Ender100@aol.com
Date: 10/14/02-11:12:48 PM Z
Hi Judy,
So a silver curve might work best for gum?
Microbanding runs in the direction of the print head... left to right. High
resolution (1440 in your case) with Super Microweave on will sometimes solve
this. Also, you can get it from not having the paper thickness lever set
properly.
You can get "vertical" banding from the scanner. If the CCD's are not all
functioning equally. Some scanners, like the Imacon, have a method of
adjusting this by running a slide through of a patch of even blue sky. The
scanner detects the band by the out of sync ccd and adjusts it to match those
around it. This is easy to detect though by going back and looking at that
area of your scan at 100% resolution. Sometimes if it is a color scan, you
will only see it in one channel. The blue channel usually has the most
"noise".
I'm not sure what the Kachinka Syndrome is you are referring to.
Passes refers to how many times the printer goes over the same portion of the
paper to lay down ink. Usually more passes means smoother laydown of ink. I
think the 10000 can be adjusted from 2, 4, 6, and 8 passes. I get the
smoothest with 8, but it takes a little longer. You can see this both at the
beginning and end of the print, where the paper stops moving, but the print
head keeps making passes.
I'm sure 360 will zip through the printer... but probably not the best
negative... but maybe good enough for gum. heheheheeh just kidding.
Error diffusion dither is what you want. That choice is a choice of the
Epson driver, not a setting you program into the printer like the number of
passes.
The Epson printer drivers differ somewhat between printers and of course
between versions. They also differ in how they appear in different versions
of Photoshop.
Enjoy!
Mark Nelson
In a message dated 10/14/02 11:57:32 PM, jseigel@panix.com writes:
<<
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. >>
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