Re: NuArc Happy Dance!
Susan, Go buy yourself an aquatint screen for the solarplate, too (from Dan Welden--I think the 9x12 is about $30). Use of the aquatint screen double exposure technique definitely got rid of open bite. I got really rich blacks with it. Also, be prepared to make a curve for solarplate. If you print an uncurved image it is pretty contrasty, unless it is a lower contrast image to begin with. Yesterday I cut and pasted a positive of the same image uncurved, curved with a calibrated curve, and curved with a calibrated adjusted curve side by side and it is so fascinating how well the solarplate prints continuous tone, beautiful images once you get the correct curve. I got very creamy whites, too. The image I used was a redheaded nude smoking a cigarette outside in the sun, so I got very pale flesh, a white cigarette that was against the pale flesh and then a dark rock behind, and behind her a burned out building (as an aside, the image is called "Philip Morris Anti-Smoking Campaign"). I thought this image would best describe a contrasty situation of white against white and then black. Do you know that even the tiny bit of tan filter part that is visible of the cigarette shows up in solarplate?? When I first started doing solarplate I found the plate subject to scratches from tarlatan. I don't find that anymore, and I do afterharden the plate a good 20 minutes under UV. Plus, Henrik Boegh says one plate will do up to 1000 images, so they are quite hardy. Yesterday I did a mini-workshop on it, and I was able to get three neophytes to expose and develop their plates in a matter of an hour. One did a line drawing on tracing paper and it exposed fine without the aquatint screen and obviously uncurved, but the lines were thin. I imagine if the lines were thicker it might need the aquatint exposure. I calibrated the aquatint exposure first--they say to look for the shortest exposure to give max black, but I looked for the shortest exposure to not produce open bite. Of course with the Nuarc you are using a different light source than my UVBL so all my times and curves will not apply. But my aquatint exposure was only 1mn15sec of a total 10 minute UVBL exposure. And, as far as point vs. diffuse, my image looks great under UVBL too, so the adage that diffuse light doesn't work well is not true. I mean, I'd love to get a NuArc. After seeing Clay Harmon's Amertech exposure unit that has a vacuum frame I am dreaming about switching light sources (and having to recalibrate everything I do to that). Because the next biggest problem with solarplate once you get past open bite is the mottling that occurs with either not good contact between the positive and the plate--solved by a vacuum frame--or not good development procedure. You'll have the first problem licked, the second will have to be trial and error, but if you expose and curve correctly the development goes smoothly in 2-3 minutes underwater. Use the chamois, use your hands, and feel that all slime is removed. These are my 4 cents after having done all this solarplate testing over the last couple months. Once you do all the preliminary curve work the actual solarplate process is a total cinch. Do you have a press? I have to go all the way to campus every time I want to print, so most of my time was consumed driving back and forth to campus each plate. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "SusanV" <susanvoss3@gmail.com> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 7:19 AM Subject: NuArc Happy Dance! Hi everyone! I just wanted to share my Happy Dance with all of you who've been so helpful to me. I went yesterday and picked up the NuArc 26-K1 that I'd bought on ebay. $311 total! The guy even loaded it in the car for me. He had it all packed, too, with padding and shrink-wrap. It's in the studio now, and after a good cleaning ( it was dusty and wouldn't pull a vacuum at first ), works like a champ! The same day, while I was out picking it up, UPS paid me a visit and delivered my polymer plates from Boxcar Press. It's like Christmas! :o) (can you tell I'm happy?) gee... wonder what I'll do this weekend..... ta, Susan -- Susan Daly Voss www.dalyvoss.com
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