Digital BW, The Print

Double thanks to Martin, I also appreciated your review...it was great to
hear the comments of a veteran silver printer...which I am not.  I'm glad to
hear that I wasn't the only person that liked the ink set.  I'm really
looking forward to trying it with Eclipse.  I'm getting a piezotone dmax of
1.65 with eclipse with IP.  It comes up to about 2 when coated.  The
uncoated dmax is significantly duller than eam or photorag though.  I think
that the Selenium tones on Eclipse then coated might be the closest thing we
will get to a fiber based silver print...but we will have to see how much
the coatings change the tonality of the inks. The whole process  is a fair
bit of work...but not nearly as much work as actually making a silver print
with a difficult image!

Robert


On 7/17/02 3:07 PM, "Steadman Uhlich" <steadmanuhlich@...> wrote:

> Hey Martin,
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to post such a long and detailed review.  As
> always, I appreciate your experience and your sharing of your opinions and
> testing results with us.  The Selenium PiezoTones sound pretty "cool"  (that
> being a neat, nice, different, pick your own adjective...) (wINK).
> 
> Oh...and this is not to slight Robert Morrison, who's testing of the inks
> and papers is also appreciated too.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Steadman
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Wesley [mailto:mwesley250@...]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 1:58 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Revised Selenium PiezoTones Review
> 
> 
> Due to a typo and a mistake regarding Dmax in my initial post, I am
> reposting this information to clear up any misunderstandings (and correct
> my
> grammar. <G>).
> 
> Revised Selenium PiezoTones Review (Cross posted)
> 
> I received sample bottles of ConeTech's new selenium hue PiezoTone ink
> about
> three weeks ago for Beta testing and have been using them steadily with a
> CIS in an Epson 1280 for the past two weeks.
> 
> As far as my own personal tastes go, this is the best grayscale ink set I
> have seen and I prefer it to anything else I have tried. The hue and the
> chromatic complexity of the prints I have been making over the past few
> days
> is indeed right in the range that we commonly associate with selenium
> toned
> silver fiber prints. They have slightly cool highlights and a touch of
> magenta in the midtones and shadows. I have toned silver prints on Ilford,
> Kodak and Oriental hanging on my living room wall and, while the Selenium
> PT
> prints are not an exact match to any of them, they fit right in. Only
> their
> matte surface gives them away as not being air dried silver fiber and
> mixed
> with matte surface silver fiber would be undetectable as inkjet.
> 
> I would not call the Selenium PT inks "neutral" and probably would not
> like
> them so much if they were. The standard selenium toned silver fiber print
> that we tend to think of as neutral is in fact not neutral at all. The
> nature of the specific emulsion, the color of the paper base and the
> manner
> in which the toning was done results in a print that is subtly varies in
> hue
> as well as tone. This variation that I call chromatic complexity is what
> makes silver prints so wonderful and so alive. Even book publishers know
> that a true monotone does not adequately represent a photograph and
> quality
> books are done using 2 to 4 inks of different hue to simulate what is
> happening in a silver print.
> 
> My primary paper is Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and the Selenium PT works
> beautifully with this paper. I think the tone on EAM may be a bit better
> though. This is my standard proofing paper but the difference in tone may
> pull me back in that direction although Photo Rag is probably more
> archival,
> has a nicer texture and brighter white, there seems to be less warming on
> the EAM and the initial hue is just a bit more pleasing.
> 
> I also tried prints on Hahnemühle German Etching and William Turner, Crane
> Museo, Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine. The finished look of the
> print
> varies a great deal with the paper you use and this is good news since it
> means you can get a lot of different looks just by switching paper. The
> very
> white Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine (Jon can we please, please
> have
> a paper profile for Eclipse!?!?) show more blue and greater variation in
> hue
> overall. The neutral paper base lets all the complex tones in the inks
> show
> through. The Legion Photo Matte is too bright for my taste but the Eclipse
> looks very interesting. It seems to do much better with the Selenium PT
> than
> it did with the original Piezo inks. I tried the Orwell profile but it was
> not quite right in the lower tones. On the German Etching and Wil. Turner
> the prints were excellent but the cream-colored paper base cancels out a
> good deal of the coolness in the highlights giving a more neutral look.
> Museo is very pleasant with this ink set. Some of the coolness is lost but
> it still a very nice alternative to Photo Rag and EAM.
> 
> The Dmax of the Selenium PT is identical to the Warm Neutral. Which is to
> say very high. On EAM I recorded values in the 1.71 range and on Photo Rag
> at 1.80. These were taken from wedges printed using the Piezo driver. The
> Photo Rag density is getting very close to silver print Dmax. So close
> that
> the difference does not jump out at you like it does when the inkjet print
> Dmax is down at 1.6. Since it appears that the black of the Selenium PT is
> the same as the Warm-Neutral it should be possible to obtain even higher
> Dmax values using other drivers. With the Warm-Neutral I was getting Dmax
> values in the 1.88 to 1.90 range and values of 1.94 have been reported.
> 
> Regarding fading I have no data and I don't know how it will compare to
> other ink sets. Jon has said it is undergoing RIT testing and did well on
> in-house Xenon fade testing. I do notice some warming. It takes about 12
> to
> 24 hours for the prints to "settle" and achieve Dmax and initial color.
> This
> is similar to what I saw with the WN-PT. The change is not very large and
> you can accurately assess your prints out of the printer reasonably well
> once they are dry. After a few days the Photo Rag prints did show some
> visible warm shifting but it seems slight and not objectionable. The EAM
> showed much less warm shifting. This is pretty much in keeping with the
> other ink sets I have tried.
> 
> Metamerism seems very slight and not at all unpleasant. In tungsten and
> halogen light the prints are warmer as you would expect and the magenta
> predominates a bit. In fluorescent, daylight and mixed tungsten/daylight
> the
> prints are more neutral. Looks great under all light sources that I tried.
> 
> Like the WN-PiezoTones I experienced no clogging problems or green casts.
> The CIS started right up immediately after vacuum loading and 4 nozzle
> cleanings, and has passed every nozzle check since.
> 
> At this point my favorite inks for use with the Piezo driver are
> Selenium-PiezoTone, Warm Neutral-PiezoTone, MIS-FS and MIS-FS Neutral in
> that order. For me and my own tastes, I think the PiezoTones are the
> better
> way to go. I especially recommend the Selenium-PT to people who are
> transitioning from traditional silver fiber printing to inkjet. While you
> will still need to get used to the matte surface of the papers, you will
> not
> have to go through a big hue adjustment.
> 
> All in all the Selenium-PiezoTone inks represent a really stunning
> addition
> to what is available for inkjet printing. With the reduced price of the
> Piezo driver and these new inks, I strongly suggest you give them a try.
> We
> each have our own likes and preferences but I will be very surprised if
> this
> does not become a top contender for the most popular ink set.
> 
> Martin Wesley
> 
> http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
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