Ender100@aol.com
Date: 10/14/02-02:13:00 AM Z
Hi Judy,
Have you tried making your curve using a reflective densitometer on the
printed step tablet? That should get you beyond the guessing point.
There is a reason they call the Epson 10000 the Epson $10000.
No, I don't use it just to print negatives hehehe By the way, a lot of people
with large format printers like this print at 720 dpi. With large prints,
especially on matte watercolor papers, you can't tell the difference ... even
more so at a normal viewing distance. Prints are much faster at 720. For
finer things, though, like printing negatives, I set it at 1440. This also
helps avoid micro banding of the image. I also reset the printer to print in
8 passes, which makes the image even smoother. Always avoid bi-directional
printing and high speed printing for this type of work...it takes a little
longer, but it makes a MUCH better negative.
Mark Nelson
In a message dated 10/14/02 2:45:27 AM, jseigel@panix.com writes:
<< Hi Mark,
Thank you very very much for that description. It makes a bit clearer
what I'm trying to do. That is, make a populist, or relatively low key
"casual" negative. I don't say "amateur," because that word is so
relative, and the agony endured with "learning the curve" seems cruel &
unusual for amateur. Still, compared to what you describe, many of us are
in that space.
Now, though I hesitate to ask, still, how could I not -- how much does
this wonder cost?
As for the boiling water -- that's been one of the drawbacks to the 1160
negative... if you talk over it (notice I don't say "cry"), you risk blob,
because one teeny drop of spray melts it. But I think that was only on a
thin vellum, where the ink sat on surface of the paper. On the Pictorico,
for instance, not a problem -- tho the Pictorico surface is fragile in
other ways.
As for dpi, frankly, I doubt that with one of these emulsions not printed
on the hardest, smoothest paper you could tell the difference between 720
and 1440 dpi -- unless you got your eyeglasses re-prescriptioned, which
I've been meaning to do for a couple of years. But I think that would
anyway be in close up -- if the print is large it won't be viewed from
close up. More important to the general effect, it seems to me, at least
at my current level, is getting the "curve" right. If that looks right, I
think all kinds of other stuff gets a pass. >>
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