Tests this weekend showed better highlights. I'm still tweaking
the curve the old fashioned way this time (hunt and peck), which should
produce better defined tones and distribution.
This summer I'm planning to dive into PDN and start deriving
compensation curves that way. Susan's results were most encouraging
and proved to me it's as relevant to the polymer plate process as any,
just as Chris predicted. :-)
Good question Mark. I noticed
that 1200 dpi screens I had tested from Copy Graphics did tend to
result in darker, more contrasty images than the 1800. Still better
than the "standard issue" aquatint screens people generally use for
this process, but not as good as the 1800 dpi. Never tried changing the
80% part though...until recently. I asked the service bureau to tweak
my recent 2540 dpi screen to be at 82% since, for whatever reason, the
80% density screen output from their imagesetter was resulting in
slightly darker prints than my baseline standard screen. Whites needed
a little more pop. I'm concerned this will change when they go to
fresh chemistry, but we'll see.
I could have augmented my standard exposure times I suppose, but
instead augmented the density of the screen a smidgen.
Jon
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