Azo like emulsion in several grades

[Photo Engineer]

P.E.

1) this is fascinating; and
2) where did you get the picture of my Dad in his late 20s (maybe it's the "Kodak look").

Matt

Matt;

It is my uncle who went to Brooks and who got me into photography.

PE

[Photo Engineer]

Guys;

It can be done. The emulsion takes about 1 hour to make with 4 ingredients including distilled water. The final melted emulsion adds up to 2 more ingredients depending on contrast, plus hardener and surfactant. The emulsion keeps for 6 months in the refrigerator if you add Thymol as a preservative. The coatings have kept for weeks.

This is doable by anyone. It uses methods from the 40s.

PE

[juan]

Does your emulsion have the 3-D look that I was able to get from Azo? I have an Azo print hanging in my office. I bring in prints I've made on other papers to look at them in average room light, but the Azo print hangs on the wall and mocks the other papers' lack of 3-D.

Thanks for all your hard work.
juan

[avandesande]

Nice work PE. I would interested in seeing how the baryarta prints look...

[Jim Noel]

WONDERFUL!

I wish I could get to Montana to take your workshop this summer, but I am already scheduled somewhere else that week. Do yu plan to publish your work in some form? I believe many of us would willingly purchase the information.

Jim

[Photo Engineer]

Does your emulsion have the 3-D look that I was able to get from Azo? I have an Azo print hanging in my office. I bring in prints I've made on other papers to look at them in average room light, but the Azo print hangs on the wall and mocks the other papers' lack of 3-D.

Thanks for all your hard work.
juan

Juan, you would have to get the opinion of some experts in Azo. I doubt it though as I cannot get the Azo paper support.

PE

[Photo Engineer]

I plan on publishing all of the work. I have some problems facing me.

1. I need one more grade of enlarging paper. I can only get grades from 0 - 2. I cannot get a grade 3.

2. I cannot get a repeatable film emulsion. It varies in fog and contrast and that is probably due to the ammonia digest. There are ways around this, but so far my attempts have failed. I also need more speed. I'm working on a high iodide emulsion at the present time which does not use ammonia.

3. I'm tweaking the Azo formula to improve results.

4. I'm tweaking surfactant to reduce coating defects. So far, it can run as high as 50% on baryta and watercolor, but I want less than 10% which is what I get on the Strathmore Smooth. My average on baryta with a custom formula is about 90% good stuff, and the same with watercolor, but I don't want to have a formula for every paper support.

Thats about it.

PE

[Photo Engineer]

Nice work PE. I would interested in seeing how the baryarta prints look...

I have one ready now.

If you look closely, you will see the minute dots and imperfections typical of quite a few baryta coatings. I have a very good enlarging paper example, but this one is good because it is the soft grade emulsion, but on baryta.

This paper will require a slight modification to the coating formula to optimize the result.

The benefit is greater sharpness and a bit more percieved contrast due to the whiter support.

PE

[Photo Engineer]

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

Please, I am not looking for kudos, but rather I'm trying to prove that analog photography is not dead and you can do it yourself.

PE

[Petzi]

I have coated it on 4 types of paper. Strathmore Smooth, Vellum, Watercolor and Glossy Baryta. Difficulty increases in the order given, but sharpness is in the order Watercolor, Vellum, Smooth, Baryta in increasing order.

With your "blade" coating method, how do you achieve even coating of the textured surface?