Making Digital negatives

[stompyq]

Thats a idea that I didn't consider and would be a good starting point for me untill I get the alt process down. The less unknowns I have to deal with the better. I looked at the price but could not find any pricing info. Whats the general pricing like for a 5x7 or 8x10 neg?

Scratch that thought. They look like they are not cheap..... Oh well back to the original plan

[sanking]

Thats a idea that I didn't consider and would be a good starting point for me untill I get the alt process down. The less unknowns I have to deal with the better. I looked at the price but could not find any pricing info. Whats the general pricing like for a 5x7 or 8x10 neg?

There is no question but that LVT digital negatives are better than digital negatives made with an inkjet printer. But compared to inkjet negatives they are very expensive, and most importantly, do not give better results in alternative printing processes where the image is on a water color paper. This is due to the fact that the paper itself limits sharpness even more so than the inkjet printer so the LVT negative is simply overkill for the purpose. If your ultimate goal is to make alternative prints you would be better off, IMHO, just bitting the bullet and learning to make digital negatives with an inkjet printer.

However, before you start to work with digital negatives I would recommend that you purchase a Stouffer TP-45 step wedge and learn to print with one of the alternative processes. I would suggest cyanotype or vandyke. You will rather tie your hands behind your back if you start to make digital negatives (either LVT or inkjet) for printing with an alternative process if you don't understand the printing characteristics of the process, i.e. exposure scale, what you can expect in terms of reflective shadow density, etc.

Sandy King

[IanG]

Having just made my first Pt/Palladium prints while staying with a friend I was astounded at how perfectly the digital negatives made using QTR actually printed.

It was WYSIWYG except for image colour, and that's not far off my Silver Gelatin prints.

While I'd prefer to go down an all analog route realism says hybrid. I wish I'd started earlier

Ian

[Richard M. Coda]

Thats a idea that I didn't consider and would be a good starting point for me untill I get the alt process down. The less unknowns I have to deal with the better. I looked at the price but could not find any pricing info. Whats the general pricing like for a 5x7 or 8x10 neg?

This is their price list from last fall. Says they are working on their website so prices may be going up.

[D. Bryant]

This is their price list from last fall. Says they are working on their website so prices may be going up.

Those prices are prohibitively expensive for most anyone. Read Tylers post about the results Paul Taylor is getting with a hybrid method of using Piezieotone <sp?> inks, ATR and Mark Nelson's Curve Calculator II.

Don Bryant

[David Hedley]

Those prices are prohibitively expensive for most anyone.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so! From original 4x5 negatives, I'd like to be able to produce 16x20 digital negatives from which I could either contact print, or have gravure plates produced. The entire process seems to be fraught with difficulty and to be prohibitively expensive.

[sanking]

interesting-

http://www.renaissancepress.com/digital-film/

using K7 for the negs...
Tyler

My question would be what was he doing before he tried Piezography K7 + QTR + PDNs Curve Calculator II? Did he try the Epson inks + QTR + PDNs Curve Calculator II? And do the Piezography K7 inks print with better resolution on Pictorico, which is the OHP most people use to make digital negatives?

I asked Jon Cone about the resolution of the K7 inks on Pictorico and the answer I got did not directly address the question. If it is possible to get better resolution on Pictorico with the K7 inks I would switch to them in an instant but so far I have not seen any proof of that. Jon Cone claims that the Piezography inks give better resolution, and I take him at his word, but so far as I have seen he does not make that claim for Piezography inks on Pictorico, only on special paper surfaces.

Sandy

[coops]

I ordered Dan Burkholders cd (actually a download for $18) and after a few teething problems made my first print onto Pictorico. Made a contact print and BOOM, looked great. I am new to printing in a darkroom and screwed around for days with this negative and never got a print looking half this good.
The template that comes with the download may need a small amount of tweaking, but its great. Dan was really quick about returning emails also.
Don't want to sound like a comercial, but wanted to share this.

[joncone@cone-editions.com]

Sandy,

When you use seven curves of ink in QTR, you eliminate the low frequency dithering which is used when a dark ink is needed to appear lighter than its density. With seven ink shades you can print at the higher frequencies and the dithering is extremely tight and compressed at every step. This is what allows you to print at a higher resolution of detail. This holds true whether on fine art paper or Pictorico.

We print backlit Piezography here and its pretty stunning even with significant amounts of illumination behind it. Tons of detail. No penalty for printing on film.

I'm sorry that I did not answer that before when you asked!

Best regards,

Jon Cone
Piezography

My question would be what was he doing before he tried Piezography K7 + QTR + PDNs Curve Calculator II? Did he try the Epson inks + QTR + PDNs Curve Calculator II? And do the Piezography K7 inks print with better resolution on Pictorico, which is the OHP most people use to make digital negatives?

I asked Jon Cone about the resolution of the K7 inks on Pictorico and the answer I got did not directly address the question. If it is possible to get better resolution on Pictorico with the K7 inks I would switch to them in an instant but so far I have not seen any proof of that. Jon Cone claims that the Piezography inks give better resolution, and I take him at his word, but so far as I have seen he does not make that claim for Piezography inks on Pictorico, only on special paper surfaces.

Sandy

[Steve Gledhill]

I just posted this thread about Ron Reeders new book - http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=66354
on making Digital Negatives. I posted earlier in this thread with a link to Ron's instructions manual - that link now takes you to his new book page rather than to his earlier "how to" manual.