
Here's method of transfer printing which works
infallibly. You can use a Daylab Junior slide
copier which sell for about $125.00
Set both the magenta and yellow
filters of the slide copier to about +25, blue to zero
With a normally
exposed slide set the lighten/darken control to approximately the + mark and
flash the film twice. A darker slide may require three or more flashes with
the control set all the way clockwise, and an underexposed slide may only
require one flash.
Peel the film, after about a 10 second delay. I THINK that the contrast and
color of the image is improved if this step is done in VERY subdued light. . .
like near-darkness. It seemed to me that the whole image had more of a dark
cast when I allowed light of my desk lamp to fall directly on the film. I
didn't do any controlled experiments to establish this for sure, but it's
something to experiment with.
Lay dry D'arches Aquarelle hot press
paper on a 9x12 sheet of 1/4" acrylic plastic and place the film on it, also
as described in Dupre's material.
Rub the back of the film completely
with the back of a soup spoon using medium pressure (not so hard it makes your
wrist tired). First cover left to right in a scanning pattern from top to
bottom, then turn the acrylic 90 degrees and repeat. Be sure to go around the
edges with the spoon.
Let the film rest for about 90 seconds and then
run very hot tap water (about 160 degrees F) over the back of the film for
20-30 seconds. Flip the paper and film over and run the hot tap water over the
paper side for about a minute, rubbing over the paper completely with the back
of the soup spoon until it becomes completely translucent- with few or no
streaks of white where the paper has not been completely wetted.
Turn
the film and paper back over and peel the film off, but allowing a
trickle of hot water to run over the surface of the image as you peel. By the
way, if you aren't gentle while flipping the paper back over, it may peel
right off the film as you try to lift it. . . but when this has happened, the
image was unaffected.
Use a soft plastic spatuala to gently clean the
brown developer paste from the image. The spatula I used is a light blue high
temperature type (supposed not to melt even at 400 degrees oven temperature)
which has a slightly rounded edge and is softer than the run-of-the-mill
spatuala/scrapers of white rubber you normally find around the kitchen. I had
no trouble with emulsion damage using this spatula, even when scraping harder
than usual to get off impacted developer goo.
I did use hot distilled
water the first few times I tried this, but found it a relatively expensive
nuisance, so just used tap water (from a well) since ours is very hot. I can
see no discernable difference in the results obtained, although there may be
long term consequences in archival qualities. For my purposes, this is not of
great importance. I did conventional silver-based photography for years,
mixing all chemicals and washing prints in well-water. I've seen no yellowing,
fading or other problems in these prints after 30 years, so I'll hope the
Polaroid process is no more tender in this regard than is silver-based
monochrome photography.
I experimented with a couple other types of
paper. The D'arches was clearly better- partially because of it stands up to
abuse well, and partially because of the sizing, I suspect. But I did get
reasonably good results using this modified technique with less expensiver
papers. Wetting the back of the paper thoroughly and burnishing with the spoon
seems to eliminate any tendency of the D'arches paper to separate, but still
provides quite a sharp image.
PS Someone told me that soaking
the print in a very weak vinegar solution may help strip off the brownish
developing goo. I haven't experimented with this, but it's worth trying.
However, when paying a dollar a sheet for fine, acid-free water color paper,
it stands to reason that dipping it in acid may be counterproductive in the
long term.
Here's the scoop on the
transfer
process.
There's also a booklet available: Professional Guide to
Image Transfer Polaroid films: Any peel apart color material no SX-70's and
no B/W or Time Zero.
Substrates: Hot press watercolor paper, Cold press
watercolor paper, Rice paper Other (wood, leather, cotton, silk)
1.
Prep the watercolor paper or surface you'll make the transfer onto. Soak
paper's in distilled water that's warm to the touch.
Some folks use a bit
of photo flo in the water and other's use sodium bicarbonate to raise the pH.
Wet materials work better
than dry one's. I've had good luck with soaking
rice paper's in room temp. distilled water, blotting it between layers of
paper
towels and then putting it on a small piece of wood, a stage if you
will, that those nasty 'Roid chemicals can touch etc. For some
odd reason
the wood which is about 1/4" thick and 5x7" is just right for the transfers
and handy to pick up and hold under a
light, move around etc. while you're
making a transfer.
2. Make an image on the Polaroid film. This can
either be done with a 4 X 5 or 8 X 10 Polaroid back or by taking a
35mm
slide and making a Polaroid print by using a Vivitar Slide
Printer.
3. Pull the Polaroid through the rollers to pop the chemical
pod and coat the negative. Approximate processing times are 10-15
seconds.
Then peel the Polaroid "print" or receiver sheet from the negative. I'm going
with 10 sec. times for images that have
large amounts of red in them,
longer times for cooler images.
4. Gently put the negative in contact
with the wet paper you've prepped. Roll the top of the neg. with something
akin to an ink
roller for good contact. Some folks use a press, their hands
or a brick for this. Turn the paper & negative over and gently rub
the
back of the paper with your fingers as if pressing out an air bubble. Fastest
transfer time would be around 90 seconds and
the longest times run around
30-40 minutes. The Average transfer time's recommended by Polaroid are 2-5
minutes. Two
minutes is working just great for me.
5. Very slowly
and gently peel the negative off of the paper. Use the tab to pull with and
keep the neg. almost parallel to the
paper. If you're losing blacks or
shadows that's image lifting and you're pulling too fast.
