U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: wiping KM73 polymer plates

Re: wiping KM73 polymer plates



>  At least with solarplate
> you're only wasting about 20 minutes time making a plate.  I can't imagine
> the time involved with making an etched plate and then having it not work
> out...
> Chris


Chris,

The problems you are having with solarplate (I haven't used it so I can only
judge from your comments) are different from etching a copper gravure plate.
In fact with the copper you can watch the gelatin of the resist break down
as the etch progresses and make inferences about how the plate is etching
and vary the acid strengths to control the contrast range. That control is
one way in that you can't back up and widen the tonal range of the darks
after moving on to etching the mid tones or change the range in the mid
tones after moving on to the lights but seeing them etch does give a control
that the plastic plates apparently lack. It means there are way too many
possible variables to master in copper to have perfect control but many
people have mastered it with beautiful results.

Jack