Re: [Leica] Drydown

["Mike Durling" <durling@widomaker.com>]

I tried reducing my lighting over the fixer tray, but it didn't help much.
I didn't allow for pupil dialation, but used a foot-candle meter to reduce
the level to that of my standard viewing place.  Watching the prints during
the process there was clearly an increase in highlight detail after the
fixing.  I haven't tried squegeeing which others have suggested but will do
so in my next session.
- -----Original Message-----
From: Disfromage@aol.com <Disfromage@aol.com>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Friday, December 31, 1999 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Drydown


>
>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
>