I'm getting tired............

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Ron, the person questioning your abilities is not even making the effort to support their own claim. "I could prove..." is not an argument, and is just a manner to put a cloak of invisibilty over the missing evidence.

Lots of words, lots of mighta coulda shoulda, but nothing substantial.

BTW, it was cool to see your name in the chapters on color photography in Haist!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Thanks Michel. Yep, I'm in Haist several times and was one of the people who proof read the original manuscript. Grant is a great person. I wish you could all meet him.

PE

 

[CBG]

Oh my....I just read as much of that other thread as I can take. Pure disruptive trolling.

Once again, someone with little to offer has the chutzpah to take potshots at those more worthwhile. Pretty much the same as the nice people who wriite computer viruses. Easier to tear down others than to make a contribution onesself.

I have relatives who worked in color research at Kodak, and see PE's work preserving what's transferable of the art and science of emulsion making as really important - and hugely generous. I just want to say thanks.

PE, I would be pleased to purchase one of your books when you publish.

Thanks!

C

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, here is an update.

I'm finally near a reorganization of the book.

Her is a generic outline:

Introduction and general chemistry.....

Part 1. Old processes (with help and contributions from Mark Osterman of GEH) - this is still possible, but may depend on market. Your response is needed here.

Part 2. How Kodak did it. Then, how Kodak does it.

Part 3. How we have to do it in our home labs and why.

Part 4. Experimental with formulas

Part 5. Testing methods for what we can do.

Part 6. Experiments to try in the future.

Something like that..........

I have gotten a contact at EK that might help me with approval of any copyright material. I hope to have an update on this later, but things are looking good here so far.

I'm working with two people on making the video which will probably be made in 2 parts, one in the winter months here, and one at the Formulary later next year. It will probably be about 1.5 hours long with a lab and classroom portion. Taping of the entire 'class' may be as long as 5 hours or so though.

The gnats buzzing around my ears have essentially vanished. One person that gave me a lot of trouble here, was recently banned from another forum for apparently posting 'data' from experiments that were never carried out. I'm sorry to hear this type of thing, but the truth will out. I make mistakes and when I do, I try my best to correct them, but I will never fabricate data. (note to Sean or the moderators - remove this paragraph if you feel it necessary)

So, things progress.

I owe two APUG members some Azo type paper on baryta. I'll fit this in during the next few weeks. I have an in home workshop coming up in 2 weeks, and I have one APUG member that got some paper for testing and never responded to me at all.

Thanks to you all for your support. I wanted you to know where things stand. You can see the latest plate results posted in another thread. Quality improves on film and plate even if speed does not. I hope to have a jump in speed soon, of about 1 stop.

All the best to those interested.

PE

 

[rusty71]

That's good news. Will the book be available through a textbook company in the US? I'm thinking this would be a great text for a college level workshop. A lot of students seem interested in trying to make a unique emulsion.

 

[Photo Engineer]

IDK.

Still looking.

PE

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sounds great, Ron.

As to your question on old processes, I'd like to see a chapter on that--maybe streamlined descriptions with formulas and enough info for someone to try them out and get their feet wet, and then a bibliography for further reading on each process.

I think Focal Press would be a likely publisher.

 

[Photo Engineer]

David;

Mark Osterman has written something that I have been tentatively given the OK to use as a first part to the book. I'm working on many of the things you describe. You see your errors after you read it and try and do what you just said. ..... You learn the hard way that you have not written what you really do sometimes.

Sill a workin' on it.

PE

 

[Terence]

Even if I don't have a chance to try emulsion making soon (limited by space, finances and an already long list of hobbies), I'll certainly be on the wait-list for the book and video. It is fascinating stuff, and may become necessary stuff, if such processes are to survive.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I may try booklocker.com, as it has been suggested to my by an author friend.

PE

 

[bdial]

I agree with David, I think a chapter on old processes would be good.

If you aren't planning on an Ebook, POD publishers don't tend to have a good reputation with booksellers, IDK about booklocker.com specifically. But if you can get an outfit like Focal interested, you'll likely have a better chance of getting it into book stores, if that's a goal.

 

[abeku]

Keep up the good work, PE! The outline sounds exciting.

 

[gandolfi]

hi PE

I've only tried making my own emulsion once or twice (and VERY simple emulsion, that is)...

but I'd buy the book (DVD)as I think it is a fascinating world..

the trouble here in Denmark is the strickt laws, regarding buying and handling raw chemicals, so it might never be possible to try out more elborate recipies..

I have, however used Liquid emulsions for more than 20 years, and I think 90% of my images now are made using liquid emulsion.

A huge request, however....:

when reading a book/text from america, the quantities/temp and so on are made in a strange seperate language.. (inches/Fahrenheit/ounces/grain and so on)
but sometimes these are "translated" to redable mesurements as mm/gram/Celsius ... maybe in a "(...)"..

how are you doing your book?

also, when mentioning the chemicals, a list of international names/formulas would be nice.. So many names for the same chemical. ex. Silver nitrate (AgNo3).
then there will be no confusion for us, when trying to order the chemicals...

Apart for this request, I think your work is commandable!

I'll attach one image made with homemade emulsion - just a simple test.
(It was so much fun, and the result ok...)

 

[Photo Engineer]

Very nice image.

My book is being done with dual units for everyone. I use chemical names and trivial names both. I will specify wt/wt, wt/vol and etc on all items so that you know where I am.

Gee, I may even break down and do structures if I can find my organic structures template.

PE

 

[Craig]

Well, here is an update.

Part 1. Old processes (with help and contributions from Mark Osterman of GEH) - this is still possible, but may depend on market. Your response is needed here.
PE

For historical interest this would be interetsting. Is your book going to be limited to B&W processes, or colour as well? I'd be quite interested in old colour processes.

 

[Photo Engineer]

There will be information on old color and new color but for color in general there are plenty of books out there right now.

Historically, there is the book "History of Color Photography" by Friedman. This says it all.

PE

 

[Kirk Keyes]

PE -

The format for the book looks great. As you may suspect, I'm interested in techniques to measure and help control the emulsion process - both how EK did it and what we can do in our own darkrooms.

Think about how we can incorporate any of the relatively inexpensive testing devices that are available these days like stick/pocket pH and conductivity meters, as well as where full blown devices like ISE electrodes could be used.

 

[Photo Engineer]

A friend is giving me advice on that. One of the things I have to locate is a source of very pure silver wire or silver billets. The jewelry silver may not be pure enough. I need 99.99% pure silver for the electrodes.

We will also be experimenting with corona discharge. He has worked out a theoretical method for doing it in a home lab.

PE

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

PE, I'm not sure if this helps, but a lot of high end audio interconnect cables are made from pure silver. I would look up manufacturers of that type of equipment to see if:
a) is the silver pure enough for your purposes?
b) where do they get it?
I would suggest checking out Audio Advisor, or Acoustic Sounds on the internet as a starting point. They both (should) carry cables of such disposition.
- Thomas

 

[Photo Engineer]

Thomas;

Thanks. I'll follow all leads. I have quite a few now.

PE

 

[Struan Gray]

Goodfellows (www.goodfellow.com) are an impeccable source of high purity metals. They are happy to supply small quantities too.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Struan;

Thanks. This looks promising. Now all I have to do is save up my money.

PE