Re: solarplate

[susan voss <susanvoss3@gmail.com>]

<<<< Hope this helps whoever it was many emails ago who asked questions on
solarplate!  >>>>>

Hi Chris, and thanks for all the information about photopolymer
etching.  I had originally brought up the subject under my "Newbie
Introduction" thread, since that is the process I'm interested in
learning.  I know how to print etchings and I have a press... I have a
darkroom and cameras... I even know how to use some of them :o)  Now I
have to meld the two .....
I'm in the very beginning stages, and I'm soaking up all the good
information and sources I'm seeing here.  I hope you'll keep me posted
about your collaboration... sounds like a wonderful project!

Thanks also to everyone else who's jumped in here with lots of good
information.  I'm peddling as fast as I can to keep up!

susan

www.dalyvoss.com

On 1/23/07, Christina Z. Anderson <zphoto@montana.net> wrote:
> The subject of solarplate came up, and as I am participating in a
> collaborative printmaking project with faculty/students from several
> colleges with solarplate as a basis, I thought I would add a couple things
> to the discussion. The group will end up with a collaborative portfolio,
> some drawing directly on the plates, some combining photographic and drawing
> processes, some using the film stuff Z'Acryl (that and Imagon I know nothing
> about), some not doing solarplate at all.
>
> I am testing several methods of negatives for this process.  The first two
> dispense with the double exposure/aquatint screen, and are lower tech ways
> of teaching solarplate to those not digitally savvy.
>
> One is a simple bitmap--input 600/output 600, black ink only.  That works
> very well for detailed imagery, as it incorporates a dot pattern into the
> image that ends up not being perceptible in the final image.  However, the
> printer you use to make your negs really determines exposure time.  For
> instance, the Epson 2400 blacks are not very dense, but the Epson 3000 and
> Epson 2200 are. And, if there are areas of large darks in the image, they
> will still open bite.  Solarplate has two major problems, open bite, and
> mottledness.
>
> Second, is the Henrik Boegh method of making your image a halftone--you
> first lower the tonal range of the image with a curve, by pulling down the
> top right of the diagonal curve line so that input is is 100 output is 80,
> then under your print with preview screen adding a halftone screen at 65
> lpm/45 angle/diamond.  This works surprisingly well, but of course you are
> clipping tones with the way of handling the curve. There, too, was open bite
> in larger areas of dark, so for a really dark image like, for instance, Flor
> Garduno (sp?) does, it might not be the best.
>
> Third, the most accurate and professional way of handling solarplates but
> one that requires more digital savviness:  I am biting the bullet and using
> the aquatint screen exposure/negative exposure--doing the double exposure
> technique.  I know there is a way to create a stochastic aquatint screen in
> computer if anyone can share it, but I bought the thing--not cheap.  So now
> I am working at calibrating exposure times with the screen and then the
> negative, and then after I get that proportion figured out (solarplates
> under UVBL are about 10 minutes total exposure and the aquatint screen can
> be up to 1/3 or 1/2 that) I will then calibrate a custom curve using the
> Precision Digital Negatives system and colorized negs.  On this one, no open
> bite.
>
> I will highly recommend two books, the Heinrik Boegh Handbook of NonToxic
> Intaglio and Welden's Printmaking in the Sun.  Both are must-haves.  The
> Keith Howard books are also good, but I find myself referring to Boegh's the
> most.  Second, buying the plates directly from Dan Welden is pretty darn
> cheap, aside from the fact he is so nice and helpful.
>
> Hope this helps whoever it was many emails ago who asked questions on
> solarplate!
> Chris