Re: digineges/gelatin silver/printer comments and questions

Chas,

I'm using Pictorico Hi Gloss White Film for silver printing using the R300
which is the little sister to the R800. The Epson inks for the R800 are
supposed to be pigmented not dye based BTW, therefore, you might need to use
pigment based inks or your output could be uncertain as the driver is
expecting pigment inks.
I use Glossy Photo for paper selection.
I use Photo RPM (aka 5760 DPI, Best photo is half that) and Microweave (only
accessible while in RPM mode).
I uncheck "high speed".
I use "Color" mode. More nozzles equals better printing. The reduction in
DMAX cause by color inks should be offset by the curve. My DMAX usually
measures just over 2, (~6 stops) which while not plenty, is enough.
With Pictorico HGWF I flip my image so it's sandwiched on the same side as
the silver paper.
The only grain I see is what was on the original film. I can see no
articfacts left by the printer. My printer is new.
The R800 R300 series don't have the ability to "lay down more ink" like the
1200 and 2000 series printers can. I don't know of a way around this, but
like I mentioned it doesn't matter because I believe the curve fixes this
inbinary.

~m

----- Original Message -----
From: "ryberg" <cryberg@comcast.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 1:25 PM
Subject: digineges/gelatin silver/printer comments and questions

> I suppose all of this post really boils down to two simple
questions--Is
> anyone making good diginegs for gelatin silver using any of the standard
> transparency materials? If so, how do you avoid grain? More detail
> follows.
> I need to start with the fact that I'm using an Epson R800 printer
with
> second party dye based inks, not the (expensive) OEM pigment based ones.
> I started out trying to use Nelson's Precision method but for gelatin
> silver instead of one of the alt processes. I foolishly reasoned that the
> turn-around speed of gelatin silver would save me a lot of time in working
> out the process to make a correct curve.
> The first thing I discovered was that the dye based inks are
transparent
> to light, so none of the colors blocked much. I switched to black, which,
> as you know, is really a mixture of colors plus some of the black ink.
> This worked in that it gave me negatives which printed from DMAX to DMIN.
> But, the images on three different transparent material were all grainy.
I
> used Avery, Office Depot and Pictorico. The Pictorico was by far the
least
> grainy but still too grainy to use.
> In desparation to get some, any, decent print I printed a negative on
> Epson Premium Glossy Paper (which isn't paper but plastic). A little
> fooling around with the curve and I got a very nice print. The light
> back-printing of EPSON on the paper did NOT show up in the print.
> Unfortunatly, this paper is opaque to UV, so this will not work with the
alt
> processes I want to use.
> With that rather long introduction, here are my questions: The R800
> does not appear to have the kinds of settings that the other Epson
printers
> mentioned here have. No such thing as microweave or dpi settings, though
> one of the supplies web sites gives what it claims are accurate dpi
outputs
> for the three (Fine, Photo and RPM [really pretty machine?]) settings. I
> just learned about the existance of RPM--do you suppose it is worth
> repeating the tests with it--it is apparently the highest setting. Any
> other suggestions to eliminate the grain?
> There is another third party ink called Dragon Drool III (I'm not
making
> this up) which claims to be a close clone of the Epson Ultrachrome inks.
> Does anyone have any experience with it?
> Thanks for any help. Charles Portland OR
>
Received on Sun Apr 10 13:11:31 2005