Visual aid for print spotting?

[bdial]

Welcome Katherine,
My major spotting headache is dealing with black spots, from pinholes and such in the negative.

 

[Katherine J Gillis]

Hi Katherine J Gillis! Welcome to APUG.

Where to start?

How do you know exactly how many drops of the different colors of Spotone it will take to match your prints? I keep thinking I am close and then when I look at the prints in the sun I can see the spots are more blue than the print. It's "fine" but I sure would like to get closer to a perfect match.

Is it better to work with a 20/0 brush and dried spots of Spotone? I dapple a palette with different concentrations in each bowl so it looks kind of like the surface of a golf ball with lots of small dots of dried dye. Then with slightly dampened 20/0 brush, I touch a spot of dye and then the print. I get about 2-3 spots on the print just right then have to go back.

Or is it better to have a larger brush like 000 and work wet? Is a fine sable brush necessary or can any student-grade brush do the trick?

How about negatives? I always thought it would be great to have some kind of syringe needle to pinpoint a tiny dot of opaque over a pinhole on a negative. But haven't yet been able to reliably spot pinholes. What's the secret?

Hey Bill, here is an update.
Thanks for contacting me with your interest in my retouching/spotting course. Please go towww.katherinegillis.com and click on Subscribe. Doing that will allow me to give you notifications of when the course is open. Also you will be advised when I will post a course description and give you the opportunity of a pre-sell discount. This way you won't miss the course.



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Katherine Gillis Traditional Retouching & Spotting.

I’ll occasionally post notes of interest.



My course name is:

Become A Fearless Traditional Retoucher & Spotter

Step-by-Step Techniques and Tools to Apply Dyes



Sincerely,

Katherine Gillis

 

[Bill Burk]

Thanks Katherine J Gillis,

Subscribed and liked. I will have to get busy making some prints so I'll have something to work on.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Hi there,

Simple questions: when spotting prints, do you use some magnifiers or loupes to help you and what magnification do you use?

Thanks for your contribution!

Talk to your dentist or dental hygienist.They have access to the best close-up glasses for their work;expensive but excellent.

 

[Dali]

Very good idea! I need to see my dentist soon, I will ask him.

 

[Katherine J Gillis]

Thanks Katherine J Gillis,

Subscribed and liked. I will have to get busy making some prints so I'll have something to work on.

Hi Bill! I'm excited about this course and I'm glad you're getting ready! Katherine

 

[bdial]

Regarding eyeglass loupes, talk mostly to the hygienist perhaps, I found out the ones my dentist uses are made by Zeiss and are pretty dear to buy.

 

[jtk]

fwiw, Picma Micron .01 pens with "archival micro pigment" can be better than camel hair brush for very fine spots. Art supply store.

 

[GRHazelton]

I use one of these simply because I have one:

http://www.doneganoptical.com/products/optivisor

My wife uses one of these for her hand work in sewing. They're relatively comfortable, and I think newer versions have a built in lamp.

 

[BMbikerider]

To view the print, I use a 6" x 4" magnifying glass on a flexible stem which also incorporates a single bright LED bulb. Since getting this set up re-touching is so simple.

One question though, when spotting resin coated paper do you dampen the paper surface, or spot on the dry surface? With fibre based paper I always spot onto not quite dry prints prints.

 

[MattKing]

One question though, when spotting resin coated paper do you dampen the paper surface, or spot on the dry surface?

I spot on dry RC prints.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Hi there,

Simple questions: when spotting prints, do you use some magnifiers or loupes to help you and what magnification do you use?

Thanks for your contribution!

I use 5+ reading glasses but would love to get some dentist's glasses($$$)