition 1 over a year ago and now need to make another 5.
This work has 127 prints in total (so x5 is 635!!) so I need to be very methodical and factory like about how I print these.

Will I face any issues with the negative degrading when exposed to UV light for 24 minutes x 5 over a two hour period?

If you are interested, you can see some images of the work here:
https://www.gagallery.com/exhibition...-randhir-singh

Thanks in advance.
Randhir

I can’t really speak to the degradation due to UV light exposure, it would probably depend on the specific ink used as I would expect a negative printed using black ink only to last longer than a colored one. My negatives typically only get printed once or twice, it’s quite a feat to print over 600.
My main concern would be the potential for damage as I have found pictorico negatives to be quite delicate and they can get scratched easily. However I would expect a film negative would also show some wear after being used for contact prints several hundred times. Is it possible to use multiple negatives?

I think I may not have been clear.
There are 127 different prints and each will be printed 5 times.

So each negative will be exposed to UV light for 24 minutes 5 times.

The negatives were made on the Epson SureColor P20070 with Ultra Chrome inks.
I'm just hoping that the negative (or ink) doesn't fall apart from repeated UV exposure.

Ultrachrome inks are pretty hardy, one of the reasons for its development is fade resistance. You might ask Epson for an opinion on the subject.

That is a drop in the bucket.

If you want to test one, set it outside in the sun for a few hours then make a print from it. i doubt you will see a difference.

If you are making that many prints you might want to switch over to an LED printer. I get at most a 3m exposure on mine for cyanotype. Do the math on how much time that will save you.

LED Printer? What's that?!! And how do I make one?

3m vs 24m would be a fantastic way to save a huge amount of time.

I think some of the accelerated tests show those Epson inks lasting 200+ years depending on paper selection so a couple hours of exposure time isn’t anything to worry about.

The UV printer PRJ is taking about is an exposure unit made with UV emitting LEDs instead of fluorescent tubes. Most UV LEDs work, but usually something in the 365-400nm range is best as it matches the wavelengths most alt processes are most sensitive to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bomzi

LED Printer? What's that?!! And how do I make one?

3m vs 24m would be a fantastic way to save a huge amount of time.

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Im replacing my fluorescent uv tubes with these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071NT6189

Thanks for helping!
Those Barina UV LED lights look pretty great and are not very expensive.
Gary, can you post a comment here once you have tried those out? I'm particularly interested in any reduction in the exposure time.

On Tim Layton's blog, he replaces his fluorescent bulbs with UV LED. I cant tell if they are the Barrina lights but they look pretty similar:
https://www.timlaytonfineart.com/blo...ith-led-lights

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bomzi

Thanks for helping!
Those Barina UV LED lights look pretty great and are not very expensive.
Gary, can you post a comment here once you have tried those out? I'm particularly interested in any reduction in the exposure time.

On Tim Layton's blog, he replaces his fluorescent bulbs with UV LED. I cant tell if they are the Barrina lights but they look pretty similar:
https://www.timlaytonfineart.com/blo...ith-led-lights

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According to Frank Gorga he had six black light bulbs and replaced them with four strips of these and cut exposure time in half.
Heres the thread on Photrio...

https://www.photrio.com/forum/thread....115208/page-4