RE: Banding on Pictorico with Epson 2200
Thanks for the input. One of the most irksome memories I have from my inkjet days is that when you just HAD to produce a negative, there was no way you could persuade a stubborn printer to cooperate, even "a little". Chemical methods certainly have their disadvantages, but there is never that ON or OFF issue that one has with a printer. This is often the case when one compares digital and analog. Analog fails "in degrees", ie., one can get results that range from good to bad. Digital, being either ON of OFF either works, or fuhgetaboudit. -----Original Message----- From: Camden Hardy [mailto:camden@hardyphotography.net] Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 11:01 AM To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: RE: Banding on Pictorico with Epson 2200 Keith, > Fairly Global? Several weeks? About given up? I'd like to clarify that the venetian blind problem, despite showing up in most printers, is still fairly unusual in practice (depending, of course, on the artist's personal aesthetic). The banding really only occurs (from what I've seen, at least) in very smooth highlight gradations. It doesn't show up in every image. In my case, I've _never_ had a problem with it in my images...even those printed on a printer that exhibits the banding (printing a gradient is a good way to tell whether your printer does this). Mark Nelson's got some examples of images that had the banding issues, although I can't find any of them on his website. Perhaps he'll share...? > So what is the real skinny? Are these printers still a hassle to use? To > tell you the truth, Camden, the odds you speak of are not reassuring: Two > of your three 2200s band? You're lucky in that you have more than one to > choose from. Is the prevailing thought concerning inkjet negatives still > that struggling with the printer is just "part of the territory"? The real skinny, in my opinion, is that this banding is nothing more than a small hiccup in the progress of digital negatives, and is in no way a reason not to give them a try. I have had absolutely wonderful experiences with these Epson printers, and wouldn't give digital negs up. I wouldn't go so far as to say that struggling with the printer is part of the territory. Like any other workflow, inkjet negatives are not without problems. Based on what I'm seeing, each generation of printer is getting better and better. The 2200s are great, the 4000s are better in my opinion, although they're pretty rough with Pictorico, and the prints I've seen that came from the R2400 and R1800 are phenominal. I hope this cleared some things up. The last thing I want to do is scare anyone away from the workflow I've come to love. :) Camden Hardy camden[at]hardyphotography[dot]net http://www.hardyphotography.net
|