Digital Silver Gelatin Print light fastness results

[MHMG]

I've just added ID#s 282 - 289 to the Aardenburg Light fade test results
database.

http://aardenburg-imaging.com/cgi-bin/mrk/_4534c2hvd19kb2NfbGlzdC80

These are samples made on a Durst 51 "Digital Enlarger" outputing to
"traditional Silver gelatin" print media. RC paper versions and Fiber base
versions are in this set. Untoned, selenium toned, and Sepia toned samples are
also in the mix.

A quick result summary: The RC Digital Silver paper has high OBA content, and despite being
embedded in a swellable polymer (photographic gelatin) it burns out as quickly
as any inkjet media I've tested. The Fiber base (FB) version has medium OBA content
and therefore does better than the RC version in test. Nevertheless, no
"best-in-class" performance when compared to good choices of inkjet media and
quality inkjet inks.

Chemical toning improves the results, mainly by leaching some of the OBA content
during extended processing, and in the case of Sepia toner, perhaps adding some
UV/Blue filtering due to the brown toning of the colloidal silver. That the
Aardenburg testing methodology and the I* metric can reveal these subtleties is
something for me to be very proud of, all modesty aside. That the industry
continues to ignore the value of the i* metric is a bewilderment, because a
precise evaluation metric fairly and without bias differentiates winners just as much as it
differentiates losers.

This will be my last post for a while. The AaI&A printmaker's testing fund is depleted and not likely to be replenished any time soon, plus I want to take a break in order to go do some personal photography and printmaking

cheers
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

[Schewe]

This will be my last post for a while. The AaI&A printmaker's testing fund is depleted and not likely to be replenished any time soon, plus I want to take a break in order to go do some personal photography and printmaking

Thanks Mark...go shoot some good stuff!

[Ernst Dinkla]

Mark,

Very nice to get some reference results for B&W silver halides.

It is correct that the OBA is degrading the good silver image in all cases. One wonders whether the split tone between RC paper and silver black in the plain B&W before fading is visually acceptable anyway. You already made a comment on the sepia toning that could have been done better on a warm paper. The color tone over the ranges is not that consistent either in a new print I see looking at the diagonals of the targets. Most targets after fading look better if my screen tells all. On the Selenium toned RC print I see a drop in Dmax of 2.2 in the black at 50 MH and wonder whether that will stop when the test continues. The DeltaE shift over the range due to the OBA degradation is consistently decreasing from paper white to shadows till at L 15 the selenium black shift becomes more dominant, taking Dmax below that of the plain B&W target. Visually there is little left of the selenium toning in the 50 MH target compared to the plain B&W one at that stage. I did not check the Fiber versions yet but the "archival" effect of selenium toning on RC paper is not visible here. Doubts about that has been raised before.

Have a nice break .....

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2012, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.