Digital BW, The Print

>
>   Is there any way that you could get a silver print of a test wedge and
> fade
>   it side by side with a piezo or MIS test wedge that you consider to be the
>   most stable combination?
>   [Paul Roark]
>
>   I did chop up a toned silver print that had about a 50% gray.  My brief
> test indicated virtually no changes.  So, I didn't run a full and visually
> comparable test.  However, my depressing conclusion is that we are not in
> the same class with the toned silver print at all.  Not close. :(
>
>   The best news I have heard along these lines is that with RC paper the
> inkjets did better -- they didn't peel the way the RC emulsion did.  So,
> maybe our inkjets are at least in the RC class.  Some claim we're better,
> but that is probably comparing to the RC prints that have developer
> incorporated in them.
>
>   Paul

Your experience of the non fading of the silver print fits with what I would expect.   As I understand it, the
silver image is made by light refracting off (through?) the silver grains on the paper.  The only way the
silver 'fades' (assuming proper processing) is through oxidation....Which is why we were supposed to selenium
tone* the prints.  The selenium was supposed to 'polish' the silver (which is why the blacks get deeper), and
bind to the surface of the silver to prevent it from reacting with the air, and thereby preventing 'oxidation'
of the silver particles.

When I last checked into that whole thing (now about 10 years ago) there was some concern that there was a
misinterpretation of the *original* tests done with selenium and silver (in the 1930s?).  The process was
being reexamined because a lot of microfilm that was heavily selenium toned for archival permanence (I think
by the Library of Congress) was proving to be just the opposite.  The last thing I remember was that there was
some impurity in the water used in the original tests that actually caused the stability, and not the
selenium.

As I said, this was a decade ago, and I have not kept up with the research....But I find it pretty humorous in
light of the stability issues in today's inkjet world.

I guess what I'm saying is that one never really knows what's going to happen to our 'stuff', but that we
should do the best we can with what we have to go on.

Harvey Ferdschneider
partner, SKID Photography, NYC



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