Scan/Print Technology

[Annie M.]

OK.... I’m ready to come out of the cave and would like to acquire the technology that will
provide the capacity for me to do the following:

1. Scanner.... (Epson 4870..yes/no?)
- scan b&w negatives up to 7x11inch format.
- scan 120 b&w panorama negatives, then employ some kind of mojo that will enable
me to produce digital negatives to 8x20 inches suitable for contact printing.
- scan color transparency up to 4x5 format.
- enable me to produce files suitable for uploading to a website.

2.Printer....
- capable of printing digital negatives in panorama format to 8x20 inches.
- accepts rolls of some kind of ‘arty’ paper for printing matt prints in B&W.
- can print matt color to 12x20 'arty' paper.
- can do standard B&W printing.
- 'archivalish'

3. Computer ...
-how much capacity or whatever do I need to perform these photographic functions? I
am currently using an old laptop that practically sweats blood when just downloading
my email so I assume an upgrade is in order.

4. Software...
-will I need supplementary software?

I am indeed aware that there is a lot of information out there, however I do not have the
expertise to assess the data and I know that there are very knowledgeable people here that can
give me concise and practical answers.

Perhaps it will assist someone in advising me of what I require if I give a brief description of
what my final output will be...
1. Website... the usual nothing special
2. I produce handbound books of my platinum photographs on fine art papers and
would like to produce similar handbound books using inkjet technology. As my binding process
uses a ‘folded paper’ method I require a printer that can accept two passes of long paper to get
two images on each sheet ... both color tint and B&W
3. The usual proofing of negatives.

Thank you for your assistance.... I know these posts can be tedious... perhaps I should also
mention that we are in the rainy season here and it is still a few months to the extreme low tides
when my subject matter is returned to me..... so I have a few housebound months to wrestle
with the technology.

Cheers!

[Annie M.]

Sheesh..... I messed up on the posting and showed up as a new user! If any of my 'usual' off line responders wish to contact me my email for this forum is linked with the signature below...

[Ralph Barker]

Are you sure you want to come out of the cave, Annie? For your objectives, there are a few new learning curves in your future. ;-)

1. Scanner - the Epson 4870 and earlier 3200, upon which it is based, might handle the 120, but won't handle your 7x11" negs - unless you want to laboriously scan sections and knit them together in software. The film scanning area is only about 4.5" wide and somewhere between 9" and 11" long. These scanners are "OK" for 4x5 film, depending on target usage, but pretty marginal for 120. (Note that the quality assessments here are quite subjective.) A 4870 or 3200 would be fine for work aimed at uploading to your website, but perhaps marginal for the book production side.

For your 7"x11" negs, you might be better off doing contact prints, and then scanning the prints. (These are really print scanners with so-so film scanning capabilities added.)

2. Printer - I use an Epson 2200, which will print to Super B (13"x19") or on rolls. It uses pigment-based inks, rather than dye-based, giving your "archival-ish" output. But, it's not intended for heavy production use. Also, I think most would suggest using one printer for color, and dedicating a separate printer to quality B&W, so 3rd party B&W inks can be used for that. For real production work, you may need to look at printers targeted at digital labs. The larger, production-oriented printers will have larger ink supplies and will be built for more intense use.

When you mention double runs for two images, do you mean "two-up" on one side of the paper? If so, combining the images in an image editor would be the better approach, I think. Running the paper through again for the second print might result in smears or damage to the first print area. I'm not aware of any papers that are coated on both sides for double-sided printing, but there might be something out there. But again, running the paper through twice carries risk of damage.

3. Computer - you'll want a current, fast PC with probably 1GB of RAM for the LF stuff.

4. Software - Photoshop is the "standard" for image editing, but you might get by with the latest version of PaintShop Pro, which is substantially less expensive. Image editors are memory hogs, however, and usually "want" at least 3x the memory of the largest files being edited.

Scanning software - many scanners come with SilverFast software, which operates as a plug-in with Photoshop. It's generally considered one of the best scanning packages, giving substantial control over the scan input process. It's expensive if you have to buy it separately, however.

