DN and printing with a 3800

**coops** · 7-Sep-2010, 17:51

I am playing around with making digital negatives using inkpress paper and printing with an Epson 3800. The prints I make in the darkroom look great except I can see what is best described as a fine, small mesh like pattern on the final print, in the lighter areas, such as whitewater and skin tones. This is obviously on the negative I am printing to. I am contact printing the negatives no larger than 8x10.
I have changed the printer setting including doing a few nozzle checks, but no better. The pattern is also visible on paper prints in the very light areas.
Does anyone know what this is and how I can elimanate it?

Cheers

**D. Bryant** · 7-Sep-2010, 19:32

Originally Posted by coops

I am playing around with making digital negatives using inkpress paper and printing with an Epson 3800. The prints I make in the darkroom look great except I can see what is best described as a fine, small mesh like pattern on the final print, in the lighter areas, such as whitewater and skin tones. This is obviously on the negative I am printing to. I am contact printing the negatives no larger than 8x10.
I have changed the printer setting including doing a few nozzle checks, but no better. The pattern is also visible on paper prints in the very light areas.
Does anyone know what this is and how I can elimanate it?

Cheers

What you are describing is called dither, the pattern of dots created by the print driver or RIP to generate the image on paper.

You should not see any patterns when making regular ink jet prints, unless you are louping the print.

If you do see then without magnification you are seeing banding and you may need to do an alignment of the print head and adjust the printer for paper thickness.

You may also wish to view this thread on the same subject.

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=65255

Hope this helps,

Don Bryant

**coops** · 7-Sep-2010, 20:00

Thanks Don, will check it out.

**PViapiano** · 7-Sep-2010, 20:06

You're printing gelatin silver with the digi-neg, and it's to be expected to a certain degree. You're definitely NOT going to get the same result as you would with a film negative, so choose your images carefully with this method. Lith printing is a bit more forgiving with these negatives...