Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "John Castronovo" <jc@...> wrote:
>
> Which of course begs the question whether or not traditional silver halide 
> paper exposed with an enlarger and hand tray developed would fare much 
> better than this new short exposure digital paper which was probably rapidly 
> processed in a machine.

The OBA content is responsible for these results not the fact that the paper was sensitized for the spectral output of the laser and for high intensity short exposure times. These prints were  indeed machined processed to begin with for develop, rinse, and fix, but then given additional tray processing for those that were toned, plus extended washing by tray or "archival" wash unit for all samples. 

As long as a B&W silver halide paper contains OBAs (and many have for over five decades now), the delicate initial hue and chroma of the image depends on a hybrid system where the image bearing particles may be exceptionally stable but the OBA dyes contributing to the color of the white paper, image highlights, and even mid tones are much more fugitive. 

The surprise for me personally was that the swellable polymer coating (i.e, the photographic gelatin) did not appreciably seem to protect the OBAs from fading in either of these paper types any more than we see for many microporous  inkjet media. This should be the "take home" message for any collectors, curators, conservators,etc. who want to preserve the artist's original work in pristine condition for as long as possible. If the paper has moderate or high OBA content, one needs to regard the print as not very lightfast even when the image forming materials themselves are highly fade resistant, e.g. pure carbon pigment, sepia toned silver particles, etc.

cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com