Brand new at doing image transfers. On some transfers I get tiny speckles of black (like grains of sand). Can someone help me to correct this?

Thanks kindly,

Carolyn Sandstrom

-- Carolyn Sandstrom (sandstrc@cadvision.com), May 22, 1998

Answers

Does it feel like sand (i.e. is it raised)? And where do these speckles appear?

Check the KTC book; I think that she mentions something like that, but my memory fails me.

The problem that you're having doesn't sound like what she refers to as liftoff because what you're getting is black (what color is the image in the area where these specks appear?). Could it that you're pressing the roller too hard on the polaroid and the back of the "negative" is sticking to the surface of the tranfer? Next time this happens, check the "negative" to see if there are holes in it.

-- Stuart Goldstein (satgre@worldnet.att.net), May 23, 1998.

I am getting sometimes this kind of black dots in white or very light areas when exposure time (i.e., when projecting a slide to Polaroid film)is rather short. I haven't found a real cure for this. Sometimes, changing paper (e.g., from smooth/hot pressed to more rough/cold pressed) helps.

-- Marek Uliasz (uliasz@aster.com), September 21, 1998.

I used to have a problem with the "black dots". I found, via experimentation, that it was definately due to excess pressure with a roller that wasn't soft enough. The trick is to apply enough pressure to avoid liftoff, but not too much or the black sand appears.

-- Amy Melious (amy@grainofsand.com), October 08, 2000.