Digital BW, The Print

Hi Paul,

I've been working on various coating techniques for a long time and
have mastered some aspects of it. The objective is to achieve the best
look with less concern on longevity. But the irony is in the process I
have come to appreciate the un-coated look and feel of the matte
print.

I have tried various fixatives including Lascaux, Sennlier Latour and
Delacroix. They all reduce your dmax somewhat. Lascaux may be the
best. But like you said the fixative hardly helps reduce scuffing. To
really reduce scuffing you'd have to apply a full liquid coating ...
sort of liquid lamination, but this may be disastrous in terms of both
time and personal taste.

As I said earlier I have really grown to appreciate the uncoated matte
print after experimenting with coatings for a couple years. Now the
question for me has become: how do I reduce both surface scuffing and
flaking. Most of my prints are intended to be touched by viewers so
finding a solution to this problem is critical.

I love the Hahnemuhle William Turner paper but it flakes like crazy.
All the Lascaux does to it is reduce dmax. Last night I tried
something I never tried before: I actually sanded down the paper's
coating using very fine grained sandpaper before printing. Sofar so
good. I've been handling the paper for a while now, including
shuffling it in a stack, and no scuffing or flaking whatsoever. I may
have lost a bit of dmax by sanding but this is nothing compared to any
coating no matter how light.

I think my next experiment will be on finding the best way to prepare
the matte surface before printing.

--nick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark"
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:

> I'm going to test Sennelier Latour spray also.  Some seem to like
it 
> better than Lascaux.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com