Can Print Density be added to small portion after finished print. ?

lhalcong · Jun 3, 2014

Is there any technique to add/remove density to certain small areas of a print, once the print is finished. ? In other words, if I already got the final perfect print but small area needs to be a little darker or perhaps a little lighter. Is that possible ?

thanks,

mike c · Jun 3, 2014

Selenium toner might darken a little ,to lighten use a bleach if no toner has been used yet.

lhalcong · Jun 3, 2014

OK to apply Selenium to only a small portion of the print ? like with a Q-tips maybe ?

Tom1956 · Jun 3, 2014

lhalcong said:
OK to apply Selenium to only a small portion of the print ? like with a Q-tips maybe ?

no

JW PHOTO · Jun 3, 2014

lhalcong said:
OK to apply Selenium to only a small portion of the print ? like with a Q-tips maybe ?

It would be ok, but if it is a highlight area you won't see much in the way of darkening and it will leave it looking odd. You would see more in the shadow or darker areas of the print.

mike c · Jun 3, 2014

lhalcong said:
OK to apply Selenium to only a small portion of the print ? like with a Q-tips maybe ?

There could be a color shift with selenium, I have not tried it or heard of any one doing this. You can do small areas with bleach but have to be careful, and the print will have to be refixed and washed .

Tom1956 · Jun 3, 2014

I would think the best policy would be to accept that perfect print or re-print it, because it's obviously not so perfect. You go messing around with Q-tips and it's finished. You'll make a mess of it.

mike c · Jun 3, 2014

Ihalcong, I do have reference about toning only part of the print with a toner by using a peelable masking varnish of some sorts. Tim Rudman,s Master Printing Course page 130 Combination Toning.

pentaxuser · Jun 3, 2014

It can be done. There are U Tube videos of an experienced printer lightening the corneas of eyes.

How much experience and skill is required I have no idea but Tim Rudman's printing book has examples of changes with bleach that he believes can be learned in less than a lifetime.

I suspect it is like any other trade. It takes time to do it competently. How many bricks does the apprentice bricklayer need to lay before he is competent to be allowed to build a wall?

Quite a few weeks or even months but the good news is that there are plenty of competent bricklayers who were useless on the first day

pentaxuser

piu58 · Jun 4, 2014

It is possible to darken an area with the help of Spotone or a similar correction fluid. You get an overall increasing of the density, the structures will not be intensified.

Xmas · Jun 4, 2014

If it is a normal thing you can take up bromoils make ten identical prints and ink them up different.

JohnC · Jun 4, 2014

There is/was a product known as Spottone - a range of tiny bottles with inks of varying shades of grey ( cold tone and warm) A practised spotter could work miracles. She(usually) could be identified by the traces of grey on lips and tongue.

Bleaching areas with pott ferricyanide( first step when sepia-toning) will work. It needs a touch-on and lift off immediatly with a damp cloth. Then the whole print washed again. Practise first otherwise you'll end up with yellow stains.

JohnC · Jun 4, 2014

If you're working on a matte paper.... it's surprising what you can achieve with a delicate touch and range of hard and soft pencils sharpened to very fine points.

removed account4 · Jun 4, 2014

in addition to spot tone or even water colors, you might lighten or darken a specific area of your print
by abrading it with ultra fine sand paper and adding color with graphite dust.
a lot of papers dont allow this technique, so try it with a test print before attempting it
on the real print.

good luck

jeffreyg · Jun 4, 2014

I can see bleaching but consider the time it would take to color with Spotone or pencils etc. and you could probably reprint with burning and dodging and get a more predictable and better result.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

Simon R Galley · Jun 4, 2014

My immediate reaction would be to print again....

I have seen many hours wasted post printing, better to print it correctly in the first place, when I did this for a living our print finisher regularly used to come into the darkroom with the job sheet and the and finished print and instruct us to clean the neg properly and the carrier... as he was'nt going to spend an hour literally cleaning up after us spotting out dust....

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

Tom1956 · Jun 4, 2014

Being a printer I have another take. When I run a job of 3000 or 5000 or whatever, I bust my tail to get the ones at the bottom of the stack looking the same as the ones from the middle, or top of the stack. That is quite an accomplishment. And when the run is over, for the better or worse of it, I package it up and deliver it, and move on. It is what it is. Same in the darkroom. No print is ever "perfect". Move on to the next.

Can Print Density be added to small portion after finished print. ?

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