Photogravure

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

click image to enlarge

These are snapshots of a stepscale printed from a KM73 plate. Trying to figure out why they are blotchy-looking and don't have a smoother tone...

2 comments:

platinumphotographer said...: You do great photopolymer work. I do some....

www.flickr.com/photos/garyauerbach/; June 2, 2010 at 4:22 PM
Anonymous said...: I think your vegetables gravures are a revelation.
Weston would have been proud to do such work.
I'm interested in doing polymer photogravure- but having a hard time finding a detailed method-
do not mind paying for this...I do know how to make digital negs and have made a few gums- tons of cyanotypes and some platinums- so alternate is not new to me- but the PRESS is!
RVALLON@me.com
Richard Vallon Jr. from New Orleans; June 6, 2010 at 12:11 PM

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Very basic description of the process and equipment used

I've set up this blog to document my work in learning the process of polymer photogravures, or photo gravures. My background is in printmaking and painting, but I have always loved making photographs. This process may be a perfect link between those mediums.

The process begins with photographs I take using black and white film. The negatives are scanned into my computer and then printed out as a positive image on clear inkjet media. This positive image is placed in contact with a light-sensitve polymer plate and exposed. The plate is then developed in water and gently scrubbed with a soft brush. The areas of the plate that were exposed to light have been hardened, but the areas protected by the positive image are water soluble and wash away leaving lower areas that will later hold ink during printing. After the plate is dried and further hardened, it is treated much as any other etching plate. Artist's grade printing ink is worked into the grooves in the plate by hand, and then polished off the high areas. The plate is then placed in contact with damp printmaking paper and pulled through an intaglio press under great pressure. The paper is forced down into the grooves of the plate where it picks up the ink and the image is created.

Materials and equipment used:

Medium and large format cameras

Dell XPS 710 computer

Epson Perfection 3200 scanner

Epson 1280 inkjet printer

Pictorico overhead transparency media

Toyobo Printight KM73 photopolymer plate

Nuarc mercury UV exposure unit

Workpress custom intaglio press

Photogravure

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

2 comments:

what is a photo gravure?

Very basic description of the process and equipment used

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