Re: Cutting polymer plates
Last message of the day, I promise!!! Man am I getting my $10 worth. Susan, I cut the plates with the school's big honkin' cutter thingie whatever it is called. I tried scoring it with an exacto, and bending back and forth, but always it would end up being uneven and then my negative would sit unevenly on the plate and leak light through. They require a lot of cut power! Honestly, Susan, since I have to go into town to cut the plates, I ended up just ganging a whole bunch of different test things on one plate and using the whole plate instead of cutting. What is another 10 or 20 bucks when you've already spend 700??? I'm kidding. Now, speaking of plate tone--the funny thing is that I was printing this one plate for a person in the collaborative group. He wanted the plate to look just like his original. I printed it three times for him--the second time I loved it, with nice heavy plate tone. He wanted the background "white." So each to his own, I suppose. The layer on the KM73s is much thinner than the layer on the solarplates, and the solarplate surface is bumpier/more textured, so I am surprised that you all think KM73s have more plate tone?? But I'll accept your truth over Diane's... Sorry to mix posts, but Jon, you said this: Too much exposure to the aquatint and you burn out highlights, however. Too little and the plate gets to be sticky and mucky in the shadows. Dan Welden says more aquatint exposure, the more the highlights hold detail (I mean, up to a certain point because overexposure in general results in a white plate). Do you find this not true? Because I found that when I increased my aquatint from 1mn15 to 5mn in the 10mn total exposure I got more detail in my highlights. And what book is your friend Angela writing?? And as far as why I say "luck" with no mottling, I have found that with UVBL whenever I assume mottling is gone, I get some in the next plate. But I have exposed 3 plates now with powdering the positive and not the plate, with no mottling. The images were busy, tho. I still think is is luck. If our tax refund is good, Amergraph here I come. If it is not, oh well. When i get back to MT I will experiment with all kinds of solarplate tests--sun exposure for one. But also exposing the screen last on top of the image. I'm hoping there will be some sort of booth on this stuff at the SPE conference but maybe that is a CAA sort of thing. Keith, did you dig out from under the foot of snow you got in Mpls?? Chris ----- Original Message Follows ----- From: SusanV <susanvoss3@gmail.com> To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: Cutting polymer plates Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:53:43 -0400 >Jon, Keith, Chris and all, > >I need help cutting these plates. I bought a supposedly >heavy duty paper cutter, but it bends the edge of the plate >(the edge of the piece that falls off the bed of the >cutter). It also doesn't cut the plates very easily. It >was what was available locally at Staples, and "only" cost >$65. I know that's not much as these blasted things go. > >Do your cutters slice through the plates easily? Do they >bend the plates? > >Do I need to return this cutter and get a better one? > >help >Susan > >-- >susan >gravure blog at www.susanvossgravures.blogspot.com >website www.dalyvoss.com Assistant Professor of Photography Photography Option Coordinator Montana State University College of Arts and Architecture Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Room 220 P.O. Box 173350 Bozeman, MT 59717-3350 Tel (406) 994 6219 CZAphotography.com
|