RE: Photogravure question

Jack,

Are you using copper plate or photopolymer plates?

What are calling a failure? ... the image, the printing, the ???

I skipped copper and went to photopolymer right away, the only
consistent problem was getting even blacks and detailed shadows. I
couldn't get the ink to "grab" anything and would tend to wipe these
areas too hard, escpecially if they were large. I learned my film
positives were too contrasty (too dense in the shadows) and cut back
my overall density, nothing darker than about an 80% black.

also, it has been nearly five years since I inked a plate, but I still
have plates, ink, and access to a press... I guess I'm officially
still in the game.

Describe your "failures," please.

Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: jack reisland [mailto:reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com]
Sent: Sat 11/1/2003 11:39 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
Subject: Photogravure question
 
I have a question for the photogravurists on the list. What is your
success rate? I have been learning photogravure in a class, and our
sucess rate has been pretty low. Out of five attempts, we have had
only
two successful sessions. I understand that photogravure is a demanding
practice, with a lot of variables that can mess up the proceedure, but
it seems that we should be doing better than this. When our attempts
have failed, it was a failure for every member of the class, which
points to an error in proceedure, but the failures have varied from
session to session. So, can photogravure indeed be practiced with
somewhat consistant sucess?

Regards, J. Reisland