Re: Photopolymer Plate Options
Keith, You are so right, in your comments below. More on solarplate observations (btw I am switching to KM73s this week...) Yesterday I printed my test plate of 12 exposures. Horizontally I exposed for 9, 4, and 2 min and vertically I exposed the aquatint screen for 1, 2, 3, and 4 minutes. The very frustrating, and maybe, beneficial thing about solarplate is that all of those squares, albeit different tonally, worked OK enough. In other words, from a 3 minute exposure to a 13 minute exposure one would be hard pressed to tell a major difference unless you look at the way the midtones printed. So when Dan Welden says that it is not very sensitive to fluctuations in UV light, he ain't a kiddin'! I can scan it and maybe get it up on my website (Camden, heheheh?).... That said, there were some that exhibited better midtones or highlights, depending on the ratio of the aquatint to positive exposure. So AGAIN I went and printed a test plate...I used your ratio, Keith, of half aquatint and half positive for two images on the same plate, one of Camden's which was not printing the highest highlights at all--they were flat white--and one of mine, which was good at a 3mn aquatint and 7mn positive ratio. Finally got the highlights to show up in Camden's piece. It was printed at 3.5/3.5mn. But mine didn't look better. So it almost looks as if the tonal range of an image may affect how you choose your ratio??? Camden's was an image made for pt/pd printing, from extreme high whites to some small areas of black. Mine had a more compressed tonal range. You know, at least I am understanding more about this whole process but generally I am shooting in the dark. By the time I calculate the plates wasted I might as well have paid for a $1000 workshop. Chris I played around with this for a while, but (with my setup) I found the best results nearly always came from equal exposures. Personally, I think can be one of the most frustrating processes I've ever worked with, but the results are so worth it. When things go wrong and don't work out I can sink to depths unimaginable, yet when I pull a great print, the feeling is like no other.
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