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  #11  
Old 8th March 2021, 05:01 PM
Faraz Faraz is offline
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Thanks Nat

I'm using a diffuser which definitely helps over the condensor I was using.

The wine gum method is fascinating! The other possibility is to use special calligraphy ink made from charcoal and gum arabic. I have some somewhere and may try it.

btw. I have tried a few kolinsky sable brushes but now only use Windsor & Newton Royal Series 7 - nothing else comes close
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  #12  
Old 8th March 2021, 05:44 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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Winsor and Newton Series 7 are the Rolls Royce of water colour brushes.
Expensive, but if looked after will last for years. I have a few over thirty years old and still going strong.

Cheers.
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  #13  
Old 9th March 2021, 12:25 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nat Polton View Post
Winsor and Newton Series 7 are the Rolls Royce of water colour brushes.
Expensive, but if looked after will last for years.
The cost of my brushes varied but looking up the above on ebay.... Wow!!! They are costly, but as the two of you say, they're worth it, especially if they last a long time if looked after.

I'll put them on my wish list for now.

Terry S
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  #14  
Old 9th March 2021, 06:15 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Too dark spotting

I would urge caution about using any abrasive at all on the surface of the print. The dye used will have penetrated into the emulsion and to eradicate it, or even merely reduce it, will leave a mark which is possibly worse than the spot that is too dark.

I would try on another waste print where you to see if it can be reduced by using dilute household bleach applied by a spotting brush. It will not happen straight away but that may reduce or even eliminate the darker tone. It should not affect the image nearby.

Once the offending mark is reduced, you can then carefully re-spot it but using a more dilute dye than before.
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  #15  
Old 11th March 2021, 04:30 PM
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Martin Aislabie Martin Aislabie is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry S View Post
Uwe, I've mentioned it before, but I've tried all sorts of things when spotting. As for the Spotone inks, I have the 6 bottle kit and for basic b/w prints, I just can't get a shade to match my (mainly) Ilford papers. Even the neutral black ink, when diluted and left to dry before use, comes out as a shade of dark blue on a print and the recommended mixes that come with the inks never seem to produce the right colour or tone.

Terry S
You often need to take your bottles of Spotone and mix the colours together to get just the right shade of black.

Scrap prints are a must for trying out whether you have the exact colour match or not.

I'm never sure if you really need the exact colour - close enough not to be noticeable is fine.

Spotting can be "fun" when you are in the mood.

I remember years ago spotting some prints for an exhibition - the closer you look the more white spots you found. However, when comparing an unspotted to a spotted print, the spotted print looked much better even though the spots were not clear and obvious.

Martin
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  #16  
Old 11th March 2021, 05:57 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is online now
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Spotone is the best way to go and it's critical to match image colour (warmth) or it's going to be noticeable, You also need to build the colour up slowly, the principle isn't to try and make an exact match rather to reach a point where the spot becomes un-noiceable.

I've one negative where I was shooting udergrapund in an abandonded MAnganese mine and my arm and flash gun show up, I had three others helping me paint the cavern with light



I was around the entrance to the adit to the right, it took me asome time to retouch it wasn't difficult just painstaking. I did it in two step rather than rush it.

Somewhere I have a Johnson's retouching kit with dried out dyes easy to rejuvenate and a set of three different colour blocks of dye for B&W retouching. These thingas appear at Camera Fairs but mine came over 20 years ago in a job lot of darkroom equipment.

The advantage of using these specialist dyes is it's easy to colour match and the results are invisible when done right.

Ian
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  #17  
Old 11th March 2021, 08:46 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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Martin mentioned mixing the colours.
Secondhand Spotone is some times seen on sale without the mixing instructions. Here is a copy of mine.
I had to do it in two images as the paper is unusually large. Larger than A4 at least.

Cheers.
Attached Files
File Type: pdf SPOTONE (top of the page).pdf (1.03 MB, 527 views)
File Type: pdf SPOTONE (bottom of the page).pdf (685.7 KB, 503 views)
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  #18  
Old 7th March 2022, 07:36 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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I was just browsing old posts out of boredom, and thought I could add usefully to this one. The fruit gum trick is intriguing, and I will try it, but I wonder if it is really necessary? This is what I do:

Before using any pigment, I moisten the offending (white) spot with a clean brush that has been dipped in water, touched on the edge of the water vessel, and then wiped once on a piece of ordinary paper. In other words, it's wet but not dripping. I then go through all the motions of retouching, not straying outside the edge of the white spot. The idea is to wet the gelatine emulsion enough to make it expand.

Then I switch attention to another spot for a minute, before returning to use some pigment on the first one. Now that the emulsion is damp, it soaks up the pigment readily, so you should use a shade paler than seems correct, and apply repeatedly. Once the emulsion has dried again, the blemish is invisible.

Another worthwhile tip, which one sees repeated in several places, is to mix the shade of pigment that you want in tiny quantities (2 or 3 brush-fulls) on a white pallette, and leave it to dry for 10 minutes or so. It is then much easier to pull out the strength of tone you need from this dried puddle, using a wetted brush. Never wash the palette. It's incredibly economical used this way.
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  #19  
Old 7th March 2022, 09:23 PM
John King John King is offline
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I only rarely have to do any spotting, perhaps I am fortunate but my negs always seem to keep more or less dust and scratch free. I do not use normal spotting dyes but I bought a cheap 5 colour cartridge intended for an Epson inkjet printer. I use a lab type of syringe to extract what I need. The inks are so concentrated you can really be a skinflint because they last for years.

The black is exactly that . jet black, but if the dye is diluted and allowed to dry on the edge of a white saucer you can use a '000' brush tip to gradually tone the emulsion to the shade you want.

I find it helpful to dampen the emulsion and let it almost dry out before attempting to spot the mark. I also find a desk magnifying glass on a stand to make sure you keep the dye where you need it, but most of all a bright daylight quality bulb in something like an 'Angle-poise' lamp. I use a 7000 degree kelvin LED bulb to help get the right tone. a 3500 degree Kelvin bulb of whatever type of bulb just isn't bright enough.

If you are trying to spot a hair mark, I have found you do not need to spot the whole line but break it up into smaller sections, it is all down to a line at first being very noticeable, but a series of small sections of line can go un-noticed. It is a case of using camouflage to hide the blemish.
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  #20  
Old 8th March 2022, 05:05 AM
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Uwe Pilz Uwe Pilz is offline
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> is to mix the shade of pigment that you want in tiny quantities (2 or 3 brush-fulls) on a white pallette

I prepare a piece of porcellaine (dolly dishes for children) with spotone. I may take the color from there and mix it there. And you get darker tonrs which you cannot get with the color from the bottle directly.

I always use neutral black. I have onyl tiny spots (if spots at all) and there is no difference to warmer or cooler hues.
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