PhotoGrafica

PHOTO POLYMERE GRAVURE

from today 25.01.2010 I will publice my strugle to come to a good result to make a Photo Polymere Gravure so I can direct other people (more experienced) to my blog so they can see what I am doing and perhaps assist me, and that on the other hand people who are developpig a workflow for the same proces can learn from that.

Status:

after a workshop at the Frand Masereel Institute in Belgium I follow the procedures as written down in the book of Henrik Boegh - Handboek of NON-TOXIC INTAGLIO. I use the DIY vacuumframe and exposure box as discribed in the book. I print the positives digitally on an Epson3800

After about 20 testplates with a step a step grayscale I figured out a exposuretime of 18 sec. pretty close to the 20sec mentioned in the book . However I still strugle with strong open bites.

some conclusions/questions:

the exposure-time is short and therefor critcal to mesure.

the development-time I use is about 1min 30sec and I start ging over the plate after 1 minute very briefly. in the dark arias of the print of the Helleborus flower I suffer from strong open bitesas the highlight appear to dark.

Today I decided to start all over again.
A few basic questions/points first.
what is the best methode to follow:

1. straight forward inkjet print with 360 dpi or more??

2. An inkjet print with Bitmap Diffuse Dithering applied??

3. The use of an aquatint screen??

I started to compare a 360 dpi Grayscale with a 36pi Bitmap Diffuse Dithering. Both printed with a correction in the black of 70% according the book mentioned. I scanned the picture in Photoshop and measured the linearity as the Bitmap seemed much more black.