6. Step back
and admire the darn thing! At this point you could send it to a printer for
separations, let it dry and use if for a
display print or add other
elements to the image with pastels, colored pencils, dye's, chalk, oils etc.,
I mean hey... it's a piece of
paper right ?
I saw some very good
results done with a Vivitar slide printer (print size about 3X4), both with
color E-6 materials & PolaPan
B/W and Polachrome self processing 35mm
films. The slide copier also accepts filters so that you can change many
things with
that feature as well. (ie, up the red content since red's don't
transfer all that well) The rep. I talked to on the phone said that he
got
better results with hot press watercolor paper. A cold press paper will have a
texture to it and can be difficult to use when
you're first trying it all
out, but then again the same texture can add another element to your
image.
I've had great luck using rice papers. My local source sells a
*very wide* variety and ships everywhere. You might give 'em a
call and ask
for a catalog. " Dan Smith Inc. " Orders: 800/426.6740 Cust. Service:
800/426.7923
They might have an Oriental Paper Sampler, just ask. These
folks have large sheets of rice paper with leaf's, butterflie's in
them.
The range of papers is amazing, they even carry papyrus. When you're
on the phone with them ask if they know of thier
counterpart in your neck
of the woods. Reason being that you should find a table with paper thats been
"damaged" in transit and
sold at a good discount. A goofed up corner on a
30x42" sheet really doesn't matter all that much for 'Roid transfers if
you're
cutting it up anyway.
I've found a great paper that's about
$7 for a sheet thats around 1 sq. foot in size. So when working with a new
image I use a
cheaper paper, thinner and cut from a larger sheet to make my
proofs on. The thin paper dries out in 30 min., one time when I
was in a
hurry I was nuking the transfers and they looked just fine.
Polaroid
also makes a slide copier that projects a 35mm frame onto an 8 X 10 sheet of
Polaroid film (the Polaprinter). It's a
rather large desktop unit. Of
course you'll also need the desktop processor for the 8 X 10's. The list price
for the Polaprinter is
$1,629.90 (street price under $1K) and the Vivitar
one lists for $160.00 but is available from your local dealer at a
more
reasonable price. ($115-125.00) Or from DAK for about $60.00 The image
transfer process has become so popular that
Polaroid is now selling a
starter kit which consists of a tray, rubber roller and a pack of film. It
lists for $39.34
Talking to the rep. on the hotline I was told that to
keep an image archival you need to either re-photograph it or get
color
separations made. Because there are so many variables in different
stages that everyone uses it's almost impossible for them to
even start
advanced ageing research.i.e. Boston tap water is the best, NYC water is the
best ... ink rollers are best, bricks are
best, long vs. short
times.
Underexpose transparency 1/2 stop for better color saturation and
to avoid contrast
problems.orange & red will transfer to the Polaroid
receiver sheet first, therefore the short process time.soak watercolor
paper,
squeegee it and then give a half an hour to dry. Paper that's too
wet causes bleeding of colors.transfer times of 30 to 90 minutes
depending
on color range in the original and type of paper you're using.loss of blacks
indicates too fast a pull of the negative
from the paper.Myron air dries
the paper which then buckles, he mists it with some water and then puts it
into a hot dry mount
press for about 30 seconds. Then flattens them with a
weight.
Here are ten
good tips for making Polaroid transfer prints.
1. Select a receptor
sheet that will help you get the type of results you want. The tooth of the
paper has a big role in the image
quality.
2. Be careful to
eliminate excess water from the receptor sheet. If the receptor sheet is too
wet, excess developer will remain on
the transferred image, causing the
dyes to liquify and run.
3. As a rule, the sooner you peel the film,
the better the colors. 10 seconds is the optimum development time. Pulling any
sooner
than that the dyes might not have had enough time to begin
migration. Pulling later than that, the migration of dyes will alter
the
color balance of the image. After about ten seconds, the negative has
almost all of the cyan dye, about half of the magenta dye,
and very little
of the yellow dye. This explains why most transfers have a cyan bias. To
correct, use between 10cc and 20cc red
filtration.
4. Press the
negative against the receptor sheet evenly. In areas where the pressure wasn't
applied evenly, the emulsion may
peel awaymore easily.
5. Soft
rollers work better than rough ones.
6. When rolling your image, don't
press too hard. IF you use too much pressure, the image will not stick well to
the receptor
sheet. For best results, start at one end and roll smoothly,
with even and moderate pressure.
7. Peel the negative away slowly. This
is to help prevent tearing of the emulsion.
8. Manipulation of colors
is easiest done by using filters during exposure. Watercolors are great for
spotting too.
9. Storage of film should be around 70F with normal
humidity. Adverse conditions can affect transfer capabilities of the
film.
10.Clean camera roller routinely. Shmutz on the rollers will show
up on the transfers. Also, becareful not to scratch the rollers as
the
scratches will show up too.
Some other ideas possible transfer
problems:
Water ph has an effect on transfers. Images do not adhere as
well with water of low ph. For best results, water ph should be
sesven or
higher. When in doubt, use distilled water for consistent results.
Make
sure that you soak the receptor sheet well. After soaking, make sure to
squeegee as much excess water as possible.
Don't wait too long before
placing the negative on the receptor sheet. The dyes will dry out and affect
transfer and adhesion.
After rolling the sandwiched negative and
receptor sheet, wait between 90sec and two minutes before peeling the
negative
away.