Epson 3880 print settings and PS curve for Kallitype?

[Mike Fiction]

My awesome wife got me a 3880 for Christmas so I can make larger digi negatives!

I had been using a small Canon photo printer and got my process down and now I have to start all over.

I figured before I launched into using a bunch of expensive paper this weekend testing, I'd ask if anyone would be willing to share their PS curve and printer settings for kallitypes to give me a place to start.

I'm using Pictorico OHP, printing on Arches Platine and developing with Sodium Acetate developer.

I figured this has to be a common enough printer that someone has used at least a similar enough process to get me at a good starting point using the standard inkset

Thanks!

- Mike

[sanking]

My awesome wife got me a 3880 for Christmas so I can make larger digi negatives!

I had been using a small Canon photo printer and got my process down and now I have to start all over.

I figured before I launched into using a bunch of expensive paper this weekend testing, I'd ask if anyone would be willing to share their PS curve and printer settings for kallitypes to give me a place to start.

I'm using Pictorico OHP, printing on Arches Platine and developing with Sodium Acetate developer.

I figured this has to be a common enough printer that someone has used at least a similar enough process to get me at a good starting point using the standard inkset

Thanks!

- Mike

Congratulations on your 3880. It is a good printer for making digital negatives.

The least expensive way to calibrate for your process is by printing with AWB and creating a curve with ChartThrob. http://www.botzilla.com/blog/archives/000544.html

Sandy

[Mike Fiction]

Awesome, thanks Sandy!
That seems like one of the simplest ways of calibrating for digital negatives.

What is printing with AWB? Auto White Balance?

[Colin Graham]

I think Sandy is referring to Epson's Advanced Black and White mode. I was able to get a great deal of density directly from the printer driver using that, but personally I was always plagued by dither artifacts in the highlights using it. Others have had better luck with it. I'm convinced that there's enough variance in individual working methods and even individual 38xx series printer differences that make recommending a single procedure or profile difficult.

If you're up to trying QuadTone Rip (which is a tremendous bargain at $50) you might find more of an existing alt-process profile database to work from. QTR uses the same inkset, but gives a lot more control over the individual ink channels. This can make it easier to fine tune an existing profile to your process and printer, or make your own from scratch.

[sanking]

Awesome, thanks Sandy!
That seems like one of the simplest ways of calibrating for digital negatives.

What is printing with AWB? Auto White Balance?

Sorry, that should have been ABW. It is a setting in the Epson driver that means Advanced Black & White. When you use it you can print with only the black inks. There is nothing wrong with using the color inks for making digital negatives, but if you are looking for a quick and inexpensive way to calibrate for kallitype, ABW + ChartThrob should get you there.

Sandy

[Mike Fiction]

ok cool thanks guys! - I probably would have figured that out if I was at home - the settings on the Epson are not familiar enough to know what all is there yet!

Colin,
Do you know if the demo version of QT RIP has full functionality?

[Colin Graham]

Hi Mike,

Yes, I think the full version download is still free to try, but it's been a few years since I downloaded it. It's pretty generous of him; download it, try it, pay the $50 if you like it.

Edit- I have a kallitype profile I can send along if you want to try it out, but it's for a 3800. I use a sodium citrate developer but it's also worked well with acetate. But I usually add 1ml of 5% potassium dichromate per liter to the developer to take some of the ink load off the highlights, which helps reduce printer artifacts. Also, I pd/pt tone, which seems to change the curve somewhat over un-toned prints.

Hehe, a lot of caveats I know, but let me know if you're interested.

[Mike Fiction]

Thanks Colin,

I'll download QTR later today and check it out - I had been using drops of ammonium dichromate right in my sensitizer to boost contrast because my Canon could not get the contrast range I wanted without an extreme curve that would cause weirdness.
I might continue doing that just to keep the curve on the less extreme side, I figure the less I need to do on the actual digital version of the image the better. I still trust chemicals more I guess, haha.

I'm still a beginner really with hand coating, just finally got down a brushing style that works for me to get perfect and consistent coating with my materials. Once I get more comfortable with the digital negative curve process, I'm going to start toning with pt and going larger than 8x10 (which also requires I find a plate burner and I'll have to start my digital negative curves all over again I suppose, haha)

It's a long but fun road!

- Michael

[Mike Fiction]

So I tried the chartthrob thing and it didn't get close - tried 3 different printer settings and 2 different ways of capturing the chart. I tried with no ammonium dichromate and a with a little to see if adjusting contrast through chemicals would help control the curve. None of the curves it generated looked anywhere near as good as they should. Blocked up upper mid-tones and highlights galore.

Then I went back to my original way, I'll describe my process in case anyone else wants to know.

1. Manually build curves/adjust by eye (based on roughly what I know the curve should look like) and print four 4x5's of the same photo on an 8x10, each with slightly different curves.
2. Take the best and use that as a starting point, print four more 4x5's on another 8x10 after seeing what was good and what was bad, adjusting again by eye. (very close on 2 of them hard to tell which is best)
3. Make a third sheet of 8x10's (this time of a completely different image with different tonal ranges) using the 2 best from the last sheet as a starting point
4. Determine which one looks best from that 3rd batch and print four very different images on one last 8x10

Printing times, coating/drying times and contrast control were standardized throughout the process. I printed an inkjet version of exactly what I printed in kallitype to compare so that I wasn't throwing myself off by seeing so many versions of the same image, especially when there was more than one that looked decent/good to me.

It's not scientific at all but it works for me