solarplate - what makes a good transparency for this process?

Hello,

I've been reading up on making good negs for Pd printing and can see that a good understanding of gamma of both neg and print can lead to much more creative control in the process...

Along with Pd printing I am also interested in solarplate ... The info I am after is what sort of transparency would be ideal for solarplate exposures:

What gamma ?
What density ?

etc...

I could do some poor-mans densitometry but I dont have any step-wedges here and am hoping someone else may have some starter tips that they have discovered along the way ??

Any help appreciated - thanks,
Nick

not sure if this is what you want but on this linked page has some good info
http://www.silverclayart.com/ppplates-instr.htm

I get confused when I hear about "Solar plate"... whether it is the same as photopolymer gravure (made with ready made plates) or not....
(remember to use positives for this technique...)

if it is, then go to this site!! this guy is amazing and has a full description (including the density) of the process...

(he has a lot of technical instruments - but in my experience, you can do this low-tech...)

http://www2.uiah.fi/~teofilus/

(beware: it is highly addictive!!)

Thanks Bruce, but the page although interesting didn't have what I was after.

The page Emil linked did however - a simple starting point of 1.2 is the answer I was looking for ...

I've been so busy lately and have decided that I need to build a UV box as I can never find the time to get everything together for Pt/Pd printing and then ask the sun to behave - once this is done I'll back into solarplate also (yip, one and the same as photopolymer gravure) ...

You're right - its lovely and addictive - best of both worlds ...

nick mulder said:

Thanks Bruce, but the page although interesting didn't have what I was after.

The page Emil linked did however - a simple starting point of 1.2 is the answer I was looking for ...

I've been so busy lately and have decided that I need to build a UV box as I can never find the time to get everything together for Pt/Pd printing and then ask the sun to behave - once this is done I'll back into solarplate also (yip, one and the same as photopolymer gravure) ...

You're right - its lovely and addictive - best of both worlds ...

Click to expand...

ok - and a danish technique!