Digital Negatives *once again*

Chris P. Gibbs Photography (cpgibbs@ptialaska.net)
Thu, 08 Jan 1998 11:49:15 +0000

Hello All,

Just before Christmas Sil Horwitz explained how he is using a double
black from his Epson Stylus 800 to obtain a higher quality digital
negative.

>In my experience, using "double black" (i.e., using all colors to make black plus the black) gives deeper negs than black alone, which tends to be thin on transparencies (and often on reflective
materials, as well)<

Well, after a little fishing I'm finding that owners of these machines
are getting some excellent looking (for inkjet) black and white prints
by following the same principle and utilizing all four inks! The
outputs I've seen vary from wild sepia to a slight selenium look, and
when compared to a *straight black* output seem to exhibit a smoother
tonal-range. Again, not withstanding resolution issues I'm leaning
toward the Sylus-Photo 6 color (firing on all 6 cylinders for black &
white negatives). ANY COMMENTS - OR NEW USERS OUT THERE.

Ken Carney was also kind enough to share some info about file sizes for
these printers. Can anyone expand on this?

>I am advised that inkjets such as the Epson are more free from artifacts if the file size is a prime number.<

It was also pointed out to me that an IRIS printer outputs around
300dpi, I have seen beautifull Iris outputs on watercolor paper! Is
this machine 4 or 6 color?

Finally, has anyone been brave enough to feed watercolor paper through
their Epson printer, if so can you get that Iris Printer feel?

Regards,
Chris Gibbs