Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/31

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Drydown
From: Disfromage@aol.com
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 13:24:25 EST

In a message dated 12/31/1999 11:19:01 AM, you wrote:

<<No clue why it happens, but it seems to.  Somewhere recently I read that
drydown was a bunch of hogwash; it had more to do with surface reflection
or something like that and the prink didn't actually darken.>>

The most useful way I learned to deal with alleged drydown was from Bruce 
Barnbaum's book " The Art of Photography".  His theory is that there is no 
such thing as drydown, but that the phenomenon is simply the fact that your 
inspection light is too bright.  When you are printing under a safelight, 
your pupils are dilated and when you turn on a white inspection light, it 
takes a while for your eyes to adjust.  If your prints consistently dry too 
dark, reduce the wattage of your inspection light until the dried prints look 
like the wet ones.  After viewing the squeegeed (squeegeeing is very 
important!) print under a dim light for a few minutes, it's okay to turn on a 
brighter light.  Following his advice worked for me.

Richard Wasserman