Another drydown/print flattening question

[Doug Bennett]

On a forum on another photo site, there was a discussion of print flattening. One of the posters used a method that I hadn't heard of before. He would take a washed print, squeegee off the surface water, and then tape the print to a flat surface using a water-activated tape. Although he would then have to trim the edges of the print (the tape could not be removed), he claimed to achieve perfectly flat prints.

In addition, he claimed that print drydown was due solely to shrinkage of the emulsion during drying, and that this method eliminated any change in the print during drying.

Anyone have any experience with/thoughts about this method? I'm showing at an art show in a couple of months, and am trying to come up with the best methods for print flattening and presentation. While I have access to a dry mount press, I've not been convinced that this is the best route.

 

[Silverpixels5]

I can see how taping the print down would help with flatness, but I fail to see how it can effect dry down. I would think the emulsion would swell/contract reguardless of whether the paper is constrained or not.

 

[Jorge]

You know, that could be possible for pt/pd as the paper shrinks and the emulsion is contained within the paper, but I doubt dry down in affected much by taping with regular silver papers as the emulsion is in the gelatin coating and has very little to do the paper shrinking. I will certainly try it though....

 

[Donald Miller]

While I have not tried the "tape down" method of flattening. I can see that it would be time consuming and frustrating compared to the simple method of putting a print in a dry mounting press. The surface area required for taping down and drying would need to be large if you are hanging a show of any size. The potential for inclusion of foreign matter into the print surface is compounded by many magnitudes. But then your experience may not parallel mine. Who knows this may be a new and better way of doing things.

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[Silverpixels5]

I'd lean towards ironing with FB papers. I remember when I was little and found out that money was actually cloth and not paper. All my dollars after that were as crisp as if they just came off the mint press.

 

[juan]

I have flattened prints by ironing for years. I iron my test prints directly on the back of the print. I see no sign of damage, but I would never do this with a fine print. For those, I use a piece of mat board between the iron and the print.

I also have prints that I dry mounted with an iron 30-years ago. No sign of any injury to the print, and they are still solidly stuck to the mount.
juan