Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

I've been using the Ultrachrome K3 ink set with my r2400 for some time 
now, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the difficulty of 
getting my black and white prints to avoid having unpleasant colour 
casts. I suspect, partly, that I'm being picky by being very sensitive 
to even very slight deviations from the blacks I'm wanting, but I'm not 
really happy. Also, I'm very much into the idea of going for smaller 
prints at very high resolution (i.e. 720ppi or 360ppi where feasible), 
so seeing the demo that is currently showing on the Piezography web site 
is, obviously, very interesting. I'm most tempted by the split tone 
option, or failing that the neutral black. I'll probably give the 
individual carts a try, then maybe move to a continuous ink system if 
I'm happy with the results.

So, the question I have is firstly: are there any serious gotchas I 
should know about before going that route? Secondly, since I've mostly 
concentrated on Epson Premium Glossy + ABW and factory inks previously, 
I'm not familiar with the kinds of paper that work well with the K7 ink 
set. I'm not wedded to a glossy finish, but I don't want to end up with 
poor blacks or have to lose a lot of resolution, so something quite 
smooth and fine-grained. I'd probably prefer rather less OBAs than Epson 
Premium Glossy too, because I've had difficulty matching it to mat board 
in the past without it ending up looking excessively blue (which might 
also have a hand in my colour cast problems, now that I think about it). 
I'm prepared to give a few papers a try, but there are so many out there 
currently that an idea of where to start would be much appreciated.

The other thing I'm wondering about currently is whether or not, if I go 
this route, it will be sensible to get hold of a spectrophotometer, and 
if so, which one. Again, any advice you might have would be gratefully 
appreciated. In particular, I'd like to be able to soft-proof the K7 
inks on-screen in Photoshop before exporting a TIFF for printing (I use 
Windows) -- the QTR documentation hints at this, but I'm not really sure 
where to start.

I realise I'm probably starting yet another long-running thread here, 
but I think it will be pretty interesting all the same. :-)

Thank you in advance,
Sarah

Sarah,

The K7 is effortless and beautiful with any of these Epson printers,
even the 6 channel machines. I've been doing this stuff since the very
first days of Epson photo printers and this is the first inkset that
really made me want to go out and shoot black and white all together
since digital printing first started . With the 2400 printer you have
and QTR software which is $50.00 you don't really have to invest in a
spectro. The paper curves Jon has made are really good for these 7 and
8 channel machines unless you are using some really unusual papers,
then you need to make your own.  I use the reasonably priced
ColorVision spectro for everything color and monochrome, including
Studio Print, and it works very accurately for me.

Right now the only downside to Piezo K6 and 7 inks is that they are
created for matte and rag matte papers. They look excellent on the
Hahnemuhle, Innova, and Crane matte papers. Dmax is a little better
than Ultrachrome. However, if you want the more explosive dmax and
look of a glosssy paper, you will have to wait until sometime this
fall. They are in the process of producing a new formulation of K7
that will work on both glossy and matte papers without the need to
spray or post coat with anything. They will incorporate a seperate
glop channel, as in the HPZ, to remove the gloss issues but should be
smoother because of the additonal ks. They won't really be suitable
for 6 channel machines but the modern Epsons beyond 6 channels will be
the printers to use. The first set will be selenium tone, followed by
neutal and sepia.

John

john dean wrote:
> Sarah,
>
> The K7 is effortless and beautiful with any of these Epson printers,
> even the 6 channel machines. I've been doing this stuff since the very
> first days of Epson photo printers and this is the first inkset that
> really made me want to go out and shoot black and white all together
> since digital printing first started .
I shoot nearly all B&W actually, so this approach works well for me. 
Most of my photography is done with my Bronica system with a Megavision 
monochrome digital back, so my raw files are all B&W to start with. I 
also have a Better Light scan back, but the physical size and weight of 
the equipment tends to mean that in practice I use it less, though I'm 
currently in the process of moving from an old (huge, heavy) Cambo 
Legend to a much smaller and lighter Sinar Alpina system, but even then 
I usually either shoot infrared or do B&W conversions anyway. Both 
cameras give very high resolution results (4000x4000 for the Megavision 
and 6000x8000 for the Better Light), and neither have losses from Bayer 
filters, so I can get some very sharp results when I do B&W conversions. 
All I really need to do is figure out how to print them and do them 
justice! :-)

Yes, my equipment is a bit crazy, but so am I, so that's OK. :-)
>  With the 2400 printer you have
> and QTR software which is $50.00 you don't really have to invest in a
> spectro. The paper curves Jon has made are really good for these 7 and
> 8 channel machines unless you are using some really unusual papers,
> then you need to make your own.  I use the reasonably priced
> ColorVision spectro for everything color and monochrome, including
> Studio Print, and it works very accurately for me.
>
>   
OK, in that case I'll probably just pick one of the papers that are 
supported out of the box and use the default profiles -- it'll probably 
be good enough for my purposes, at least to start with.
> Right now the only downside to Piezo K6 and 7 inks is that they are
> created for matte and rag matte papers. They look excellent on the
> Hahnemuhle, Innova, and Crane matte papers. Dmax is a little better
> than Ultrachrome. 
OK, I'll look into those papers first, then.
> However, if you want the more explosive dmax and
> look of a glosssy paper, you will have to wait until sometime this
> fall. They are in the process of producing a new formulation of K7
> that will work on both glossy and matte papers without the need to
> spray or post coat with anything. They will incorporate a seperate
> glop channel, as in the HPZ, to remove the gloss issues but should be
> smoother because of the additonal ks. They won't really be suitable
> for 6 channel machines but the modern Epsons beyond 6 channels will be
> the printers to use. The first set will be selenium tone, followed by
> neutal and sepia.
>
>
>   

Fascinating... I think I'll probably go for the current matte inks with 
a view to having a go with the new version when it arrives -- I'll hold 
off making the continuous feed decision until then. Sounds great.

Thanks,
Sarah