digital negs with k3 inks

[false_Aesthetic]

Hey,

So I've been making my negs with a 2200 for about a year now. They're great but I think I'll have to be moving to a 4800 soon.

Before I burn through OHP for tests, does anyone how curves for alt process might be affected?

The burkholder book was written before K3 inks existed.

Thanks

T

[Greg Lockrey]

OK, you got me curious. Just how is this done in theory?

[Jack Flesher]

FWIW, you might want to take a look a look at the 3800 too -- it won't handle the roll film stock, but it does have an improved dithering pattern over the 48/78/9800 series engine, with smaller droplets, and many are claiming it produces sharper prints and DN's.

Cheers,

[Ron Marshall]

I know this is a subjective question so I don't expect a definative answer; but given that, how does a contact print from for example an 8x10 digital neg from a 4x5, compare to a contact print from an 8x10 neg?

[Jack Flesher]

Subjective answer:

I have not seen 8x10 direct comparisons, but I have seen 11x14 and 16x20 examples of both and will offer this comment, sure to be considered heretical by many here...

I was at a gallery that had traditional platinum prints by a well-known artist displayed in the same room with some DN platinum prints made by another artist. (It was an alt-process show, they also had tin-types and cyano-types up.) To my eye, the DN prints were very clearly sharper and had more micro detail than the direct prints. I don't do alt-process printing myself and don't know a lot about the process so can't expalin this, but for whatever reason the DN prints also had smoother tonality and more tonal separation to my eye. Both had the beautiful platinum "glow" and deep blacks. The advantages were more obvious in the 11x14's, but certainly visible in the 16x20 too. FWIW, the DN prints I saw had been mostly made with a 1Ds2 DSLR and printed on a 7600 printer.

Cheers,

[Marko Trebusak]

I made quite a few with Epson 7800, so it is possible. Of course you'll need to experiment. I had two variables different than most of the folk doing digital negatives: Agfa's film instead of OHP, and 7800 instead of 2200. It took me a while to figure everything, but then I probably didn't know what I was doing !

Marko