BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

The title says it all. Just checking to see if there would be any interest.

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

There is already a section devoted to printers & color printing. Stats say little to no active participation. You are proposing a teeny tiny niche. My take is that a better approach would be a section devoted to all aspects of printing makes more sense. And even that might have sparse participation.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I've been doing photography for a long time, and I don't even know what Polymer photogravure is!

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

These are niche areas and have no application to printing in general. They are very specific requiring far different skill sets.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

google it!

Robert Ley

If anyone is interested in alternative photography, a great forum for this and any other types of photography is Photrio. I have belonged to this forum for almost 20 years and it is a great source for analog as well as digital photography. It is really an international forum with well over a couple of hundred thousand members from all over the world and many have a great deal of knowledge on subjects such as photogravure, gum printing, cyanotype and Van Dyke Brown.

If you are a paying member (about $30/yr) you can sell your equipment through the forum. It is a great place to buy or sell equipment as members are scrupulously honest and I have not had a single problem in 20 years.

One problem is that you probably won't be able to get all the skinny on the latest new mirror-less 100mgp camera or that 1000mm f:2.8 lens ;-).

MrPhotog

I’m curious about polymer photogravure. My son has been doing lithopanes on his 3-D printer, which are fascinating, but he is using solid filament, and I’m interested in seeing liquid polymers at work.

With the increased growth of liquid resin and hotmelt 3-d printers in the market I think this would be a growing medium once some software was available for driving the process.

If it was as simple ( and fast) as pressing ‘print’ on an inkjet or laser printer I think many more people would be doing it on their 3-D printers.

The possibilities for using tinted UV-curing resin for color images seems to offer great potential. I was doing some experimenting with such resin in a woodworking project just before Christmas.

On the other hand:

I don’t really see much connection between that process and gold/palladium/platinum processes. Perhaps this would be a separate area? Is there not an area for alternate photo processes?

The last time I did something like that was around 1981, and it was horrendously expensive back then. Probably ten times the cost these days.

Glorious monochrome images with archival life, but I’d save it for only my best images; and none of them are on 11x14 film! You need the larger negatives for contact printing on these slow emulsions.

20 years ago Kodak made internegative films and a direct positive film for making enlarged negatives. I don’t think Ilford, or anyone else, still makes similar products. I’ve heard of digital-based negatives made with laser or inkjet processes, but those seem to lack the tonal range of a silver image—which kinda defeats the purpose of using a process that can offer an extended tonal range.

Nonetheless, if such an area opened up, I’d sign up just to stay in the loop.

I’m sure someone put there is toying with a way to modify a laser printer to expose a non-silver emulsion to give long tonal range without using huge negatives. I’d like to know how they do it.

Robert Ley

If you are interested in some information on Polymer Photogravure and any other "alternative" photo methods, check out this website: https://www.alternativephotography.com/photo-polymer-gravure-the-whys/
It is a wealth of information.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Sounds to me as if the proposed sections are too narrow. A section on Alternative Photography would include them and be of more interest. Not sure just How Much more interest.

druthven

None whatsoever.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

I would suggest you join photrio.com. There are quite a few members there who are involved in conventional and alternative photo printing techniques. I’m sure you will hook up with other enthusiasts there.

Stan