[darwinchristian]

For some reason, the same spot in my image has washed-out areas of all four colors:

it's only this one corner of the image. i can't imagine that i can't hold that entire area in my screen because of my setup, because the color values in this area aren't far off from other areas in the image which came out fine.

i don't have a sep program, i'm new to process, and i've separated the image myself in photoshop following tutorials and info i've found on the web.

any suggestions?

also- even though i have the image in CMYK mode in photoshop, when i use the color picker to select an area of the image it shows me in RGB in the color dialog. shouldn't i be getting cmyk values?

i feel so dissapointed and confused.

 

[darwinchristian]

the dropout is not visible in the films, just the screens and the prints.

 

[out da box]

Got ta be something on the exposure unit or, the vacuum or light is not uniform in the far corner of your screens. Check the exposure unit blanket or lid for close contact in that problem corner.

 

[darwinchristian]

Got ta be something on the exposure unit or, the vacuum or light is not uniform in the far corner of your screens.

thought about that. just find it weird that the far left has no problems, a half inch or so in is where the problem starts. i'm actually using ryonet's compression lid exposure setup. not quite a vacuum frame, but i've been pulling off 60.2 lpi halftones no problem until now.

just burned a new cyan screen and it looks miles better than the first. in the process of recoating magenta and yellow. will update.

derek.

 

[darwinchristian]

So after hours of trying to grasp hairs from my balding head i finally figured out how absolutely stupid i really can be.

in my exposure unit with compression lid, there is a piece of foam that sets in the screen to press the mesh against the glass when the lid is down.

i had had problems with it in the past producing halftones @45 lpi on 230s so i put a folded-up towel on top of the foam, in the center of the screen to fix it.

even though i hadn't had problems before burning 305s, this time it was the edge of that unholy towel that was creating a weak spot through 2 inches of foam.

screens look great now.

out da box nails it again!

thanks for your help everyone.

derek