Depending on the printer being used, other supplemental printing software might be advantageous.

There are a couple of books out on producing alt-process negs with inkjets. Sorry I don't have citations for them, but I'm sure someone else will have that info.

[Kirk Gittings]

I made a similar jump a few months ago for both color and B&W, commercial and fine art. Rather than playing guesswork. I surveyed the best people I personally knew and respected in Digital photography (who are some of the best in the country) and like you posted some questions on this forum. Rather than reinventing the wheel I took most of their advice and did the following. I was in a hurry with a big retrospective show coming up so broad comparisons were not possible.

People recommended Macs but I already had a good PC with Photoshop CS. I added an extra hard drive for the scratch disk and two external drives (one for storage and one for backup) and a DVD burner.

I bought an Epson 3200 scanner and promptly replaced it with 4870 with Silverfast when it came out. Works great for printing up to 16x20, but I would wait for 4990 in march if I were you. I have access to an Imagon when I need top drawer scan.

I bought an Epson 4000 printer and a ton of paper to play with.

and I bought the Colorbyte Imageprint RIP to drive everything.

Good luck!!

[Kirk Gittings]

Two additional notes I left out, I shoot 4x5 and I also bumped up the ram in my PC to 1G.

[Annie M.]

Brilliant... thank you both so much!

It is great to know that the imaging software will allow me to print a ‘two up’ for that is what is
required for the Japanese style of binding I am currently using... also this will allow me to do
small ‘concertina panorama’ books in the future. Book production demands are not high just for myself and the odd person that responds to my work. Sounds like the Mac, the 4990 and one of the Epson printers and the additional software you recommended will do nicely.... not leaving the cave forever... just don’t want to make images with one hand tied behind my back.

[Witold Grabiec]

I would only suggest reading an article in the latest issue of Shutterbug, which deals with B&W ink jet printing. It does not exhaust the issue, but will give you a good idea (and web links) to see what quality B&W ink jet printing entails.

[Bruce Watson]

I did this exercise a couple of years ago. You've got a few learning curves ahead of you, but if you are the inquisitive type and like learning new things, this shouldn't be a big deal.

IMHO, there's two ways to go to get answers to your questions. The longer, slower, cheaper route of teaching yourself. And the shorter, intense, expensive route of taking a class.

The long way is to read a lot, from lots of sources. Join a bunch of news groups and forums, and read everything. When you don't understand something, search the archives. Read books. And of course, ask questions.

Then buy a consumer flatbed scanner such as the Epson 3200 (used). Play with it. Get a copy of VueScan (shareware) and investigate it. You'll learn that getting a good scan is an art, and that's it's pretty far from push-button simple. Most importantly, you'll learn what to look for in your next scanner (me - I ended up with a used drum scanner ;-)

Buy an old Epson 1280 and play with inks. It's not so big that you loose a lot of ink when you do change overs. Try some of the grayscale quadtone inks (MIS, PiezoTones). As you master them, think about where you want to go... 7600 perhaps? 2200? 4000?

The short way is to suck it up, pay the money, and take a class. This will get you up to speed quickly, but it will make both your wallet and your brain hurt. For example:


http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/ws/workshop-cdw.html (http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/ws/workshop-cdw.html)

I mention this one because I took its predecessor a couple of years ago. This class looks to be a superset of the class I took, and the one I took was well worth the money. Jon Cone is a lot of things, and people form opinions of him quickly. But he is an excellent printer, and he does know how to teach. Highly recommended.

Everybody's different. Everybody learns differently. So, of course, YMMV.

[mark blackman]

Some useful advice here, though I'm surprised that no one has mentioned colour management. I suggest you read up on the importance of it and how you need to be in complete control of the end-to-end process to ensure you get the image you want.
Personally I've given up on printing at home apart from simple proofs, and gone to on-line pro printers who use lightjet technology. At the end of the day I can get large prints on 'proper' photographic paper far cheaper than anything I could do at home with an inkjet and be happy in the knowledge the image will last.