[alt-photo] Re: New Platinum Prints

[etienne garbaux]

Loris wrote:

>Actually it's beneficial to use a long scale process with digital negatives
>(as long as the inks can give sufficient density of course!), since the low
>contrast emulsion masks printer's dithering / weaving pattern pretty
>efficiently, giving very smooth and rich tonalities. Keeping all else
>constant (such as printer, transparency material, paper...), I can see the
>dithering with cyanotype whereas I can't see it with pop pd, and the pd
>prints aren't less sharp than cyanotype prints at all... (Both will show 2x2
>pixels checkerboard pattern in 360ppi file resolution, which makes ~7 lines
>per mm print resolution. This is the max I can get from my printer anyway.)

The very reason I won't use digital negatives -- I can always see the 
artifacts.  Using silver-based test negatives, I can resolve about 18 
lpmm with Pt on hot-pressed paper, and over 20 on baryta-coated 
paper.  Both will show the dither pattern on any inkjet negatives 
I've seen (as well as the raster pattern from imagesetter 
negatives).  I estimate that we need file and printer hardware 
resolutions of 2000 ppi or so to eliminate it (80 Mp for a 4x5" print).

Best regards,

etienne