U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Pictorico pinholes

Re: Pictorico pinholes



Hi Jan,

I honestly didn't see any pinholes before printing, but they could have been there. I was getting more than a dozen, randomly spaced. This is why, at that point, spotting the negative wasn't a good solution. As I said, once I used the humidifier, things improved, though I still have a few pinholes--only 2 or 3--small enough in number and size that I could spot them at this point (and thanks to those who told me what kind of sharpie to use!). However, I agree with you that I think the Pictorico itself is suspect. I never had trouble with Pictorico in any way until recently. I hope they didn't go and change something to "improve" something else . . . Thanks for the mention of Agfa copyjet, though. I may end up trying that. (Pictorico is way too expensive to have any defects, no matter how small--in my opinion!)


On Dec 5, 2006, at 1:30 PM, David & Jan Harris wrote:

Diana,
Are the pinholes visible on the pictorico before you print? We had trouble
with some small circular defects on sheets of pictorico. Initially we
thought it was a printing problem, but then we spotted small dimples on the
surface of several sheets. This happened with more than one pack of
pictorico. Eventually we gave up on pictorico and now use agfa copyjet.

Jan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diana Bloomfield" <dhbloomfield@bellsouth.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: Pictorico pinholes


Hi Camden,

Yeah, I think Jack mentioned the static electricity issue early on.
I assume, too, that static electricity is brought on, in part, by
lack of humidity.

I did think about the spotting, though.  You really use a sharpie?
One with a very fine point, I'm guessing.  I think it may come to
that, though. Thanks, Camden.

Diana

On Dec 4, 2006, at 11:34 AM, Camden Hardy wrote:

Diana,

I've got one more suggestion that hasn't been mentioned. Pictorico
tends
to build up quite a bit of static when it's removed from the rest
of the
stack. I've found that this static attracts all kinds of dust,
hair, etc.
that's floating in the air or printer.

Also, there's a (fairly) easy workaround for pinholes. What I do
is spot
the holes with a sharpie, and then spot the area back in on the final
print. If done correctly, it becomes very difficult (if not
impossible)
to tell that there was anything wrong with the negative. It takes
some
practice, but it saves money on wasted Pictorico.


Camden Hardy

camden[at]hardyphotography[dot]net
http://www.hardyphotography.net




On Sun, December 3, 2006 4:58 pm, Diana Bloomfield wrote:
Hi all,

I have a question maybe someone can answer here. I have used
Pictorico for a while, with an Epson 2200. I have been working on
one particular negative, and every single time I print it, on
Pictorico, I get these little pinholes (always always up in the blank
sky area). I have cleaned everything-- my house, the dog, the
computer/scanner/printer, the room itself, and I've cleaned the
original negative obsessively. The entire room/computer/scanner/
printer/negative/dog are cleaner than they've ever been. I opened
up a new packet of Pictorico, thinking that maybe something was wrong
with the original packet I was using. But the first one out of the
box--I printed it, and it was all clean, except for about 6 little
pinholes in the sky. Well, they vary in size. I'm going crazy with
this.

They don't seem to be dust marks; they just look more like little
places where the ink isn't going down properly--or something. So I
don't know if this is a static electricity problem or a humidity
problem or what. I really haven't a clue. So if anyone else has
suffered from this, please tell me what to do about these little
pinholes. I'm going crazy here.

Thanks for any help!

Diana