Let the Beauty of what you Love be what you Do...
~Rumi

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Testing... Testing...

Still experiencing a steep learning curve in Photo Etching! We've been testing two different films~ Zacryl, which picks up more gray tones & Imagon HD, which is a higher contrast film. These were my recent tests... first the Imagon~


It mainly picks up the most contrasty areas, and the midtones fade away. The darker splotch on the left is where the film didn't adhere properly to the copper plate & the acid leaked under the film & etched away.
Next, the Zacryl~


The Zacryl picks up much more of the midtones, which I like, but it can translate those midtones a bit darker than intended. I'm learning that this can be adjusted a bit in photo shop, before the transparency is printed... but I'm still working on this. There are so many place to go "wrong," from first adjusting tones & contrast in photoshop before printing a transparency, to proper film application on the copper plate, to exposure times, proper development and removal of areas of film, and finally to the etching and aquatinting! I imagine it could take quite a while to really get consistent results!
Just for fun, the original image... me & the old VW... a long, long time ago~



4 comments:

Rising Rainbow said...

Interesting.

Wanda..... said...

I just recently saw someone driving an old VW like this, not as colorful though!
...Wanda♥

Pat said...

Sounds like a lot of work! Too bad your old VFW was a bright yellow. Then we could have called you, "Little Miss Sunshine"!

Barb said...

What great photos you have to work with! I like the mid tone accented one, too. You're on a path of learning, Becky - very exciting!