[Marco B]

Hi Ian,

I have been reading your's and Scott's article about Pt/Pd printing with much interest. Thanks for writing. However, both articles raised a few simple questions that I hope you or Scott are able to answer:

- Although it's not specifically mentioned in either of these articles, since the Pt/Pd process is mostly UV sensitive, am I right that you can, and do, coat and work under normal light conditions (so not save light but a normal light bulb)?
- And how big is the risk of fogging paper, for example through an (open) window by strong (UV rich) sun light?
- What development times can be expected / are roughly necessary if I want to try developing under sunlight conditions / outside? (I realise this is very much depended on all kinds of variables, like weather, season, and position on the globe)
- Is it practical at all, to use sunlight?
- How long can all of the chemicals be kept? Considering the high price, it would be a major waist of money have to throw away Pt/Pd chemicals, because I have not used them up in time. Can they be kept for months on end in their original concentrated form? And working solutions?
- And lastly: how about dodging and burning in? Since this is a contact printing process using UV light boxes, I guesse d&b is out of the question? This also implies negatives must be more or less "perfect" in terms of contrast (so no areas requiring major work)?
- On the other hand, since it is contact printing, the printing process itself is likely much more sensitive, and will pick up both highlight and shadow detail that would be lost in silver enlarging printing? Is this right, so there is simply inherently much less need for dodging and burning?

Thanks for any info!

Marco