Part I - Preparing the Image
The first step is to prepare an image which will be printed on the surface of a polymer plate. These plates are used extensively in the commerical printing world. Some have proven particularly well suited to the making of continuous tone plates adaptable to the photogravure process. Those materials are available from a number of sources in the US. https://mountain-intaglio.com/collections/lsl-73-sp-polymer-plates https://shop.takachpress.com/plates/photopolymer-plate/ https://www.boxcarpress.com/shop/category/photopolymer-sheets/steel-backed/ I have done business with all of these suppliers and found the very responsive and helpful.
An image is selected. It can be in any format but must be digitized. Many of my images are scans from 2 1/4 negatives shot with my Hasselblad. Some are from my iPhone or my Ricoh GR pocket camera. For this discussion I will be focusing on a portrait I made in Berlin in 2017 with the Ricoh — my friends El Fox and Alexandra. Here is the image right out of the camera: The buildings behind are a reflection in the glass, not a multiple exposure.
El Fox and Alexandra, Berlin, 2017
The image is then converted to black and white.
The next step is one of the most challenging aspects of photogravure. The image must be processed in a manner that will give a full tonal range and continuous tones when processed on the etching plate. I was fortunate to study (on Zoom) with an Australian photographer/printmaker, Silvi Glattauer, who taught me a relatively simple method that I have used ever since. Here is what the image looks like cropped, reversed and processed, ready to print on the polymer etching plate. The contrast is greatly reduced. There are other important but subtle changes that must be made as well.
