film separation for printing Experience Workers

[bob carnie]

Is there anyone here that is currently working in the industry making film seps, or aware of this workflow, I am wanting to ask a bunch of film and process questions of someone with hands on experience.

[sanking]

Is there anyone here that is currently working in the industry making film seps, or aware of this workflow, I am wanting to ask a bunch of film and process questions of someone with hands on experience.

I have heard that Delta Graphics in Oregon prints imagesetter negatives for color carbon and for other printing processes. Andy Jones is apparently the person to contact about this. www.deltagraphics.net

Sandy

[bob carnie]

thanks Sandy, I am most interested in recommendations for film to go in my Lambda.

[interneg]

I take it that means you want a con-tone, not a halftone film? Answer is likely to be Agfa Graphics, though their Alliance film selection seems to be largely halftone films for CTF filmsetters. I also presume you want a film that's cheaper than O+ or Ortho 25? Kodak used to make 'Gravure Positive Film' which sounds exactly like what you are after, but it's not been made for 20+ years from what I can tell. I've been working through a few boxes of the stuff & there's not a lot of difference between it & O+. Historically, I understand that the separations for offset, letterpress etc were largely made as screened separations, so it would have been halftones from the start. For various reasons, rotogravure used a continuous tone film for making the positive, in a similar manner to how you would work with hand wiped gravure. Today, a great deal of rotogravure uses direct laser engraving of the cylinder - thus why the film materials have fallen off the market.

[bob carnie]

Yes Contone or a film that will accept laser exposure like Ortho 25, and must be in current production and come in rolls... am I asking for the missing link?

[Pere Casals]

A film that would be ideal is Kodak 2238 color separation film, but it's only sold in 35mm and 70mm. If an end of a master roll could be located at Kodak...

It's ISO 6 so perhaps ideal for a lambda. Some shot it at 25.

[bob carnie]

I am looking for 20 inch , 24 inch or 30 inch roll stock by 100ft or more

[Drew Wiley]

Is there any way you could use RA4 transparency material monochrome? I realize it might not build sufficient density for your purpose. You want to contact Jim Browning at Digital Mask. He uses a Chromira, but at least it's analogous, and he has contacts abroad using laser exposure. But most big UV work involves old imagesetter supplies and halftone. I assume you are already aware of those folks. Bill Nordstrom, the godfather of modernization of color pigment printing, might still be alive,
and was one of the first to adopt Lightjet. Last I heard, he was operating a big alt operation near Santa Cruz, CA. If anyone on earth knows how to secure appropriate bulk film, he does.

[bob carnie]

I considered Ciba clear and then Fuji Clear, when I had a RA4 machine in operation, but as you probably know that film is extreme cost and is not permanent therefore my lust for silver film rolls.

[sanking]

Bill Nordstrom, the godfather of modernization of color pigment printing, might still be alive,
and was one of the first to adopt Lightjet. Last I heard, he was operating a big alt operation near Santa Cruz, CA. If anyone on earth knows how to secure appropriate bulk film, he does.

I saw some of Nordstrom's LightJet prints at a conference in Santa Fe in the early 2000s, after he quit working with his pigment color EveryColor process. Had not heard about the alt project, if anyone has more information please post.

Some details about his work with EverColor in Twentieth-Century Color Photographs: Identification and Care, by Sylvie Pénichon, published 2013 by the Getty.

Sandy