Re: Shooting for Alternative Processes

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From: jacques verschuren (info@jacquesverschuren.nl)
Date: 07/01/01-03:53:45 AM Z


Smieglitz@aol.com wrote:

> The other confession I'll make is that I now often photograph things to
> ultimately paint. (As an aside, one instructor called my watercolors
> "sinister". Definitely not saving the white of the paper. Most of the
> photos and paintings are dark.) I'm hoping a new megapixel digital camera
> will let me merge this activity with making images for polychrome gum
> printing. The original question I posed alluded to the day's equipment
> influencing how one sees or knowing what your going after and taking specific
> equipment along to record it. I don't want to be hauling a bunch of color
> slide film in those big sheet film holders (of which I have a limited number)
> just in case I see something in color. I think the digital camera in
> combination with the recently acquired Epson 1160 and Piezography inkset is
> going to solve this problem for me. I can toss the camera in my pocket and
> get a decent size image file from it to color separate in photoshop for gum
> printing. So now I'll have the sketch, point-and-shoot, and color camera all
> in a very small package and can just throw it in the case with the large
> format stuff.
>
> Joe

Joe,

Nice to read of your ideas of mixing digital camera files with digital output
(i.e. negatives). At this moment I am on the same path, but........I have tried
several ways to come to the decent negative (A3: 12x16 inch) from scanned
negatives for my (multiple)gum, cyanotype and kallitype printing and none has
been very satisfactory so far. I.e. when I compare my images to the ones I see on
people's website (yours and others)

*stochastic files from a service bureau (which "donated" a large contactprinting
device (Agfa) able to contact print (vacuum) up to A2 size).
*continuous tone negs from my Epson 1520, on plain paper (waxed and unwaxed),
Epson Photo Quality Glossy Film and Oce transparency and backlit film.
*digital files output on a Xerox colour copier, copier paper as the transparency
material stuck to the rollers of the copier because of the heat. Waxed and
unwaxed.

The most rewarding files up to now have been the stochastic images setter
negatives, but they seem less continous tone than I would like them to be. Maybe
I am too focussed on the (eventual) possibilities of Epson printers. But the
12x16 transparency which I tried to make on my 1520 came out all muddy and
wouldn't dry. The paper negatives lacked detail on plain paper, even on the
initial print. They contained too many dots.

So how do you get on with the 1160? Will it output A3+? Do you work on paper
negs? I can make an appointment at the Dutch Epson centre and bring my own media,
files, etc. to test my own specific files and output on all their printers. So
the path I want to explore seriously is the Epson printer way, even with a new
printer.

I am looking forward to your reaction.

Jacques Verschuren
http://www.jacquesverschuren.nl


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