Anyone out there do POP printing?

Anyway, I just finished my first POP print. Came out pretty decent for the first one. There's only one problem... After washing it, I left it on a stack of newspapers to dry out a bit. Of course then I got busy... I just passed by it and noticed it was curled up like an old banana peel...

Now it's been a while since I've delt with real prints and I have no idea where my old blotter book is... And now I wondering what the best way would be to flatten this poor thing out? My first thought was an iron on a low temp. I used to hot mount them that way, but I don't remember what I used to use to protect the print side?

Anyone have a good method to flatten this? Or should I find my blotter and re-wet it?

And, Centennial Printing Out Paper is _nice_ stuff! Even without a UV source (still waiting... and no chance of Sunshine here).

As usual, thanks for any opinions...

And, why did I ask here??? Well, why should I share my stupidity with any other group?

What's POP?

Our solution to curled fiber-base prints at school was to stick 'em in the dry mount press for a few seconds, on the standard heat setting. Following that reasoning, the iron should work, and I'm going to have to remember your use for it; I've been bemoaning the loss of the mount press during my hiatus from school. Never thought of using an iron.

I'd sandwich it between two pieces of mat board to iron it, if that doesn't take too long to heat up. It's what we used to protect the prints in the press.

It helps a bit (but not much) to dry them facedown.

POP is Printing Out Paper....develops during the exposure vs Developing out paper which is what we use now. Albumen, Salted,Cyanotype, the old Studio Proof paper, etc. Most of the ALT Photo processes are Printing out and since it's all contact printed, I don't see anybody doing this with anything but a Large Format camera, so the post is logical here.


A couple of tactics. If it's just wrinkled and you can get it in a hot mount press that would work, mist the back first and use blotter paper or kraft paper to protect the top.
If it resembles a cinnimon stick then I'd rehydrate it by putting it the bathroom before every body takes a shower, or create a humitidy box with some wet towels below, a grate of some sort so the print isn't lying in the water and then a relatively air tight enclosure.

I had great sucess with a series of photogaphs from the '06 San Fran earth quake that were curled tighter than the dead sea scrolls. I actually used a dead toaster oven and put the wet paper in the bottom, the pics on the rack and taped everything shut (no heat) after about three days of doing this the pics unrolled very easily and I was able to flatten them without breaking the emulsion

then dry it between papers and some good heavy books. I've had the best luck with Graphic Graflex Photogaphy, and the Darkroom Lab Index, but others find Time/Life's Encyclopedia of Photogaphy better.

"What's POP?"
It's printing out paper. A rather uncommon item to see these days. As far as I know, Centennial is the only source. Portrait photographers used to use it for proofs a lot. They would give the customer unfixed proof prints. If not fixed, after a short period they would turn a reddish color and then fade completely away. Customers who wanted prints would have to come back and buy them. No skipping out with the proofs and stiffing the photographer. Try dampening the back of the print and place it under a heavy wieght for 24 hours. Typical tendency for fiber based paper and some curl worse than others.

What POP is has already been said, so I'll just add that it's a fantastic way to do 'old time' printing. Much simpler than any other process because you don't have to coat paper yourself. No nasty chemicals, except the toners. And there's a very wide range of tones available, with some control over contrast. And I've proved that you don't even need the investment in a UV (ultra violet) exposure unit to do the exposure. Although 8-10 hours under a 60 watt bulb may not seem convenient to everyone But my UV lights arrived today and I'll be building the box next week...

For full info on POP, see this web site: http://www.albumenworks.com/printing-out-paper.html

I bought mine from Bostick & Sullivan: http://www.bostick-sullivan.com because they also had the toner and on-line ordering...

It's nice to keep in touch with the photo-roots

As far as that nasty print... Turned out not to be all that bad after all. Must have warped itself in the oposite direction while I slept as only the edges were a little curved this morning. So I gently placed it into my scanner, made a quick scan just in case, and left in there for a few hours with the scanner on for a gentle heat. now it's almost flat and looks good. This weekend I hope to contact print some of my 4x5 negs to see how they turn out. Ummm, _after_ I find the blotter book!

Then all I have to do is find the right toner to keep a little bit of that reddish color in them. Although I really can't knock the look of the platinum toner... I do have some sepia toner I beleive and may try that...

Thanks for the suggestions and I'm sure I'll need them again