Frequently Asked Questions
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You mention warm-tone paper, what does warm-tone mean?
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The whiteness of the paper varies and is referred to as
tone. Warm tones are more red/orange, and cold tones are
closer to blue. The images below were printed using very
similar exposures on two different papers. The image on
the left was printed on a Kodak paper with a neutral to
cool toned white. The image on the right was printed on
Foma warm tone paper. Notice how the whites are
different. The Foma paper is warm toned and the whites
are creamier. The neutral to cool Kodak paper has a
colder look. You can click on either for a bigger version.
Cool whites
Warm whites
Cool w/ Selenium
Warm w/ Selenium
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Ok, I see the difference, but what about this selenium toner?
- The printed image can be treated with a
selenium toner. Selenium reacts with the silver that
forms the image creating a silver-selenium complex. The
end result is that the silver-selenium complex is
impervious to oxidation meaning the tones will not change
for at least 100 years. Untreated prints can oxidize, so
with time the dark tones may become lighter.
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The second change that will occur after treatment with
selenium toner is slight change in color. The formerly
neutral grays become slightly darker and purple. The
extent to which the color changes can be controlled by
changing the dilution of the toning bath, but the
protective benefit from toning remains constant.
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These images of a pulley are scanned 6x9 prints on Kodak
and Foma papers (as shown above) after being treated with
a dilute selenium toning bath. The change in color is on
the mild end of the spectrum.
I didn't attempt to digitally remaster these images
because my monitor is probably calibrated differently than your monitor.
These are unedited scans of actual 6x9 prints using a flat bed scanner.
In real life the differences may be more pronounced, but I decided to
show unedited scans as the fairest comparison.
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What is meant by 'silver gelatin'?
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Traditional black and white prints are made of paper and
a photographic emulsion. The emulsion is mostly gelatin,
like jello, with light-reactive silver particles
dispersed within it. The silver reacts with light and is
then treated with chemicals (and maybe toners) during
processing to form the image inside this thin gelatin
layer on the surface of the paper.
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The finished print has real depth to it because the
toned silver particles are inside the layer of gelatin
not just at the surface. If you hold a nice glossy
silver gelatin print up to a strong light you can
literally see the silver reflecting light.
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What is that black border around the edge of your images?
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It depends which images you mean. Except for the scanned prints
on this page, all of the digital images on my site are scanned
negatives. The negative scanner records the whole image on the
film and a little extra around the edges of the image. The
black border shows the true edge of the image.
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Similarly, my printed images include a black border. This also
shows the edge of the image. Notice how for different prints the
border may vary slightly: click the pulley images above to see.
I do this to show that I did my cropping before I took the
picture. The image I intended to take fills the entire frame.
Sometimes when taking a picture I accidentally include something
that should not be in the finished image. The easy fix is to
crop it out (zoom in until the extra piece is off the page). See
the example below. My finished prints are almost exclusively
photos that were entirely intentional, and I print the entire
frame, including a thin border at the edge of the image, to prove
it.
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Why are silver gelatin prints more expensive
than 'regular' prints?
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The short answer is time, but here are some specific
reasons to clarify.
- A 'regular' print is not very different
from printing a photo on your home printer. The printer and paper are
usually more expensive than what you would normally use at home, but ink
is applied to the surface of the paper by a machine and allowed to dry.
Done. That's it. If you want more copies, just click the box in the
print dialog to indicate the number of copies you want and presto you
have 10,20, or 100 replicates of the same image. Any changes to the image
are made from the comfort of the computer operator's chair and will be
reflected in every subsequent print.
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A traditionally crafted black and white photograph
requires a different process. The image on the film negative is
projected onto a piece of photo paper. The paper is then developed,
fixed, and washed in a series of chemical baths. To tone the print an
addition series are baths are required. Areas of the print can be
selectively lightened or darkened using 'dodging' and 'burning' which
means blocking the light from hitting the photo paper or adding extra
exposure by hand. Simply exposing the paper may take five minutes for
each print and the chemical processing of each print takes about an
hour.
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Because there are so many steps involved in making a single
print and that each step is done by hand, there is no such thing
as an exact replicate of any print even if it was my intention.
Unlike a digitally printed image which can be 'dodged' and
'burned', or otherwise manipulated once, these steps must be
done as part of the process of creating each print. The print
itself is a handcrafted piece of art.
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Each of my finished original 100% hand-crafted silver
gelatin prints are the culmination of a series of
expertly executed deliberate steps to achieve the finished image
I had in mind. It takes much longer to make a traditional print
and there is no 'undo' button if I make a mistake. The prints
have depth and will last 100 years or more.