This evening I tried my first intaglio value scale with SolarPlate. My main takeaways are that the process has very high contrast, but the results are really promising.
This 2″ x 4″ plate has a 10 step value scale on the left and a continuous gradient on the right.
The value scale becomes more visible once I’ve applied ink and wiped.
Here’s another view of the inked plate.
My goal is to reproduce the value scale on the left. The results, printed on Hosho, are on the right. It is readily apparent from this initial test that my SolarPlate process has too much contrast, compressing most of the dark end of the value scale into a couple of steps. My next test involves a more detailed test print that will allow me to create contrast adjustment curves in PhotoShop.