Photomechanical
processes - Photo etching, photogravure and photo- silk screen.
These last three processes are written from a different standpoint from
the others in this manual. We make the assumption that you have already
had, or intend to have, access to a printing studio and some experience
of using etching presses and silk screen printing methods. Alternatively,
you intend to learn these methods in parallel with traditional photographic
printing. Or, finally, you may be involved in fine art printing and wish
to incorporate photographic images into your work. In any case it is impractical
to teach the disciplines of strictly non-photographic skills within the
confines of a manual of this sort. The use of metal printing plates, etching,
aquatinting, stopping out, adjusting the press and mixing inks are all
learnt by hands-on experience under the supervision of a skilled printer
in a studio environment. For these reasons these sections will deal only
with the photographic applications of the process. We can show you how
to put a photographic image on a plate or silk screen. Thereafter you
will have to continue the process using the traditional skills available
in a print studio. We feel that the inclusion of these processes is valid
not only because they offer a very interesting and different means of
presenting an image, but also because they played a very crucial part
in the development of photography from its earliest beginnings. Niepce,
Daguerre and Fox Talbot all used metal plates in their experiments with
photography, which in turn allowed multiple reproductions of photographs
to be made from the original source material.