Van Dyke Troubleshooting and Resources
Daniel Gregory
Lessons
Class Introduction
03:03 2Overview of the Alternative Process
03:31 3Overview of the Digital Negative Process
10:21 4Working with Black and White Digital: What You Need
09:17 5Working With Black and White Digital Images: Color Settings
08:33 6Working with Black and White Digital Images Lightroom
07:01 7Working With Black and White Digital Images Photoshop
11:57 8Working With Black and White Digital Images 3rd Party Plug-ins
07:29Avoiding Key Artifacts
20:26 10Creating the Step Wedge for Curve Corrections
39:00 11Organizing Your Adobe® Photoshop® Files and Curves
11:20 12Setting Up the Printer
20:24 13Lab Safety and Workspace Set-Up
03:49 14Setting the Maximum Black Time
12:06 15Getting the Initial Curve Test Numbers
20:04 16Correcting the Curve
20:37 17Printing the Curve
06:08 18Sharing Curves
08:50 19Caring for the Digital Negative
12:29 20Intro to Cyanotypes and Safety
07:46 21Paper and Brush Types
05:08 22Coating Process and Cyanotype Chemistry
12:17 23Making the Cyanotype Print
06:41 24Washing the Cyanotype Print
12:29 25Creating Cyanotypes Photograms
14:59 26Toning Cyanotypes and Cleaning Up the Darkroom
18:43 27Introduction to Van Dyke Printing
04:36 28Setting Up the Van Dyke Workstation
05:20 29Van Dyke Paper and Coating
05:10 30Van Dyke Exposure and Developing
32:30 31Van Dyke Troubleshooting and Resources
08:26 32Van Dyke: Split Toning
18:56 33Van Dyke: Wash Cycle and Drying
04:33 34Van Dyke: Clean Up Process
03:51 35Introduction to Platinum / Palladium Printing
14:15 36Platinum/Palladium Coating Chemistry and Safety
09:58 37Platinum/Palladium Paper and Coating Options
22:31 38Platinum/Palladium Exposure and Development
22:31 39Platinum/Palladium: Equipment and Supplies
16:48 40Ink Jet Negative Coating and Exposure
15:25 41Platinum/Palladium Chemistry Options
07:50 42Ink Jet Negative Development
03:45 43Platinum/Palladium Waxing Images
08:40 44Platinum/Palladium Troubleshooting and Resources
27:19 45Sharing Your Work Digitally
14:49 46Archivability
10:39 47Matting and Framing Options
30:22 48Editions and Signing Options
13:54 49Alternative Processes: Further Exploration
07:25Lesson Info
Van Dyke Troubleshooting and Resources
This is a Van Dyke print gone wrong. And I know, somewhere at home, somebody's like, "so that's cool, how do I get that effect?" So, one of the things with these different papers is that they have to be, what's called, they have sizing in them, and what sizing is, a process that allows the chemistry and synethizers to be held on the surface of the paper. Some papers don't come sized. All the papers in the kit and all the papers we've been using are pre sized, so they're able to hold all of that. If you don't have it, you have to put a sizing onto the paper. We normally use a component called a gelatin bloom for that, so we basically dissolve this gelatin into the water, the paper goes in there, the getalin's absorbed into the paper, the paper is then able to be dried, you just hang it to dry, and then it's able to take the chemistry. What happened in this one, it looks like the gelatin didn't fully dissolve completely before the paper went in, so you ended up with these explosions of g...
