I haven't done this for a few years so I decided to recalibrate my system to a paper I like: Weston Diploma. I couldn't get it to clear to save my life. It did give me a nice rich Dmax, though. I then tried ClearPrint Vellum. It cleared very easily but the blacks were not what I saw in the weston paper. I used to use Platine, but the last batch I bought was no good and that is why I stopped Kalityping. Hopefully, this will get me moving again. My process is:
1. find exposure based on maximum black exposure with a blank piece of Pictoro
2. Coat with Ferric Oxylate solution and 10% silver nitrate soln, let dry to touch
3. Expose test strips.
4. Dev in sodium citrate for a minute and clear for a minute each in 3 1%citric acid baths then in a permawash solution for final clearing for two minutes.
5. Tone in Clerc's gold
6. Then fix in plain hypo (5%), wash and try.
7. Pick an exposure time and test a series of step wedges printed on the Pictoro.
When I do this the highlight steps have what looks like staining on the Weston. The vellum is completely clean with poor Dmax. I probably could bring up the exposure a bit for the Vellum without screwing up the highlights, but I don't think that would bring up the density much since the bottom 10% of the shadows all show the same density.
Any suggestions? I think the paper is the culperit, but it could also be clearing method or???????. Also, is Van Dyke any more tolerant of paper and process? I don't think it is a problem of printer neg density since the vellum trail had clean highlights.
1. find exposure based on maximum black exposure with a blank piece of Pictoro
2. Coat with Ferric Oxylate solution and 10% silver nitrate soln, let dry to touch
3. Expose test strips.
4. Dev in sodium citrate for a minute and clear for a minute each in 3 1%citric acid baths then in a permawash solution for final clearing for two minutes.
5. Tone in Clerc's gold
6. Then fix in plain hypo (5%), wash and try.
7. Pick an exposure time and test a series of step wedges printed on the Pictoro.
When I do this the highlight steps have what looks like staining on the Weston. The vellum is completely clean with poor Dmax. I probably could bring up the exposure a bit for the Vellum without screwing up the highlights, but I don't think that would bring up the density much since the bottom 10% of the shadows all show the same density.
Any suggestions? I think the paper is the culperit, but it could also be clearing method or???????. Also, is Van Dyke any more tolerant of paper and process? I don't think it is a problem of printer neg density since the vellum trail had clean highlights.