[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Digital negs and Platinum
Dan Burkholder wrote:
> ...
> I'm leaving in an hour to talk at a local college where I'll be showing 8
> X 10 platinum print
> made from desktop inkjet negatives. That's where the future is: making
> our own negatives quickly, easily and cheaply. Just yesterday a company
> sent me some transparency material that they claim (don't they all) is
> better than Epson's.
Dan,
Wanted to let you know that I have been interested in reasonably
affordable, self-done, digital negatives as well. I think I may get
somewhere with an HP ScanJet 6300 and an HP DeskJet 970. The
transparency material I am using is unexposed and cleared Tri-X film.
Have you tried this? Both the gelatin and back side seem to work as
well. I have made some lines with Photoshop (1200 ppi and printed 600
lpi); both sides resolve excellent. The important thing about the film
is probably the retouchable surface. I am working on which inks to use
at which density range for a typical negative.
I have already found that negatives must have less density than typical
for Pt/Pd limited by the sensitivity of the scanner. I have also found
that the HP inks (as any ink) do not behave as at first expected. Such
as the magenta ink transmits more light for Pt/Pd wavelengths than
yellow, than black. (This may differ for other inks.) Cyan seems
useless as it transmits almost all.
A question: Have you considered laying the image down as a set of
parallel lines at finest resolution, with another layer in-between and
other layers perpendicular? I suspect that this may provide for better
sharpness as compared to one solid layer.
Another question: I would like more than 256 steps. I have Photoshop
5.0.2 which does have a 16 bit/channel mode, but does not print in this
mode. Do you know of a way to print out 16 bits/channel? Will
Photoshop do this, or another software?
--
Jeffrey D. Mathias
http://home.att.net/~jeffrey.d.mathias/