Thanks. Glad you liked the cards.

The square format one was an enlargement from a 6x6 neg made with a 4-blade easel and the other is a 4x5" contact print. The Ilford cardstock is perfect for 4x5" contact prints, if you shoot 4x5", but enlargements are a little quicker to make in large batches unless you have one of those production contact printers with the bulbs and the platen.

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do what ever you want! I did tone mine, but not for archival purposes... I prefered the image toned. I imagine someone will send a inkjet one day as well.

I don't think of postcards as terribly archival, so I don't tone them for permanence. I also find that Ilford papers are rather resistant to color changes. What do you find they tone well in?

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Aggie, maybe your not adding the toner chems to the toner water!!! http://apug.org/forum/html/emoticons/wink.gif

When you get my postcard (can't be too far away!) I did the following to it (they're the Ilford RC Portfolio postcard stock).

1 min pre-wet (not much agitation)
6mins in Agfa Viradon (at manuafacturers recommend dilution.. pretty high dilution BTW)
4-5 min wash

I experimented with the time in the toner and there really wasn't much difference between 3mins and the 6mins I used.

I also tried some with a bleach step (before the toner) and even 1 minute in that (the Kodak Bleach from the Sepia pkt) had a dramatic effect on the final tone after going thru the Viradon. The 1st one ended up a deep chocolate brown, but the difference between that and a Sepia was the whites seemed to be less effected then I remember with Sepia (didn't do one in Sepia as the pkt I had spoiled... must have been on the shelf with some X-Tol!)

Will be interested to hear what you think of the tone of my postcard.

Thanks David,
Got your postcards up here in the Great White North! Love them both.
I like the derelict subject matter in 'Motel' , and the 'View' somehow looks vintage 1940's. Just curious, was 'Motel' taken with a modern lens, and 'View' taken with an older lens?
I got to get myself into the dark - now that work has eased up for a spell, I'll be able to. Going to get the paper this weekend.

Frank
in Canada, eh?

Thanks, Frank. The motel was with a 168mm/6.8 Ser. III Dagor on 4x5", uncoated, dating to 1910. The view was with a snappy modern single coated Voigtlander Color-Skopar (Tessar type), circa 1956, the fixed lens on a Voiglander Perkeo II 6x6.

Well there you go, 100% wrong and backwards! It's a good thing though, had I been right, it would have gone right to my head.

I've got one of those Perkeo 2 cameras with Colour Skopar lens, but I've not been happy with the results. Again, once there's time, I'm going to check the focus. I sure hope that's it because it's such a lovely little camera!

Frank

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Frank--On the Perkeo II, check when you open the camera that the lens is snapping into position so that it's really parallel to the film plane. I find that on mine I have to adjust it slightly after opening it for it to click into place. I also use a shoe mount rangefinder for closer shots (though the postcard was at infinity).

I just got Nige's postcard. I like the short DOF and I think the tone works nicely. I usually only tone in selenium for Dmax, but I think this tone works well. The color is similar to Azo in selenium once it's gone just beyond the Dmax point toward purple-brown, but not as purple.

David, thanks for giving your thoughts.

I got yours today too! Such a nice view! Don't know who's postal service has done it, but they came with a barcode of sorts stuck on the image side! I'll probably leave them as is for a authentic 'been posted' look, but could probably soak it off (almost looks like someone has tried scrathing one off but decided it's stuck to well)

Interestingly, the $US 0.60 it cost to send is pretty much spot on the AUD $1 it cost me to send! This is great fun!

Yours has some sort of barcode stamped in ink on the image side. I presume it's UV-luminescent ink, since it's hard to see unless you have it at the right angle to the light. There's also a barcode in black on the other side. I'll have to look for horizontal images with some white space at the bottom where a barcode would look good.

maybe a zebra crossing http://apug.org/forum/html/emoticons/smile.gif

I've seen some of the barcodes you describe on ones I've sent to relatives as invitations (they stick them on their fridge!). Guess it all adds to the effect! That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

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Great cards, folks! Have received David's and Nige's so far, looking forward to more.

Will have to rig up temporary darkroom this weekend - or get preprinted watercolour paper and make salt prints http://apug.org/forum/html/emoticons/smile.gif

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Can you tell us where he ordered the stamp? That would be a great thing to have, but I can't find one at any rubber stamp company anywhere.

Hey everyone,
It is not actually a stamp, it is a pack of stickers with the postcard information on it that you peel and stick on the back of any photo paper you want. I got them from B&H. But now that you mention it Aggie, I would bet that a place like Kinkos could make you a custom rubber stamp with postcard information on it.
By the way, if any of you get a postcard with "weeds" written on the back, those are from me. I was trying to hurry and get my first batch out before I went on a trip, and forgot to write who it was from... duh:) Anyway I will write on the next batch. Take care.
Scott

LOL, I was wondering who that one was from! I promise to print mine soon! David, I only got one of yours http://apug.org/forum/html/emoticons/sad.gif

Well, in case the other doesn't show up, here's number 1--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/grant.jpg ('http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/grant.jpg')

and here's number 2--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/blacktie.jpg ('http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/blacktie.jpg')

I did it! I just finished printing up 2 postcards (each) and will be mailing them tomorrow. This is kind of exciting.
Frank

Nice one, Scott! I didn't know that they made the postcard stock in glossy.

I just got out of the darkroom with my first set of cards. they'll be mailed out tomorrow morning. Nothing spectacular, but I'll add a fun story about what happened when I took the shot...