gum slide

On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, Peter Marshall wrote:
> I'd guess the lecture was around 1978. I don't think Steinbock had really
> gone into the process in any great detail, and he appeared to be satisfied
> with the results he was getting. As well as giving Terry some dichromate (mea
> culpa), I also suggested it would work much better as a half-tone process,
> and showed him that it did. (Of course inkjet printed negatives are a kind of
> half-tone, but they weren't around then). But he chose to do things the hard
> way, He knows gum hardens from the top as he's seen his images slide off the
> paper!

There are 3 or 4 reasons I could think of offhand for images to "slide off
the paper" -- from too slick or resistant sizing (my experience, BTW, with
gloy) to underexposure, or overly thick emulsion. There could be others,
none requiring hardening from top (tho obviously you only need one).

But I also think of the relief you see in a wet gum print, especially in
the shadows. It disappears as the gum shrinks when dry, tho at first is
quite 3-dimensional. (I notice it especially because my draining rack is
at eye level.) Is it tougher at the top or the bottom? Or even
throughout ?

J.
Received on Tue Apr 11 00:01:45 2006