Gast
Hello,
You have this in your catalogue over in the States – what exactly is it in this case?
Windisch wrote around 1951 that it was a process used by Kodak, amongst others, to produce colour positives on white celluloid from Kodachrome slides and Kodacolor negatives.
That’s not what it is, is it?
You really shouldn’t keep that from German customers!
Roland
Gast
Hello,
Doesn't anyone know anything about this?
Roland
ChristianKolinski
I haven’t actually tried this out in practice (with success) yet, so please treat everything that follows as pure theory:
Dye transfer was indeed one of the methods used to produce colour prints in the 1930s, but not just single-frame prints!
If you’ve ever seen ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or similar films from the 1930s and 1940s: those were dye transfers – because that’s exactly what the original ‘Technicolor’ was.
In theory, the process works like this: an image is exposed onto matrix film – such as the one sold by J&C – then developed, fixed and hardened. This creates a sort of relief on the film, as exposed and unexposed areas react differently to the hardening process or swell to different degrees.
This relief is then used, so to speak, as a printing plate: it is inked and pressed onto a suitable material.
Technicolor (and Kodak and others) would then produce three films with colour separations that were printed on top of one another, thereby producing colour prints or cinema films.
MirkoBoeddecker
Roland,
This paper is intended solely for professionals who work with the DTM process, and we sell it to long-standing customers, most of whom are now well over 60 years old......
The process is now mastered by only a handful of people worldwide and is very complex.
It is one of the oldest, highest-resolution, most colour-accurate, longest-lasting and highest-quality colour printing processes in existence.
It is impossible for me to explain this in full detail now (partly because I do not personally master the technical aspects of the process myself).
However, in addition to the paper, you will also need a DTM film, a printing press and the inks.
Best regards,
Mirko
Gast
Mirko, Christian,
thanks for your reply. Am I right in thinking that I can also buy the material at your shop in Berlin?
Roland
cfb_de
Roland,
Christian doesn’t work at Impex; that’s ‘just’ Mirko.
All in all, though, you’ve unleashed one of the most subtle ‘product availability blackmails’ I’ve ever read.
By comparison, we were, so to speak, clumsy with our roll of baryta paper and went about it with a sledgehammer.
BTW: @Mirko: Will I still get a reply to my order? It was for one roll of baryta and four tripod thread adapters. I haven’t heard anything about it yet. A confirmation of receipt would be nice, and it would give me a basis for planning my budget (I’ve got a holiday coming up, after all).
SCNR,
Franz
Gast
Franz,
no, that really wasn’t what I meant; I’m just starting to take an interest and I wasn’t sure whether Mirko was referring to the good old customers in the US, or whether the clientele in Berlin might also feel this applies to them.
For now, I want to get hold of some literature first, so I can find out exactly what’s required and how it all works in practice.
Roland
