Half-tone Troubles...

I'm hoping this is the right place for this. If not, my apologies :happy:
I'm just starting out screenprinting, and I've already reached a dilemma. A band wants me to print a poster, but the poster features a black and white photo of a man. Since the photo is of course not true black and white, and shows up grey in reality, I know it won't burn to a screen. SO, I need to find some way to turn the man into half-tones (is that terminology correct? sorry...) so that I can actually print a transparency and then successfully burn a screen. What is the best way to turn that man into something that I can actually use?
Someone mentioned turning the image into a bitmap, but would I still be able to do that to a single layer of the .pdf without changing the whole image?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

You need separations if you don't have them already. So, you can isolate the photo portion of the pdf in photoshop and then turn it into a bitmap, then add it back into the original composition for layout.

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Originally Posted by bdix

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Does no one rub poop on their face to solve printing problems anymore?

It sounds like you really are just getting started. Halftones may give you trouble if you're just starting out. A lot of things need to be perfect just to get those dots to burn right (film positive opacity, good contact between positive and screen, proper coating etc).

Might be easier to just run a few thresholds on the picture in Photoshop, then you don't have to deal with the dots and still get a decent presentation of a grayscale pic. In my limited experience one can get away with a bit of sloppiness until halftones / stochastic dots enter the picture

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Originally Posted by vrooooom

You need separations if you don't have them already. So, you can isolate the photo portion of the pdf in photoshop and then turn it into a bitmap, then add it back into the original composition for layout.

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Sorry to ask you to do this, but would you mind going into detail on how to isolate the photo portion and add it back in once I've transformed it to a bitmap?

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Originally Posted by edwardo_machino

It sounds like you really are just getting started. Halftones may give you trouble if you're just starting out. A lot of things need to be perfect just to get those dots to burn right (film positive opacity, good contact between positive and screen, proper coating etc).

Might be easier to just run a few thresholds on the picture in Photoshop, then you don't have to deal with the dots and still get a decent presentation of a grayscale pic. In my limited experience one can get away with a bit of sloppiness until halftones / stochastic dots enter the picture

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Soooo, there might be an easier way for now than working with half-tones for now? Obviously I'm not suuuuper proficient with photoshop just yet, so I'm not entirely sure what to do with the thresholds. Would you mind expounding a little?

...just started screenprinting and now a band wants you to do a poster...with halftones...what are halftones?????

let's assume you can convert your image to a halftone.....then what are you going to do?

suggestion.....go run some digital copies (especially if the thing wasn't designed for screenprinting to begin with), then come back and start at the beginning. Read some process threads. use the search function.

Andymac is tired today.