I'm about to take the plunge into Unsharp Masking. I have read that I should place diffusion material between the neg and the masking film when exposing the mask (3mm diffusion?) My question is - Should this material be clear or opaque? Many thanks to everyone for all the wonderful info on this board.

-- Yaakov Asher Sinclair (sinclair@actcom.co.il), June 07, 2002

Answers

My guess is that you do not mean "opaque". This would prevent the masking film from getting any exposure! The material should be clear, 3 mil thick, not 3mm.

You may even try exposing the masking film "base to base" without any separator.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), June 10, 2002.