Digital BW, The Print

At 12:28 PM -0700 4/13/02, Martin Wesley wrote:
>Paul,
>
>
>...The Golden coatings Robert and I tried were the water based 
>acrylic vanishes
>and so the odor is low and the cure times shorter. Robert and Mark tried the
>Golden solvent base varnishes and found them difficult to work with in part
>due to the long dry time.
>
>...I have seen heavily varnished albumen prints from the 1870's and 
>the varnish appeared to be in very good condition. The overall 
>effect of the print was rather yellow and may in part be the result 
>of the varnish yellowing. None
>of the materials available at that time for varnishing come close to the
>quality of things like the Golden acrylics so keep that in mind.

Martin,

I have used my own custom mixes of acrylic varnishes and mediums, 
sprayed on with a high quality automotive paint gun.  Additionally, I 
have had some success with the product Deft, Satin Finish, which is 
solvent based.  The latter works better with thin materials as they 
don't tend to wrinkle as much as you might get using water base. 
However, if careful with the water base and spray very light coats 
you usually can avoid wrinkling...,but, I prefer using thick stock 
with the acrylic.

While I have not tested this scientifically, I feel that this spray 
process encapsulates the photo and protects it from the elements.  In 
recent years I have been mounting photos without using glazing.  I 
hate the reflections. This is what got me started using spray 
coatings. I always shoot for a matte / semi-matte finish, but you can 
alter the degree of gloss depending on the mix.

Bill
-- 

b i l l  a g e e  s t u d i o
c a p i s t r a n o  b e a c h  c a l i f o r n i a

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http://www.redsilver.com