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Thread: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

  1. #31
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Just because I've had a lot of trouble with the reliability of inkjet printing, doesn't mean that it hasn't been a godsend for others. We all have our individual (non-representative) experience, and that's great. What we can't seem to shake, though, is claiming that our subjective value judgments have more objective value than those of other people's, and that's highly questionable. "This isn't for me" is fine. "This shouldn't be for you" generally isn't. To support such a claim, you'd have to show unjustifiable harm....

    When it comes to photographs, Bernice is quite right that we are drowning in them. Despite this deluge, there is a place for exquisite prints, the kind that Bob produces.
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  2. #32

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    105

    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    I'm kind of half way down the same rabbit hole as the op. I shoot up to 4x5 but ULF is not an option for me and since I want to explore salt printing, it seems that digital negatives are my only option for larger prints.

    I bought an Epson 3880 printer with the intent of using Jon Cone's piezography ink set (which is only set up for Epson printers and replaces all the epson colour cartridges with proprietary blacks). Seems reasonable to me that the more black ink options (as with the Jon Cone piezography ink set), the better tonal range you'll achieve. My problem is that Epson has made it very difficult and time consuming to incorporate non-oem cartridges and inks and it seems that there's a lot of black magic going on to work around that. I get the feeling that I need 3 goats, a virgin and a full moon to make it work so I've not made the leap yet. The three oem blacks have been doing ok for me but I know it's not optimum.

    The epson has been ok - no major plugs or problems in the six years I've had it but I do nozzle checks and matt/photo black switches weekly. Huge waste of ink and a pain in the neck but as I said, haven't had any problems. The 3880 matt and photo blacks share a nozzle so manual switching is required. Why epson thought this was ok is beyond me but seems to signify their general disregard for their users. Apparently the new printers don't have that but it appears they're also more difficult to incorporate the piezography inks into. I think the workaround has something to do with replacing a printer board so maybe I need 4 goats now. HP did this way better with their BP9180. I would really like to see one of the printer companies come up with a monochrome multi-black large format printer. Seems to me there might be a market for it.

    In any event, I'm still trying to convince myself that it'll be fine and I really want to do this.

    Regards
    Dave

  3. #33

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    3,901

    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    IMO, there remains a tiny audience for the expressive exquisite print, a tiny island in the ocean of nearly 4 Billion images and 750,000 hours of video uploaded to the internet daily. Consider the energy required to do this and data storage demands.

    There was a time when Long time Foto and music friend Tim Hall owner-operator of Color Three Lab in SF was running about 1.5 miles of Kodak color paper in and out of their lab daily. Many of these HUGE color "C" prints went on bill boards across the nation. Vast majority of them ended up in the land fill.

    What once was physical visual media has become virtual visual media.

    The current revival of alternative process image making could be a reaction to the "ocean" of these images.


    Bernice


    Quote Originally Posted by Peter De Smidt View Post
    When it comes to photographs, Bernice is quite right that we are drowning in them. Despite this deluge, there is a place for exquisite prints, the kind that Bob produces.

  4. #34
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Nicely put Bernice - a very large job for me these days is making 12 - Tri colour over palladium , this takes me days to produce and believe me they are not cheap, but every print I do in silver and alternative is for collectors and I do not think they make the landfill, but in the past I too have made hundreds of thousands of C prints that made it to that location. I decided not to do this anymore and got rid of all my auto processors and decided to make permanent prints and even more shocking make a living doing it as well.

    The lockdown has been a revelation for me and through the internet people find me and request these types of prints that I gladly will do for them.

  5. #35

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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    Nicely put Bernice - a very large job for me these days is making 12 - Tri colour over palladium , this takes me days to produce and believe me they are not cheap, but every print I do in silver and alternative is for collectors and I do not think they make the landfill, but in the past I too have made hundreds of thousands of C prints that made it to that location. I decided not to do this anymore and got rid of all my auto processors and decided to make permanent prints and even more shocking make a living doing it as well.

    The lockdown has been a revelation for me and through the internet people find me and request these types of prints that I gladly will do for them.
    Bob makes a point that should not be ignored. Making any kind of print with alternative methods nearly always requires a lot of skill with the process. Making a high quality color gum over palladium print, or a great albumen print, or great carbon print requires mastery of the process. Bob is a master printer and has made great silver gelatin prints in the darkroom, even very large ones, as well as beautiful color prints with a Lambda, and now makes outstanding gum and gum/over prints with a hybrid methodology. Making virtually any kind of print with hybrid methodology is done primarily in process, not in the monitor and in making the negative, and a great printer like Bob is able to make great prints because of his printing skills, not his mastery of making digital negatives. Many people can make outstanding monochrome prints with hybrid methodology with either Canon or Epson printers, and making a great negative from those printers requires only a bit more skill. But the rubber hits the road when comes to making a great alternative print, including silver gelatin prints, with those negatives. Most really good alternative printers are able to make great prints with hybrid methodology and digital negatives because of their process skill, not because of the negative.

    Sandy
    For discussion and information about carbon transfer please visit the carbon group at groups.io
    [url]https://groups.io/g/carbon

  6. #36
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Dec 2011
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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Yes, I agree, Bob, Sandy, Bernice and many more are experts at making excellent prints

    However we idiot amateurs grease the stone of commerce

    as for our new expert, I am desperately trying to stoke the coal for this website to survive

    soon the engine will roll down the hill backwards

    the barbarians are hungry

    toss them a tin can
    Tin Can

  7. #37

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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Kiwi7475 said it all https://groups.io/g/QuadToneRIP. Lots of people making digital negatives offering insights.

  8. #38

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    Re: Digital Negative Printer Recommendation

    Just one additional input about printers.

    I have not used it for negatives to be used in alternative processes but my Epson
    P800 has been 100% reliable for 3 years although I only print very occasionally.

    I use Imageprint Black as a RIP and the prints are simply top notch. It’s incredibly eash to get exhibition grade prints on a variety of papers.
    Images available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardlanguillier/

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