continued solarplate notes
Well, I finally received my Fotogravure book by Eli Ponsaing after it made a circuitous route to SC and back to PhotoEye and then to MT... A couple interesting tidbits that I could glean from the English part of the text (most is in another language): 1. PHP suppliers say sensitivity depends on temperature, the best being 25C/77--colder is slower. 2. Exposing is done in 3 stages--main exposure first for **15** minutes with the light source at 1/2 the distance of the aquatint exposure. Aquatint exposure SECOND--**15** minutes with the distance of the light 1 1/2 the diagonal of the vacuum frame measure. Post exposure 5 minutes. (on a Stouffers dark steps 8, 9, and 10 should be "clearly defined"). 3. After development Ponsaing post dries the plate at **50C/122F (! Shades of Keith) for 10 minutes either in a warming cupboard or a hair dryer, and then post exposes. 4. He inks on a hot plate (never done that--don't know why I would, but I do cut the ink with Easy Wipe). With the inverse square law of light 1/2 the distance of the positive means it is 4x the length of exposure, correct? So Ponsaing's ratio of exposure is 4pos/1aquatint. Can you believe the length of his times??!! I can't read the text to see what his light source is, though, unfortunately. I can glean that he is using Japanese plates KM73. Oh, here are his light choices: "uv lys, kviksolvdamplampe hpr 125, drosselspole bhl 125 eller l44, metalhalogenhampe, xenon lampe. And then Ikke alle lyskilder er egnede til vor kopiering. Der kraeves lysbolgelaengder mellem 400-360 my i det ultraviolet-te omrade af spektret. Ved anvendelse af FP-plader til dybtryk, er punktlys bedst egnet, d.v.s. at lyskilden har sa lille en udstraekning som muligt. Dette lys findes i kviksolvdamplampe, hojfjeldssol, xenonlampe, metalhalogenlampe og kulbuelampe. My interest in the light source choice is to compare his longer exposures with what we are doing with KM73s. What he is doing is still not disproving my theory that the length of exposure is not as crucial as the ratio, unless, say, he is using REALLY weak bulbs which I don't think is true--I can at least decipher halogen in there. But it still supports the theory that, like gum, the longer exposure (to a point) the thicker the layer of goo on top of the substrate, whence comes Welden's description of the forgiving latitude of exposure of the plates, that exposure is not so crucial. I find it fascinating that he is first exposing the positive. That is next on my list. After spending all last weekend in the printmaking lab I was ready to put solarplate away for a while, but you know, Jan Pietrzak, I think we should all make APIS a goal to share our photopolymer images! Maybe a panel presentation, Dick Sullivan? I know most people are busy with famdam on Easter weekend but thought I'd share it when it is fresh in my mind. Chris
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