carbon transfer – Koraks tinkers

Whither hybridia – The challenge of digital output for alternative printing

I’ve never made a secret of my frustration with digital negatives. Yet, they also appeal to me, for the obvious reasons of consistency and as a crucial means to marry digital imagery with analog/alternative printmaking. For something like color carbon, I consider digital negatives the only feasible way to go – but man, are they fickle. In this blog, I’m going to try and list the options, although frankly, I have no solution yet that I feel comfortable with. Maybe getting it off my chest and structuring the whole thing will help some.

Full bloom – DAS carbon starting to come together

I’ll probably jinx it by saying this, but…I have a feeling my DAS carbon printing workflow is really starting to get somewhere. Maybe I should take a moment to reflect on some of the key lessons learned. Perhaps even muse a little on what’s next, too…

Extend your d… – Chromium intensifier for silver gelatin negatives

Despite the relative silence on my blog, I have been printing regularly lately, with carbon transfer absorbing most of my lab hours. My printing currently revolves entirely around silver gelatin negatives. Given the relatively inflexible contrast that carbon transfer allows, this means I’ve had to be a little creative sometimes in making my negatives work for the printing process. One of the tricks I use a lot is chromium intensifier. Slightly nasty – but very, very effective.

Ogling curves – Comparing salted paper, Van Dyke and DAS carbon

Earlier today I posted a blog with analysis of curves and especially hues of salted paper prints. I mentioned a comparison of curve shapes with some other processes as well, and since that’s fairly easy to do, I thought I could follow up on it right away. In this brief blog, let’s have a look at the H/D curves of salted paper, Van Dyke and DAS carbon.

Striking gold – An attempt at carbon transfer orotones

A few weeks ago I was at Unseen Amsterdam, where I saw many gorgeous works. One of the things standing out to me was a series of orotones by Naohiro Ninomiya. Drop dead gorgeous! Partly because of the orotone process, but to be frank, to a large extent due to the minimalistic, contemplative compositions that worked very well as presented at Unseen, in a collage of small images. Well, at least, I could try my hand at this orotone thing, couldn’t I?

Getting organizized – A database for carbon transfer tissues

When it comes to workplace organization, I’m pretty schizophrenic. My desk is generally a mess, and open any cupboard in my darkroom only to find its contents in disarray. On the other hand, I can get carried away trying to properly organize things – to the point of being ridiculous! This blog is about the latter: a database system for keeping track of carbon tissue variants.

Rolling – Gearing up DAS carbon printing

Yeah, I’ve been silent on my blog. In case you’re wondering: no, I haven’t given up on anything, given my recent struggles with DAS carbon. In fact, quite the opposite! Since figuring out (at least as far as I can tell, for now) the process limits, I’ve been shifting into gear with monochrome DAS carbon and it’s been going remarkably smoothly. “I Ate’nt Dead“, as Granny Weatherwax used to write!

Ready, set, go – Stuff you need to get started with carbon transfer

This post is in answer to a question from Esmee (check out her work via https://www.eamy.nl/). Since others might somehow benefit from it as well, I might as well just put it up for everyone to see. So here’s a little shopping list of what’s needed to get started with carbon transfer using DAS sensitizer.

A ‘contrast ceiling’ of DAS carbon with continuous tone negatives

Previously, I have written about my attempts to make DAS carbon work well for continuous-tone negatives. The main challenge is highlight rendition, with flaking problems destroying delicate highlights. After testing many factors, I think the only conclusion left is that there is a limit to what DAS can do. Moreover, this limit is different (and more, well, limiting) than with dichromate carbon transfer.

Aching, flaking – A persistent problem with carbon DAS highlights

The problem that just won’t go away: disappearing highlights on DAS carbon prints. Twice so far I’ve declared this problem solved on my blog, only to have to revoke my ‘eureka’ shortly afterwards. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been systematically testing the process to find a cure. So far, to very little avail, I’m afraid. But perhaps that this writeup will (1) help me re-think the problem and (2) it’ll give some hints to anyone else struggling with DAS carbon problems by listing factors that can/should be evaluated.