Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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