done...

a little blurry, but after at least two weeks of work I found a way to make things go right. The trick is that I exposed a little longer, only .2 of a LU, then hand developed, or over developed the foreground to get it to where it needed to be. It's not as precise as I would like but it will work.

two images in one

My basic problem was this; i'd get the back ground and black tree to read well, but loose detail in foreground, and vice versa. Ideally I needed to make two exposures but things don't work that way. you can see the background here all open bit but with perfect detail in the foreground.

LU tests

Once the % of dot is found, it's time to mess with the exposure. Here are three separate Light Unit exposure tests.

21 scale step test.

One the essential parts of this process is determining the % of a black area of an image. That is to say that if you drag the color sampler tool in photo shop over your image and you find an area of black at 100% it means that the are is so solid that no light will pass through it. If we expose that to an ImagOn plate it will open bite, meaning that light won't got through the image it will form around the image. Since in intaglio printing we need ink to get into groves of the plate we need to open the dots of an image to a certain percentage that will allow just enough light to pass through the black areas to create the dot structure needed for that area to print black. You can see on this test where the 100 and 95% areas are washed away, they have open bit. The first line of black indicates the proper percentage needed.

beginning with the lazar version

So to start this whole project off I was working with lazar print positives to make images. I got one working well and showed it to Dan who was pleased but unhappy with the uniform dot you get from a lazar printer. So i set to work using an Epson 3000 to make positives. The Epson 3000 is key to this process because it allows for a randomized dot pattern along with printing black directly from the black cartridge. A composite would allow light to pass through the dots and destroy the image.

Starting work on the Dan Danger's

So this is the mega research preliminary stages of the work I am doing for the Daniel Danger show at the Richard Goodall Gallery. I am going to get into detail about some of the images but the basic working method here is to knock out a couple of variables which will get you the image you want. First you have to start out with material tests (what you tell the printer you are printing on), then exposure tests to determine time of exposure and percentage of dot, then development time. Once all four of these factors are worked out you end up with an image with no opening biting, solid blacks, solid whites and a wide range of mid-tones.

from Leah Allen...

Leah sent me this pic of a naked lady painting, dot nude #9, and a gray's anatomy collage I did a while back.