Without Epson and QTR use, Can copy center create an kallitype and van dyke negative

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Is there anyone used copy center - without epson and qtr -acetate negative for printing kallitype or vandyke ? How so ?

Umut
Istanbul

 

[koraks]

Yes, a friend of mine did this. She used a regular office laser printer/copier for cyanotypes. Worked OK for her. I think the main reason it worked was (1) she wasn't looking for a straight photographic result and instead was making a larger art installation and (2) electrophotographic imaging systems (typically used in copy shops; i.e. laser printers) generally use halftone screening to make shades of grey and that means your kallitypes and Van Dykes basically only have to print black or white and no shades in-between. This in theory makes it easier to calibrate the process and again in theory you could even get away without any calibration whatsoever. However, in practice there will be some degree of dot gain which results in non-linearities. You may be able to compensate for this by having the copy shop/center print out a step tablet ( e.g. squares with greyscales ranging from 0 to 100 in steps of 5 or so) and then using that tablet to create an adjustment curve. There are several procedures for this like Easy Digital Negatives, Precision Digital Negatives etc.

 

[Derek Lofgreen]

I too have an artist friend that photographs her garden flowers and creates a file and puts it on a USB drive and takes it to OfficeMax. They just hit print and she comes home with a negative she uses for Kallitype prints used in collage and multimedia works. She is represented and has shown regularly. Like Koraks said about the expectation of a photographic result. She is simply using it as a part of a larger art work.

It works but you will have to try it yourself to see if you like the results. Let us know how it goes.

D.