the original question was for a newbie starting out... Lambda is such a niche market and impossible for someone to get into these days.Originally Posted by Pere Casals
the original question was for a newbie starting out... Lambda is such a niche market and impossible for someone to get into these days.
Of course, but the OP may pay for a Lambda service to get top notch FB silver prints, instead paying for ink and gear.
Also today RC photopapers are very good and durable, single drawback is if wanting selenium toning...
Never met an RC paper I liked. Why go to all that trouble and use a plastic paper?
RC is fantastic for beginners as it washes very fast.
I use it for testing purposes, then switch to FB.
Some also use it for paper negatives.
Especially good for experimenting with Oriental 20 X 24 RC as it's $22.50 for 10 sheets. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._3_Luster.html
Tin Can
Frank, no doubt that (life expectancy) LE500 "gallery grade" paper is FB, but RC it is also very, very good today.
At some point there were some RC pitfalls, some papers failed, but this was several decades ago.
"There's alot of hyperbole going around about how much better fiber looks than RC", it looks slightly different. To me the drawback in the toning capability.
RC papers made today will last beyond a century...
It should also be pointed that color papers are RC, IIRC, and some have some prestige like cibachrome/ilfochrome !!
I concede that FB is top notch, of course, but RC is also a great choice in many cases.
IMHO a lot of inkjet work is made on expensive fibre paper to get that prestige that digital/ink reprography cannot get easily.
To me what has prestige is a sound handcrafted work.
Me, I value much more a RC silver print than a inkjet work on Hahnemühle, but's only a personal point of view.
Then... a LF optic enlargement on FB, Se toned... crafted by a master... this is another level...
OP, Inkjet is excellent. But you can't let em sit too long. I run mine every 4 to 6 week. Usually does OK. 6 weeks sometimes is too much. Some big inkjets have to be run every couple weeks. When I do lots of printing it is not big deal. If I'm not printing, I just run off some RPPC postcards when they need running. I used to print junk photos and trash em. Now I print something useful.
I print extensively with DUO paper making artist's books. Curl is a big issue with smaller papers that are cut from a large roll. Depending how close to the center of the roll the paper is cut, this will affect the curl. The largest books I've made have been letter size and smaller. Ink and paper cost is an issue with me as my budget is very meager. Unfortunately one cannot predict what part of the roll the paper comes from when we buy a box…or 50 boxes. I’ve ended up with thousands of dollars of useless paper. If you have a slight curl, just alternate pages from front to reverse. If you don't do this, your book will develop a curl to it and not be flat. The plastic covers and interleaf also suffers from curling as well as defect issues. Once the box of paper is opened it is generally not returnable. If you are able to return the curled paper for a refund, the dealer generally wont sell you more if you keep returning order after order.
With matte papers you will have ink transfer to the preceding page if you have heavy blacks. Over time the blacks will develop a shine to them similar to wet prints that develop silvering. I'd advise to use 'bound in' archival plastic interleaf to avoid ink transfer if you use matte. Semi gloss or gloss RC paper has no ink transfer problems. Matte paper and non RC semi gloss fine art paper has issues with marring. This is a big problem with some of the nice looking air dried 'F' surface inkjet papers. To test, run your fingernail lightly over a sheet of unprinted paper to see if the surface gets marred up when looking at it from an angle. For book printing you want to use paper that is somewhat durable. If you use a textured matte paper it tends to flake off small specks of the image and is kinda delicate. It is best left for prints under glass. Just rub a cured print with rough fingers to test. The issue is the cotton base, it is not durable under abuse. Hahnemühle Photo Rag Duo Matte is very durable as far as flaking. The flaking issue is with textured matte, not so much with the ultra smooth matte papers.
Umm Bob ...
Re: #16
What is a silver digital negative ? Is it a normal film negative that is scanned into a digital file ?
Iluvmyviewcam ...
Re: #26
By 'run' what do you mean? A simple printer calibration test or a full-on print of some sort?
Form any digital file, you expose (and develop) regular film (say TMX or Rollei Ortho) with a Lambda that is intended to expose paper, or with a LVT Rihno (a film recorder machine) that it is intended to expose film at high resolving power. Digital silver negatives exposed with a Rhino can be later optically enlarged, those made with a Lambda are suitable for contact copies.
A "silver digital negative" negative is made with regular (kodak, ilford) silver gelatin film. A digital negative is usually a transparent (mylar...) sheet printed with an inkjet or with an Image Setter (graphic arts gear).
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