|
Albumen prints outnumber any other type of photographic positive made during the nineteenth century. They have a sepia color and slightly glossy surface. Thin sheets of paper were first coated with egg white and salt, then floated on silver nitrate to make them sensitive to light. The image is created by printing under a negative in sunlight. The finished picture is fixed, washed, and often gold toned before mounting. Invented by Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard of France in 1850 (source: photography-museum.com)
A c-type print is a colour print in which the print material has at least three emulsion layers of light sensitive silver salts. Each layer is sensitised to a different primary colour - either red, blue or green - and so records different information about the colour make-up of the image. During printing, chemicals are added which form dyes of the appropriate colour in the emulsion layers. Colour negative film is developed using a process named by Kodak as C41, and this is possibly the origin of the name. It is the most common type of colour photograph; a standard color print made from a colour negative, either by hand printing or machine printing. (source: V & A museum)
Digital images are created using a gridded mosaic of light sensitive picture elements, called pixels, embedded on a computer chip. The pixels emit electrical signals in proportion to the amount of light they receive and these signals are converted to numbers and then stored electromagnetically - in a computer or on a disc, for example. Digital images can be manipulated and altered by computer and regenerated in many ways: on computer or television screens, on film, printed or projected. The technology for producing digital images is evolving rapidly with new possibilities constantly emerging. (source: V & A museum)
Giclée print is the 'gallery term' for inkjet prints. Inkjet printing covers a very wide range of printer types, ink compositions and papers, including several that our own photographers use; for example, LED photo printers, Archival printers. These are works of art on fine paper printed on high quality printers.
The first high quality inkjet prints available were from expensive 'Iris' printers, and high quality prints are normally made on 100% cotton hand made or mould-made watercolor papers. Prints made on these printers are sometimes designated 'Iris Giclée'. With high quality ink jet prints now available from other systems, including Epson's pigment and other archival inks as well as the unique carbon inks used in Cone Editions 'PiezographyBW' system, there is much interest in new terms to use to describe high quality ink jet prints. (source: photography.about.com)
A Lightjet photograph is an actual photographic print exposed by the Lightjet 430 laser printer. The printer reads the information in a digital file, then uses lasers to expose the image onto Fuji Crystal Archive paper. This paper has been tested to be more archival than other popular color printing methods (lasting over 60 years without noticeable fading in controlled conditions), including Ilfochrome printing. Unlike inkjet prints, which lay ink on paper, Lightjet prints are made on light-sensitive photo paper, which is exposed with red, green and blue lasers. (source: expertphoto.com)
Pigment print is a general term for any kind of print which uses a pigment to produce the image, including gum, Fresson, carbon and carbro. Pigment prints are usually made using fairly stable pigments and thus should last well.
Probably inkjet prints produced using pigment inks would not normally be included in this, although some also have long lifetimes. (source: photography.about.com)
Platinum prints are one of the family of processes based on the light sensitivity of iron(III) (ferric) salts. In the presence of organic material such as oxalate ions, these are reduced using energy from light to give iron(II) compounds. These then react with platinum salts to produce platinum metal. The iron salts are then removed leaving a stable platinum image. Platinum printing is slow and requires a UV light source and large negatives as all exposure is contact printing.
Platinum printing was patented by W. Willis in 1873 and materials were available commercially for many years. Increases in the price of platinum around 1910-20 led to a rapid reduction in their availability and use, although production did not finally cease in the UK until 1941. A few photographers continue to print in platinum, making their own papers, but most use other materials. A revival of interest, using hand coated papers, began in the 1970s, and at least one platinum paper was commercially produced from 1998 until around 2000. (source: photography.about.com)
An R-type is a direct reversal print made from a color transparency using a colour paper incorporating color couplers. The paper is exposed and then first developed in a black and white developer, before being exposed to light (or chemically fogged) so that the remaining silver halide can then be developed in a colour developer, at which stage the colour couplers form dyes.
More commonly the alternative Ilfochrome process is used for prints from transparencies, or a negative (an inter-negative) is made from the transparency from which a print can be made using the normal RA4 color paper - a C-type. Starting from 35mm transparency, using a larger format interneg generally gives the best results, though not the cheapest.
More recently, the use of high quality scans followed by output onto C-type photographic paper through a laser or LED printer, or using a high quality inkjet onto suitable paper (or other digital printing technologies) has begun to make these technologies obselete. (source: photography.about.com)
Silver Gelatin prints are the most usual means of making black and white prints from negatives. They are papers coated with a layer of gelatin which contains light sensitive silver salts. They were developed in the 1870's and by 1895 had generally replaced albumen prints because they were more stable, did not turn yellow and were simpler to produce. Gelatin silver prints remain the standard black and white print type. (source: V & A museum). |
