ruby lith material

hi
all excuse the stupidity but what is ruby lith good for in photography ? the local sign shop just gave me a roll thats 3 ft by 200 ft., they used it for silk screening but don't do it any more,
thanks
mitch

Ideas? Maybe put hair spray on it and use it as an under-the-enlarger diffuser weighted towards shadows. Maybe make your own safelight filter, or tape it over a flashlight to make a darkroom torch. I don't know how you would use the other 594 square feet. Perhaps if you have a studio, it would be useful in creating backlit backdrops.

You can use it to mask prints made with alternative techniques, since it will not transmit UV light. I am not sure about using it with enlarging papers, but that might work as well (at least with short exposure).

If you ever want to get rid of it....

You can also get artsy with it...I cut out japanese characters and printed over it...used it to make multiple "windows" and printed several different images on one sheet of paper. Lots of interesting stuff you can do. Oh yeah, you can cut pieces of it to cover little LED lights on phones, and other equipment in your darkroom...very helpful.

If you don't want it, send it to me!!!!

I have a piece that I use on either a back ground or hair light, instead of a gel. Works fine for that.

with lith

I get artsy once in a while - like multiple lith (like real lith film - not lith printing) negs, all cut and taped together onto a piece of rubylith.

Then cut off the rubylith in the areas where you want the image to print though, and get out the opaque and paint on where the area is too small to ruby them out.

The last one I did bacame a 16x20 'neg' assembly, that I contact printed onto a piece of 16x20 under the illumiation of a multograde head to select the contrast grade of the paper.

It can also be used to make handy masking tools for dodging and burning, when the area to be burned in or held back has a complex shape.

Slide the enlarger head down a chunk, lay the rubylith on the baseboard, trace the line where the cut is to go while projecting the negative in question, peel away the right part, and then wind the enlarger back up to the image size to print at, refocus, and then use your perfectly shaped mask to help you get the dodge or burn to fit perfectly (still wiggle it to blur the transitions) .

All that and it makes a dandy safelight filter to boot. A couple of layers is good on a small 5x7 or 5.5 inch round piece of glass or plexiglas fitted to a safelight housing.

That is a lot of Rubylith! The material comes in a lot of different forms, both clear and diffuse with varying layer characteristics. It used to be used a lot in photomechanical and electronics applications (to mask photoresist). I have used it to make masks for smaller sized film in glass negative holders for enlargers. The red material is equivalent to about a Wratten No. 1 safelight filter. You could use it for special shape dodging masks or other opaque masks. It's sort of handy when you need it, but you don't need it that often.

Many wetplaters use it to make safelight windows for their portable field darkboxes.

I use it to cut out masks for my contact printing frame so I have nice clean borders. I prefer the tape though but a roll that large.. that is a lifetime supply!

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this, maybe it's just obvious. The real cool thing about Rubylith is that it's two-layer with the the red part as a separate layer which can be cut out and removed separately from the clear layer.

When I worked at the print shop the stripper guy used it quite a bit when preparing the negatives for burning onto offset plates. The red part was essentially opaque to the "colorblind" photosensitive plate.

Another use is to cover monitors for TV or computer use while in the darkroom !!

Mike

ok
guys thanks for the info. now who wants some . i am willing to share the wealth.
just pm and let me know.
mitch