Books on Traditional Masking

[Fragomeni]

Hi all. Can anyone recommend any literature on traditional masking techniques? I've been working masking into my work but I've been unable to find many resources that describe and instruct on the traditional mask making and masking techniques. Any help would be very much appreciated.

P.S. I mean all kinds of masking i.e. mask making, different techniques for different results, masking for printing double negatives, contrast masking, etc.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

'Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques' magazine had printed many articles on masking techniques, have fun finding any for sale. They became 'Photo Techniques' magazine.

The old Kodak 'Data Books' for the printing industry had more than many techniques for masking of all types, have tons of fun finding any for sale.

Have fun with the hunt.

[seabird]

Lynn Radeka also sells a maskig kit that provides detail and "how-to" regarding various different masks used in monochrome work. Look here: http://www.maskingkits.com/

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Alan Ross is one of the best. He has kits, instructions and how to CD's available.

www.alanrossphotography.com

[bob carnie]

Ciba Chrome Masking is an old Ilford manual not sure if still available.

[Struan Gray]

I have been reading this:

Principles of color reproduction: applied to photomechanical reproduction, color photography and the ink, paper, and other related industries.
John A.C. Yule
Wiley, New York, 1967.

It sounds a bit obscure, but seems to have been a popular standard text since quite a few Swedish libraries have it, and there are copies on abebooks etc at reasonable prices.

It's out of date, of course, but explains clearly the purpose and science of masking. It won't give you usable recipes, but I found it very useful in explaining the background to masking, and other things. It has some very carefully prepared plates showing the effects of black and white and colour masks.

Struan

[Drew Wiley]

First of all, are you talking about masking for black-and-white printing or color? The
last person who did extensive training manuals was Bob Pace. Probably most people on
this forum never heard of him, but when an old video of his showed upon on EBay the
other day there was quite a bidding war for it, and I think some paid around $125,
even for badly out of date information. Virtually all the films have changed. Good condition punch and register gear also sells very fast for high prices ... so much for the
notion that Photoshop has made this kind of technique obsolete! And that's the first
thing you want to acquire - a good matched set consisting of registration film punch
and contact printing frame. But you can learn the basics in the meatime and try
post-registration over a lightbox. There are many, many different masking techniques.
Howard Bond used to give workshops on elementary unsharp black-and-white masking,
and some of his articles might still be floating around. And the folks who still make
punches for 4x5 film, already mentioned by others, can provide tutorials. For bigger
film you can sometimes get deals on both used and new equipment from graphics
supply houses (prepress).

[Drew Wiley]

(Got interrupted)... Books per se ... sometimes the old Kodak Graphic Arts guides give
useful information. They turn up from time to time in used book stores. Lith mask technique hasn't changed much, although you'd use something like Arista lith film instead of Kodalith. And for soft masking, instead of the long discontinued pan masking
film from Kodak, you can use FP4 or TMY in soft-working developers. In his book Postexposure, Ctein lists his developer called Muir Softshot for masking work with
TMX, although last time I spoke with him, he had switched over to a tweak of my masking formula.

[Fragomeni]

Thanks for all the input everyone! Keep it coming if there are any more recommendations.

First of all, are you talking about masking for black-and-white printing or color?

Good question, sorry I neglected to clarify this. I work exclusively in B&W but I am not limiting what I read to information specific to B&W. I often find that broadly related information can often contain useful information that I can use to extrapolate other information. But yes, B&W.

Alan Ross is one of the best. He has kits, instructions and how to CD's available.

I spoke with Alan earlier today and he sent me his articles in a download. Very nice man and the information is dead on what I've been looking for. If I can merge his techniques with some of the techniques I use for masking I might finally be able to achieve what I've been going for.

[Drew Wiley]

Masks can also be generated digitally, and you don't need as high-end a scan as
for digital printing per se; but you do need to be able to print on frosted mylar at
exactly 1:1 size ratio. But then you have to register the output manually. I think
traditional darkroom masking is much more straightforward. Alan's technique is a little
different than some others, but certainly worth learning.