1 Mil Mylar vs. Plastic Wrap

[seadrive]

Hi guys and gals,

I've been making contact prints on POP for a short while now. As mentioned on the Chicago Albumen Works web site, the excess silver nitrate in the paper will sometimes transfer to the negative, causing a stain.

They recommend separating the neg from the paper with a 1 mil Mylar sheet, available from Light Impressions. I've located the item on LI's web site, but the cost (including shipping) is almost fifty bucks.

Have any of you who use POP tried this Mylar? Is it distinctly different/better than plastic wrap?

I've used plastic wrap a few times as a substitute, and it does the job, but it's often difficult to get it to lie completely flat.

Any input would be appreciated.

Steve

 

[Ole]

I store my negatives in Mylar sleeves - that makes it a lot easier: Just contact print the whole thing, sleeve and all.

 

[gwatson]

Hi Steve

1 mil sounds way too thick to me. You should be looking for something about as thick as clingfilm/clingwrap (20ish microns rings a bell for some reason). In fact, I'm not sure there is any reason you can't use clingfilm. Anybody else know? Melt your negs, or something?

Geoff

 

[pelerin]

Hi guys and gals,

I've been making contact prints on POP for a short while now. As mentioned on the Chicago Albumen Works web site, the excess silver nitrate in the paper will sometimes transfer to the negative, causing a stain.

They recommend separating the neg from the paper with a 1 mil Mylar sheet, available from Light Impressions. I've located the item on LI's web site, but the cost (including shipping) is almost fifty bucks.

Have any of you who use POP tried this Mylar? Is it distinctly different/better than plastic wrap?

I've used plastic wrap a few times as a substitute, and it does the job, but it's often difficult to get it to lie completely flat.

Any input would be appreciated.

Steve

Hi,
Plastic neg sleeving is commonly made of 3 materials; polyethelene polypropylene and polyester (mylar). On a glossy fiber print you can see a difference between the amount of diffusion produced by polyethelene and produced by mylar. Under close inspection (e.g., looking at a transparency in a sleeve with a loupe) polypropylene appears to be better (in terms of clarity) than polyethelene but not quite as good as mylar. I have not tested this by making a contact print.
Celac.

 

[sanking]

Hi Steve

1 mil sounds way too thick to me. You should be looking for something about as thick as clingfilm/clingwrap (20ish microns rings a bell for some reason). In fact, I'm not sure there is any reason you can't use clingfilm. Anybody else know? Melt your negs, or something?

Geoff

One mil is plenty thin enough. I actually use a slightly thicker mylar of 2-3 mil and the results printing through it with both a BL bank and a collimated light source have been for all practical purposes as good as printing right through the negative. But I use a vacuum frame with both light sources, and that can make a big difference when using anything between the negative and sensitized paper.

Sandy King

 

[Allen Friday]

You might check any local art supply stores in your area for suitable material. I was in an art store in Des Moines (not exactly the art capital of the world) and found 1 mil mylar in rolls. I don't remember the exact price, but it wasn't $50.00.

 

[seadrive]

Thanks for all the good info, guys.

 

[gwatson]

2-3 mil. I'm amazed. I guess I read the micron thing when I first started and have been busting a gut trying to get it ever since and not tried anything thicker. Sorry for the bad info, Steve.

Geoff

 

[Monophoto]

Steve -

That price does seem to follow the rape and pillage philosophy.

I have two pieces of clear plastic that I use for this purpose in making Pt/Pd prints, One was the clear half of a sheet of rubylith. The other was purchased at Staples as a clear-plastic page protector. Both were much less expensive.

 

[bruce terry]

I store my negatives in Mylar sleeves - that makes it a lot easier: Just contact print the whole thing, sleeve and all.

Ole- Interesting. In lazier moments I've thought about throwing sleeve and all into the printing frame - but don't you get just a smidgeon less edginess with the additional thickness of the protective mylar sleeve compared to the much thinner 1cm sheet stock (which I don't bother with anymore)? Boy if sharp edges aren't affected I'm gonna jump on this idea!

Bruce

 

[Ole]

I haven't noticed any loss of sharpness - I just took a good 15x loupe to a POP print, and it looks sharp at that magnification. With a less smooth paper than POP it would be even less visible.

 

[Bob F.]

Geoff: 1mil = 25.4 microns so you are both correct. I love a happy ending...

Cheers, Bob.