8x10 Masking

[Henry Yorke]

Hi, everyone.

I recently bought a set of 8x10 negatives made by a Californian photographer in the 60s. Most of the negatives are of commercial equipment (everything from giant press equipment to various technical odds and ends). Most of the negatives are masked using an orange rubylith-like sheet that has been taped to the negative. The photographer - or someone who worked for the photographer - has painstakingly revealed the equipment on the orange coloured sheet while masking stuff that won't end up in the final image - most of the work is really intricate and precise.

Here's a scanned negative of the above.

Question - what is the orange sheet material that this photographer used? I am familiar with rubylith - but this sheet is thicker and, like I said, coloured orange.

Also - how did a person go about cutting out this mask? Was it laid over the negative and then cut out? The orange material can be peeled off - but you'd have to make sure you weren't cutting through the backing, it seems.

Many thanks for any pointers on this.

 

[albada]

I'll guess that he made a contact print of the neg, taped the orange sheet over it, and carefully cut the outline with an X-Acto knife or similar.

Mark

 

[MattKing]

It could be amberlith - rubylith's cousin.

 

[AnselMortensen]

I second "amberlith".