LightMeasure UV Exposure Meters offer ultra-violet (UV) exposure dose meters (also called ‘integrators’) designed specifically for artists who work with UV media sensitive such as:
- Solar plate™, ImagOn™ or similar photopolymer and photogravure processes
- Platinum or Palladium printing
- Cyanotypes
- Kallitypes
- Van Dyke browns
- Carbon prints
- and similar processes which use UV light to expose an image
The meters are designed to enable the artist to get perfect exposures every time without the need to make test strips for every exposure, even when using light sources (such as the sun) where the UV levels might be variable.
You use the meter to establish a ‘target UV dose’ for your combination of light source and medium, which you only need to do one time. Then use this ‘target dose’ for future prints – you don’t need to make any more test strips, simply use the meter to monitor the UV during the exposure step and stop when you reach the target dose.
We offer meters with built-in sensors as well as external sensors suitable for use in vacuum frames.
Address: LightMeasure, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Email: info.LightMeasure (at) gmail.com
Website: LightMeasure.com
Ship: Worldwide shipping
I’m getting back into Palladium printing and have a light box that is used with silkscreening. 8 UV bulbs under glass with a vacuum mat coming down over your work. It has a timer but nothing else. SO to know wither your light source is the same every time in impossible to know. So I just ordered the PPM-2 with the extended sensor to place between the mat and glass and have that as my metering system. By recording the measurement to the time I will be able to be more consistent with my printing. I will let you know how it works for me. thank you Michael Andersen
I thought a follow up was in order. I received the PPM-1 unit within a reasonable time after ordering. I made some measurements off my normal UV unit. Used those numbers to make a new exposure outside, with the sun, and the results were very encouraging. Thank you for making this “integrator”, allowing me to make more reliable exposures with the sun.
Look good. I just ordered one. It should take a lot of the guess work out of exposing polymer plates with the sun.
Hi Ginette,
Let me first introduce myself – I’m Ian Parker from LightMeasure. I designed the PPM-1 meter which we sell.
I’m from a Solarplate background myself, and haven’t actually made any lumen prints. However, I researched lumen printing (on this excellent website here) to better understand the process. After reading several articles, and researching other sites to find the spectral sensitivity of photographic papers, I think that this is perhaps not the best meter for you to use. The reason being that the PPM-1 meter is sensitive ONLY to a narrow range of UV light, whereas photographic paper is sensitive to the visible parts of the spectrum as well. Although, in sunlight, the visible and UV portions of the spectrum usually go hand in hand, there are times of the day when the relative contributions might vary. And if you were to use a studio light source it would be different again.
For Solarplate printing and Pt/Pd/Carbon printing it is only the UV which exposes the plate, so the PPM-1 is a good choice. But for the lumen process it might give you misleading exposure dose information.
I hope this makes sense, and that I have properly understood the lumen printing process.
Regards,
Ian
Is this meter usufull for the lumen process or if the UV wavelengths between 360 – 390 nm is too short for be consistent with lumen prints?
Great tool!