Re: Large negs from Epsom printer - reply

Larry Roohr (roohrphoto@orci.com)
Sat, 23 May 1998 21:56:34 -0600

Richard & Maria,

I've made one negative so far (time constraints). It looks fine and gave
me the density range I need. Unfortunately I'm plumb out of fresh Amm
Ferric Oxalate #2 for the Ziatype process I'm using. I used the Amm
Dichromate as a contrasting agent last weekend and got a grainy print.
Since I'm not sure what to attribute this to it wasnt a good test. I
hope to get more #2 ordered this week and post the results here.

I'm using the Epson Backlight Film. Gives a max density of 5.7 (fb+f
density is .38), if you limit the range to 2.2 or so you get a pretty
straight line portion of the curve to work with. I'm concerned with
compressing a digital tonality with a range of 255 to something much
less to fit this curve though. I can work with 16 bits with Photoshop 5
now, hopefully that will smooth it out.

The density range and full Epson 1440 dpi resolution is there for sure,
wether things less easily measured and quantified will hold up is
another question.

Larry