From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 10/14/02-09:54:08 PM Z
On Mon, 14 Oct 2002 Ender100@aol.com wrote:
> 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.
With gum the print is so variable according to mix & development no print
is really definitive, so I look, as noted, for generic negative. (The step
tablet printed in nice even steps to the eye, but rather soft in color --
if I'd added more color to pep it up, would have been entirely different
curve. Etc.) Besides which, I do not own a reflective densitometer....
I prefer in this sense the silver gelatin "generic" negative, measured to
match an emulsion, but still with some give.
> There is a reason they call the Epson 10000 the Epson $10000.
Ah, I should have guessed. But it's too big for my dining table anyway.
> 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.
Microbanding? Is that vertical or horizontal? I noticed on a couple of the
test strips a fine vertical texture, almost like a plaid, lines running
the *length* of the strip, that crossed with the crossing lines of print,
showed a very faint texture in the highlights -- in the print. Not
readily visible in the negative.
This does NOT appear in the actual photograph, either in the negative or
in the print, so I figured it had something to do with the regularity, the
printer heads running kachinka kachinka down 13 even flat steps of the
step tablet. Does this seem plausible?
> I also reset the printer to print in
> 8 passes, which makes the image even smoother. Always avoid bi-directional
8 passes as opposed to how many passes? What are passes? The paper keeps
rolling back and going through again? And register is perfect?
> printing and high speed printing for this type of work...it takes a little
> longer, but it makes a MUCH better negative.
I always put high speed off, but I notice that 720 dpi goes through
liketysplit anyway, and 360 is almost instantaneous.
New question: Do you have to choose between fine dither and error
diffusion or is that kid stuff your printer doesn't bother with? I've
tested both and don't see a difference.
J.
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