Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

I thought that would catch your attention. What I have done is to take the two existing MIS Full Spectrum ink sets, the Standard and the Neutral, which were designed to be used with the Piezo driver, and blend the two together to achieve two additional tones.

If you go to:

Files > Ink Sets, reviews and techniques > MIS FS

and open: MIS-FS Blends 1.jpg 

In the Files section of the group homepage you can see a comparison of the MIS-FSN (Neutral), MIS-FSS (Standard), a 80/20 blend of FSN/FSS and a 50/50 blend of FSN/FSS.

I personally found the standard FS to be too warm for my tastes and the neutral FS to have too much blue. My first 80/20 blend was an attempt to move the Neutral set closer to neutral. This still looked a little cool to me so I tried the 50/50 blend which is on the warm side of neutral but very close to what I would like to achieve. maybe a 40/60 or 30/70 is what I am looking for.

The output densities of the two blends do not precisely track the two MIS-FS ink sets. Both blends printed just a little bit darker which you can see if you bring the above file into Photoshop and measure the patches with the eyedropper tool. I think that they are close enough to be used with the Piezo driver with very modest or no adjustment.

The mixing of the inks was very simple. I used a gram scale but a syringe would do just as well. The only trick is to measure out the proper amount of each ink into separate containers before you mix them so that if you make a measuring mistake you can correct it. I used clear disposable plastic cups to measure the ink into and then poured the contents back and forth 3 times before putting it into a marked bottle.

Each of the three gray ink position were mixed in the same ratio for the blend set. The black was the same for all wedges as it is the same for both MIS sets. The ink was then loaded into cartridges for my 1280 and the wedges printed on EAM using the Piezo driver, the EAM profile and the "Best" setting.

Basically this gives you the opportunity to custom mix the shade of ink you want for your work using the Piezo driver. If MIS does release a Sepia Full Spectrum set then the blending opportunities would be very wide open. 

The next step would be to vary the ratio of the two inks based on the ink position. For the 1280 or other 6 color printer you could try FSN/FSS ratios of:

K = 100% Black
M = 100% FSS
m = 30/70 FSN/FSS
C = 50/50 FSN/FSS
c = 70/30 FSN/FSS
Y = 100% FSN

This might increase the chromatic complexity so that the ink tones ran from warm shadows to cool high lights.This is what we see in silver prints that make them so wonderful. Lots of subtle changes in hue across the tonal range of the print.

The ratios could be run in the opposite direction also to give you cool shadows and warm highlights. The spacing of the ratios could also be placed closer together for more subtle effects.

Even in the 80/20 and 50/50 blends I see a greater variation in hue since the inks are pigment based and they do not mix together as dyes would. The different pigment particles are still there and add just a bit more to the print.

This is really easy. Give it a try.

Martin Wesley
http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html





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