Hi Everyone,

Anyone know what is happening with Retouch Methods , the manufacturer of Spotone.....all of a sudden it has become next to impossible to track the stuff down.

I heard a rumour that it was being discontinued and stocked up my own supply. Anyone know if this is true or not?

Juliana

I did a Google search on "Spotone" and found a number of online stores which still sell their products.

I suspect some camera shops are discontinuing the stocking of these products because of reduced demand. But I think as long as folks are making conventional photographic prints, there will be Spotone.

It could, however, suffer imminent extinction, like dye transfer and Kodachrome. It would be a shame.

Just in case, you might buy a lifetime supply, which for me was one bottle of each color.

As an aside, years ago I met a woman from New York who worked as a secretary. She had just moved to St. Louis but brought with her a lifetime supply of "White-out," thinking we wouldn't have such a thing in this backwater town. :)

I did just that very thing :)

got a full colour set along with an extra bottle of the tones I use most....like I will ever crack the second bottle in my lifetime

The big question for Spotone users: do you use your tongue to wet the brush, or water? (or do you go macho-style full-strength, which I always found disastrous)

I was taught to let it dry on glass, then use your tongue to wet the brush and pick up the barest possible amount of pigment. Maybe gross, but I got very good at it and sometimes did hundreds of prints in a day :)

The best way I have found was to put a cotton ball into the discarded top of a film container, then squeeze out the excess water to the point where it will still wet the brush fairly well.....then damp a tissue paper, using this to take excess water off the brush and get a great point on it.

For a palette we always used the backs of waste prints.

And I was always taught to use the dye sparingly and well diluted as it is much easier to fix something that is too light than too dark.

Funny Doug, I was taught the same thing.

I heard a rumour that it was being discontinued and stocked up my own supply. Anyone know if this is true or not?

Juliana

What about it? Is there anyone out there that can confirm or deny.. are they still at the market, and if so how can I get in touch with the factory?

Please, if you know, tell me.

Regards
Håkan

Retouch Methods Co - (973) 377-1184 - 268 Main St, Madison, NJ 07940

.. but I cant' get through. Are you absolutely sure?

At least before, they had the same fax and phone number..

//Håkan

found out from freestyle photo the designer for spotone died and took all the secrets to his grave :sad:

your lucky if you have some

robert

I always used my tongue or put the brush in my mouth. I also made up a 10 step dilution. One being full strength and ten a 10:1 dilution. It worked very well.

k

I haven't set foot in a darkroom in over a decade, and didn't do that much printing for the last 15 or 20 years of my career in the photography dodge (had somebody to do that) but I guess if somebody figures out that Spotone is carcinogenic or something I'm pretty much doomed 'cause I used Doug's method (dry & lick) for years. There's simply no other way to spot b&w prints, if y'ask me, and an unspotted, or poorly spotted, print is--I don't know--just not a print.

My younger daughter has lately developed an interest (passion? we'll see) for photography and is, believe it or not, doing it with film. Whatever will she do if there is no Spotone?

O woe is us. What is the world coming to? :(

dc

The big question for Spotone users: do you use your tongue to wet the brush, or water? (or do you go macho-style full-strength, which I always found disastrous)

I almost always start with a little bottle cap of water but when I have the entire world mentally blocked out and it's just me and the spots I end up using my tongue. I had no training. I just ended up working in a photo lab and picked up the brush one day and I was pretty good with it and they've abused me ever since. I was warned to not let anyone know I LIKED doing it at ALL let alone that I COULD do it... but I seem to be a glutton for punishment :sad:

I don't often dillute the BW spot tone actually except for using my tongue - forget what # is on the bottle. Shake the bottle to get a little liquid to stick to the cap, take off the cap and set it down and dip from the cap.

I have a round plastic watercolor (I think) palette that I use for the color spotting. Roughly 3/4 inch hemisphereical impressions around the edge, each one has a different color of dried up pigment/dye in it and in the center is a flat depression that I use to mix the colors. I don't know the brand of the color stuff we have off-hand but the bottles are in a 'kodak yellow' looking box. I'd estimate they were brand new in the late 70's to early 80's roughly.