Bob, yes I am only looking at printing B&W for my art photography. I send out all the color. As per RIPs, I have been using ImagePrint for years now. I am on IP7 now and still happy with it. I don't see anything in IP8 that I need.
Bob, yes I am only looking at printing B&W for my art photography. I send out all the color. As per RIPs, I have been using ImagePrint for years now. I am on IP7 now and still happy with it. I don't see anything in IP8 that I need.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Im quite certain you'll really enjoy the Harmon paper. The glossy has a "very" glossy surface, almost over the top, but that's a matter of taste.
I had to adjust inking levels as I was oversaturating the paper at first. Got that tweeked and the black didn't diminish a bit.
5 stars for my money.
Bob
Just to vary the input a bit, not to be argumentative, I am not a fan of the Harman at all. The base is way too blue, much bluer than any traditional photography paper and any available matte board. Also, the gloss is nothing like a beautiful air dried fiber, but nearly identical to a standard RC gloss print. Not that I feel it should mimic anything, but it lacks an elegant feel to me. The warm version looks promising but I' haven't had time to really tweak it into a sweet spot.
Much as I wanted to like the Ilford Gold Fiber Silk, the strong curl from rolls made it too difficult to deal with, sheets look fine. The HP gloss differential was solved, according to my friend John Dean in Atlanta, with a driver update that allowed more GLOP with some custom setting.
So far, for me, the Photo Rag Baryta has been the most successful, and though many new papers have come along since, Silver Rag remains a great performer though a little toothy. The many others so far mentioned fell a bit short of these, I'm looking forward to trying the Canson Platine Fibre Rag, as their matte papers are testing well here.
Just my opinions...
Tyler
http://www.custom-digital.com/
Kirk,
One suggestion when you try the paper - run at least a few prints without Image print, using just the Epson AWB setting. I did not get as good an output with Imageprint on my 3800 as with AWB, and I even had the Imageprint folks make a custom profile for my printer. I will post my AWB settings when I get home. I moved to Qimage for my black and white, using it for final output sharpening and to keep the printer and layout settings. It is really nice to just have to do proper sharpening on the master image. I think spin out a tif for printing to Qimage.
My major issue with Innova is that it does a surface texture, and Harmon has none. Being old enough to have used silver paper - and even to have ferrotyped it - my preference is for that classic glossly but not ferrotyped silver paper look.
Ed Richards
http://www.epr-art.com
Ed, Were you using IP7? Oddly when I got the 3800 I switched to AWB from IP6, fooled with it for a few months, used Chan's profiles, had some made, was not happy at all on baryta papers, was fine on mat, took one of my typical long breaks from printing, bought a new computer, upgraded to IP7 to look at IP again (I had owned it since it came out but never installed it) and love it, superb softproofing, total tonal control......
I would like to see your AWB settings.
I agree about Innova's surface texture.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
I appreciate that input Tyler. As noted above base paper color and surface is extremely important to me.Originally Posted by Tyler Boley
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
It's hard to be critical of a paper so many like, without implying their own prints fall short in some way, which is obviously not the case, everyone's taste is finely honed and individual. It should also be noted the Brooks, clearly a man of good B&W taste, likes the Harman for the Lenswork editions. So, the usual grain of salt...
I'll have my hands on some of the Platine Fiber Rag tomorrow to begin testing. Also, please be warned I've encountered a lot of buggers in the HPR Baryta, not cool. Lastly, don't confuse the Photo Rag Baryta with the Fine Art Baryta, which has a very different feel and surface, less appealing to me.
Tyler
for B&W work you should also try the Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper. It has become my favorite paper for B&W
Kirk,
IP7. It worked great for Innova and a couple of others, it was only Harmon where AWB was better.
Settings
Media type - Premium Glossy Photo Paper
Paper thickness - 4
Platen gap - Wide
Print quality level - Level 5
Print Quality - Superphoto 2800
High speed - on
Finest detail - off
Edge smooting - off
Color adjust - color controls
Tone - darker
Highlight point shift - off
Any others are default.
Ed Richards
http://www.epr-art.com
My impression is that the Harman Gloss FB Al is still slightly warm tone and in no way "cool" or "blue"... A while back, I did a set of wet prints on Ilford fiber MG glossy (little selenium toning to boost the Dmax) and the same prints from drum scans on the Harman - the Harman base is obviously warmer. I'd actually prefer it to be slightly more neutral!
I find it to be wonderful stuff and use it in both the normal and warmtone; as well as photorag and Epson velvet fine art (wish they made this stuff wider than 17") for matt papers.
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