Contone Intaglio-Type 

Recommended procedure:   

Prepare Plate 

• see Plate Prep Handout

Adhere ImagOn to plate 

• see Basic ImagOn Process Handout

The Conventional Halftone 

• The recommended film for making both halftones and continuous tone film positives is the Fuji Grandex lith film. When making a halftone film image a halftone screen is necessary. The halftone screen can be either a commercially available one or in lieu of this a sheet of non-glare glass or non-glare Plexiglas can be used. When a photographic negative is projected from a photographic enlarger  through the halftone screen on to the Grandex lith film  the resulting positive is recorded onto the Grandex film as a series of dots. When the non-glare glass and Plexiglas is used this dot structure looks similar to the random dot structure of an aquatint. The problem with attaining superlative results with a finished photo intaglio print is directly related to how well this original halftone is made. Unfortunately understanding the creative dynamics of making high quality halftones for intaglio printmaking takes considerable experience and working knowledge. For those printmaker who lack specific experience in making high quality halftones I have developed alternative solutions to the problem of achieving a photo intaglio print. It should be stated that there is little that can rival the image quality achieved from a high quality halftone so these following techniques are meant not as a substitute but rather a way of developing knowledge and working experience with these photo intaglio techniques. 

Material requirements 

• Fuji's Grandex Lith film .
• Either Dektol or Multigrade paper developer.
• Film Fixer
• Black and white darkroom with red safe lights
• Black and white negatives such as produced from Kodak's T-Max or Ilford's XP2 camera film. 

Overview 

• Space only allows for a brief description of this technique. There are two types of developer that can be used with the Grandex lith film the first is the actual lith film developer that was designed by Fuji to develop this film and secondly certain "soft" developers can also be used. When lith film developer is used to process the Grandex film the film's emulsion is rendered opaque and if a halftone screen is not used then all intermediate gray tones will have dropped out. Known in the photographic industry as a tone drop-out. When a "soft" developer is used with this same Grandex lith film the results simulate what is normally achieved with the tonal variation present in your T-Max camera negative. In other words a soft developer allows you to have a positive reading images with all of the tonal values from black to white without the obvious dot structure present in a halftone image.

Making The Continuous Tone Positive 

• Basically a black and white negative is placed into a photographic enlarger and projected on to the Fuji Grandex lith film. The film is then developed in either Dektol paper developer diluted 1 part developer to 6 parts water. This dilution can vary for different results. Ilford's multigrade developer diluted 1-9 with water can also be used. The film is subsequently fixed until it becomes transparent in the fixer and washed. 
• A "soft" halftone can also be made which represents a halfway point between a normal halftone and a continuous tone. To make a soft halftone a halftone screen is placed on top of the Grandex lith film during the exposure from the negative as outlined directly above. The continuous tone and soft halftone should have a tonal range that is representative of the tonal range that would be present if a black and white photographic image was made. 

The Contone Intaglio-Type plate 

Depending on how opaque the black areas of the continuous tone or soft halftone are one or two layers of ImagOn film can be applied in a number of different configurations as follows;

1. One layer of ImagOn exposed first to the aquatint screen and then to the continuous tone positive. 
2. Two layers of ImagOn film applied to the plate which are subsequently exposed to the aquatint screen and then to the continuous tone positive. 
   
3. One layer of ImagOn film is applied to the plate and exposed to the aquatint screen followed by another layer of ImagOn to which the continuous tone is exposed. 
   

After exposure to the final image the plate is processes in the same manner as All of the Intaglio-type techniques. 
 
It is extremely important to finely tune your exposure times for the Contone Intaglio-Type technique as an exposure factor of plus or minus 1 second can make an appreciable difference to the tonal range of the finished intaglio print. The tonal range in the Contone Intaglio-Type is achieved by how much quantity of UV light is allowed to penetrate the surface of the ImagOn film. So that during the final development of the plate the areas of the plate that will carry the softer tones within the image are the most exposed areas within the plate. The longer the plate is exposed the lighter will the  be the resulting area in the finished print. The continuous tone positive selectively filters the UV light passing through in to the ImagOn emulsion. It is the density variation within the continuous tone positive that cause this selective exposure of the ImagOn emulsion that then creates the illusion of tonal variety in the finished print. 

This technique tends to cause a reduction in the potential tonal scale that would normally be possible with a halftone. This deficiency of tonal range can be compensated for my using the Layered Intaglio-Type  plate making method and combining this plate making technique with a duo-tone printing technique. Unfortunately when working with  a duo-tone printing technique two continuous tone positives and two plates must be made. The two continuous tone positives are made from the same negative but each represents a different selection of the tonal scale. One lith film positive would be representative of the lighter tones hence it is exposed for less time during the photographic exposure stage. The other continuous tone positive is exposed for more time, during the photographic exposure stage, to reveal a positive representative of the darker tonal scale. This latter positive is used with the Layered Intaglio-Type in conjunction with a pre-aquatinted lower layer of ImagOn film. The other  highlight plate only needs to have one layer of the ImagOn film that is pre-exposed to the aquatint screen after which the highlight positive is exposed to it. 

Dry without heat

Develop

• Remove protective mylar

. .