Topic: new pt/pd printing paper...

[aboot]

not to long ago i got an email from a john zokowski telling me he would send me some free paper samples for platinum/palladium printing.  it is supposedly very easy to clear and a wonderful range of tones and Dmax.  i just got them today and i'm going to try and make some prints with them in the next few weeks when i find time with my schedule.  the paper wasn't discovered until 2006 and apparently it went undetected for 50+ years as a medium for pt/pd paper because it was being used specifically as a stand-alone product for the production of US military honorable discharge certificates!   far out.

you can read more about the pt/pd paper here...

http://www.butlerdearden.com/Weston.aspx

if you want john's email it is at the bottom of the page and you can get some samples yourself to try it out.

[Ron]

Thanks, man.  I am on it!  I have to confess though, at first I thought you were talking about a PRE-coated PT paper.  I wish someone would come back on the market with such a product. 

[david b]

I wonder if he'll send free samples to the UK...

Please let us know how you get on with it - I'd be interested to see if it had any significant advantages over a dedicated pt/pd paper like Platine.

[david b]

Oh, and pre-coated pt paper Ron? What, and lose all that hairdryin' fun and the joy of invariably losing a brush bristle in a sky area - tut and pshaw!

[aboot]

i'm going to try it with a kallitype coating...

besides, getting free samples of a pre-coated pt/pd paper would be very cool.  coating it is the most expensive part of that whole process.  but i do agree with you david, getting the brush strokes is what makes an alternative process stand out. 

we'll see what happens and i'll let you all know about it...

[CarlRadford]

i'm going to try it with a kallitype coating...

besides, getting free samples of a pre-coated pt/pd paper would be very cool.  coating it is the most expensive part of that whole process.  but i do agree with you david, getting the brush strokes is what makes an alternative process stand out. 

we'll see what happens and i'll let you all know about it...

Brush strokes is quite an emotive subject - some say they detract from an image and that the process becomes more important! What I have seen and like if where the negative is bigger than the coated area and alludes to the space around the subject that one does not see.

There is a very useful thread on this paper at: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum42/33968-new-paper-platinum-palladium.html

Carl

[david b]

Thanks for the link Carl. Very interesting, I'm not sure about the thinness - but I'll certainly give it a try if any samples get over this side of the Atlantic.

I'm doing masked borders at the moment, and I quite like having the image floating in the middle of the whiteness of the paper, but I think brushstrokes showing works well for some images ... and perhaps other alt processes more so than pt/pd.

[CarlRadford]

I'm doing masked borders at the moment, and I quite like having the image floating in the middle of the whiteness of the paper, but I think brushstrokes showing works well for some images ... and perhaps other alt processes more so than pt/pd.

At the end of the day its really up to the image maker but your point is the main one - the brush strokes should add to the image - a poor image is a poor image whatever it is printed on - plt/pd wwith brush strokes will not improve it!