RE: Banding w/ 2200 + thanks for the Biennial
Hi Loris - My hat's off to IFSAK for organizing such a comprehensive biennial - and my participation in it is certainly a high-water mark in my artistic career. Friends and acquaintances I met in Istanbul continue to send me links to websites and I'm impressed with what is going on there creatively. With your photographic eye, combined with your new-found curatorial skills, I'd say you are well-positioned to take the world by storm! Please keep a fire under those gum workshop participants. I expect to see complete portfolios when I return! I'm glad you are having luck with the new primer option. I found that using Yupo I was able to use far less gelatin/CaCO3 than I previously thought, but then again before I was only coating aluminum and needed a brighter white. I'm still not very fond of the slick look of Yupo. I've coated a couple of sheets of Tyvek (a Dupont product used as a moisture/wind barrier in housbuilding like here: http://www.grisak.com/Buying%20a%20home%20pages/Buying%20a%20New%20Construct ion%20Home/Tyvek%20House%20Wrap.JPG It's thin, so it is kind of hard to handle, but I like the texture better than Yupo. I'm still undecided on the inkjet option. I'm looking around for a throw-away printer so I can test it with cheap ink and paper. I figure that print size isn't all that important because I can just tape the paper together to get the big negatives I like. On the other hand, I was just given several large rolls of 30 year-old lith film AND winter is upon us, so another couple of months spent in the darkroom is likely in my future. Next week I try CURVES with film recorder positives enlarges to lith film. Now, I'm preparing for a meze/raki party this weekend. I'm even making manti! I realize manti is not really meze, but I had to figure out something to do with the bag of sumac that I brought back stashed in my bags amongst the powdered gum and sodium metabisulphate. My only regret is that I didn't bring home a nargile setup. Those things are more expensive here than I had imagined! Later, Keith -----Original Message----- From: Loris Medici [mailto:mail@loris.medici.name] Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:24 AM To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: RE: Banding w/ 2200 + thanks for the Biennial Hi Keith, I have both 1160 and 1290 and never had banding / drying up... only occasional need of cleaning cycles. I learned that if the printer doesn't give you a good nozzle check after the second cleaning cycle, you just have to turn it off, wait 5-10 mins, turn it on and print a nozzle check again - to see it's perfect! The problem with too many consecutive cleaning cycles is that they will often cause bubling inside the cart = more problems. Patience is the key ;) Also having a too dry climate is no good for Epsons. Istanbul is quite humid most of the time - indoor RH in my hause is usually between 40-65%... (outdoors RH can go up to 98%!) We used Pictorico digital negatives made w/ a 1290 in Sandy's workshop in Istanbul - the printer didn't cause any problems while printing 11 negatives consecutively... (I did a separate nozzle check before every negative - to be on the safe side - and I had no problems) You can check for 1280's if they're still selling them (it's still a current model in Europe), the price was around $250-300 (after rebate, free shipping) which is quite good for a good A3+ digital negatives printer! And I just ordered 3rd party ink (locally) for only $8.35 per cart which is a pretty good price I think - so good that I'm ready to recalibrate for the new ink! And since this so-called venetian blinds effect are only seen in smoothest highlights which are very hard to print with gum - as you told us - at the same time, this is a non-issue for you unless you want to do Pt/Pd at the same time. (I would like to remind you that I do print Pt/Pd with my 1290 without problems - and I'm pretty confident that they're quite good technically / ask Sandy ;)) BTW, the gelatine / CaCO3 primer works better than plain acrylic gesso + gelatine on Yupo - will post few test prints soon! Results are promising - I just have to improve my coating technique in order to achieve a smoother and more even primer layer. Thank you very much for mentioning this! Will send you one of my first sucessful prints on Yupo soon - hopefully ... But since I can be quite perfectionist sometimes, this may not occur very soon... ;) Also, I would like to thank again Keith, Sandy and Galina for participating our (IFSAK) first International Biennial of Photography in Istanbul. I'm very proud (as a "extremely-amateur-one-time" curator) that these alt. process exhibitions (including Michal Macku's) and workshops were among the most well received events of the Biennial. Best regards, Loris.
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