Dad's Self Portrait Meets Photo Etching

I'm really enjoying learning this process of photo etching. It is, at times frustrating... and most certainly time consuming, and my results have been all over the board. But sometimes, even the "mistakes" or where I "go wrong" results in an interesting print... which is what happened here. Same story~  image circa the 70's, originally a slide, transferred to a digital image & etched onto a copper plate. I think it was an interesting image to begin with... dad shooting a self portrait into the mirror with an old Pentax Honeywell film camera. Here are the results~

And again, printed with different ink & paper for a different feel~

Even though it didn't turn out the way I had planned, I thought it made for a really interesting image. 

Looking at the copper plate below, you can see how little the plate has etched.

 I would like to redo this plate & try again if I can fit it in this quarter!

Here's the original image~

I just realized I etched it backwards from the original!  :)

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~