elatin on the paper. Like I said, you look at this, and you think, "that's cool", and then you have to figure out what you did and what happened, and what was the likely thing that happened, an then you have to figure out how to re-create it so you'd have to at this point then, drop in the gelatin, quickly stick it in to merge the paper, pull it out early, and hope that you get the same effect. You might be able to get something like that by sprinkling salt on your print while it's wet, not in the bath, but outside the bath, it might come close. So that's kind of a weird effect. Don't ever, every throw away this when it happens. So one of the things I've learned over the years, people see this and they're like, and they throw it. On the back, you can see some pretty extensive notes about what happened. How long was it in, what was the developer, what was the paper, what was the UV box number, cause there's multiple components here. Everything that caused this to happen. And the reason for that is, every print you do, you learn from. So that first print you coat, you learn how to use the brush better, and then, a why did the density not work there, and why did that not work there, everything is a learning process, and every process is informative of the other. So, if you saw this and it happened to be dark blue, you'd be like "oh, scena type, I'm using a weird paper, it's never been used before, I had to make the gelatin blue, I have a Van Dyke print that has a very similar problem." If you throw it in the trash, you wouldn't have that, so you would actually lose that component to be able to work with. Tim Redmond calls his bin that he has those in, his learning bin. Yeah, you will learn more from bad things happening than you will from good things. This is a Van Dyke print as well. You see this has got a redder, warmer color. So this paper is a legion folio paper. So just by changing the paper type you would use, you can also change the tint and tone of the image. This is also one of the reasons you'll see a lot of people do a lot of experimentation with these processes when they first get started, because it's not just about that you want to be in historical process, but it's which look of the historical process is appropriate for the work you're creating. Maybe the work works in a sci enic type, but it doesn't work when it's got a brown tint to it, or maybe you want something that's a little more reddish than a little bit more of the traditional red, brown, so picking that paper can make a difference. And then you can also see in this case, because this is testing work we're doing, we've left in that eleven step step wedge. Cause the other thing it allows us to do is see is there a significant difference in the tonal response between the papers. So, in this case, the five percent here actually holds about five percent tone, but the five percent here isn't quite developed, so what that means is we're losing highlight, tonality in detail, and we would need to adjust our tone mapping curve to make that happen. Also, you can see there's a little bit more compression down here in the shadows, so this paper, which is the archest platine, the curve here needed a slight adjustment to make it get the full tonality that this image is getting. The other piece that I recommend is you can see in these test pieces, we've got the same image being used. And this is one of Gina's test images, this is off your iPhone too, right? Not that one, that's one's actually a scanned print that I made a negative of. So a scan of a print, but this I have seen this on her test work probably a thousand times. It's the same image. So the other thing when you're starting to work through these processes and tests, you have the lights. Can we kick that red lights on just for a few minutes? Just to make sure I get that without fogging. That will ruin by half demo for the next one. The same exact image being used over and over and over again, and the reason for that is, you know what that photograph is supposed to look like. And so, the step weight is giving you information about how your curve is working, but if every time you're putting in a different photograph while you're testing your alt processing, you're gonna be like, "well that photograph doesn't look right", well is that because the image needs to be fixed in the computer, is the issue with the printing process, where is the actual issue when I'm looking at this particular photograph? So by using the same image in every one of your tests, you'll be a lot more successful. And I do that, by the way, in my digital testing. When I'm doing digital paper, I have the same sets of photos that get printed digitally because I know what they're supposed to look like, so if they don't look right, it makes the troubleshooting easier, because I'm not trying to figure out are the highlights blowing out or is the shadow blocked up, I know what they should look like. So we can use those various pieces in that process of testing. We mentioned that the organization of being methodical during the digital aspect, but it's also important in your testing for this. The other pieces that's important is you can see the notes on the back there, this one had the most detail, the other one is it's got the arches on wheel, VD brown curve two, green tint, ultra violet box one, all that information is written on the back of the print in pencil. As you're starting to work and learn the processes, I would recommend you write all of that on the print as well. Just like we talked about with the digital negatives and making sure that those were labeled, scyena type, the name of the printer, the name of the ink, the version number, you want this information as well, because when you pull this out, you can quickly look on the back and see what you were using, what the process was, how long it was in the ultra violet box, you'll be amazed at how fast you will forget that your time is five minutes. You don't do Van Dyke for six months, and you'll be like, "Ah, geez, was that three minutes, was that five minutes, where do I even start with that." If you can pull out your prints and you have the notes on the back of the print, it works great. When we talk later today, we're gonna talk about when you get to your final prints, some of the things to write on the back. I still include some of this information on the back of the print. I include that it's got what the paper was, and I include a date, I include certain components which we'll talk about. And the reason for that is, if this print ever got damaged and I needed to re-create it for a collector, or I needed to reprint it because it's number one of an edition, or a museum called and needed information about it because it got damaged in the museum, if they can look at the back and see certain pieces of information, then they're better able to restore the photograph. So, recording things on the back in pencil when you're working in all processing is also a really important part of the process. Daniel, I also keep, when I'm testing especially, I keep a journal, and I keep those notes but I also write down why I changed something so I remember where I was at, and it saves a lot of time, I don't have to do the test over and over and over again.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Diordna
For a long time, I have read, studied and tried alternative processing, mainly Platinum/Palladium printing. I want to create longest lasting prints and may be share the info at Creative Live. But this presentation saved me many a hours. A few minutes into the lecture, I purchased the class and as the class progressed, I was extremely glad. Thank you Creative Live, thank you Daniel Gregory.
SFX
Excellent class on Alt Process and fantastic bonus materials included with purchase!!! I have extensive digital printing and darkroom experience but haven't done much alt-process to date. This is perfect timing for me as I have several personal projects that I would like to re-visit using some of these techniques. Thank you Daniel!!!
James H Johnson
I have been making platinum/palladium prints for about 1 year. This is the 3rd workshop that I have attended. The first two were one on one. Daniel has done a fantastic job of covering the material and explained the process it detail and easy to understand. This course is fantastic and highly recommend it.