Status of upcoming PiezoDN utilizing QTR
2016-05-20 by forums@walkerblackwell.com
Dear community. I get daily if not hourly emails enquiring about it so I’m going to pre-empt some of them, IJM’s new Piezography Digital Negative system “PiezoDN” has been validated and proven in the field. We’ve built it out for several types of historic-process printing (cyanotype, ziatype, platinum/palladium AC/OXdev, salt, gum, etc) and it’s proven to be incredibly adaptable and truly continuous tone. With gum, the neg latitude is so limited that we are pulling 256 tones out of a contrast range that would normally be only 20 values wide on a Salt neg! (equiv to 3276 fully linearized tonal separations if you expanded that fidelity into a full Salt print). 6 shades of Piezography ink & QTR makes that possible. We just completed our first workshop on the process and it’s also up and running hot at Main Media Workshops where it went into direct teaching service under the steady hand of Brenton Hamilton 24hrs after R&Ding the curves. (They were most excited about pulling fully linearized cyanotypes.) For those interested in a fully immersive historic-process experience I would suggest taking Brenton’s workshop there. This process would not be possible without QuadtoneRIP and the amazing adaptability and utility of Roy Harrington’s creation. I’d like to give him a round of applause. PiezoDN will launch soon as both a download as well as a private forum/website where people can share information and get direct support from me/us. Our goal is to truly create a movement, “Darkroom 2.0”. This second part (website+documentation) is what I’m working on now so it’s going to take a little bit more time. PiezoDN will use the QTR-Linearize-Quad droplet with additional tools to “smooth” 100+ measured steps so it may take a little getting used to at first for those who are old-school darkroom people. The alternative way to calibrate a neg will be with another handy tool we’re including that lets you burn a photoshop curve directly into a .quad. This enables one to do it all by eye(!) and also enables matching the tonal range curve “intent" from traditional processes to the PiezoDN neg. With PiezoDN once you go linear, you can really add your creative oompf! to the neg. Cheers all, Walker Blackwell ps: x900 series printers are the most supported right now (and at launch) but soon we’ll be getting a device that enables us to build/publish PiezoDN curves without R&Ding in the darkroom for every process/printer combo. We will also be able to translate for someone who has a perfectly calibrated 1430 (say) but who wants to get those same exact densities on their 4900 without having to go back into the darkroom for days. :) pss: P600 and P800 PiezoDN and Piezography are not validated yet and may take longer. We are seeing some issues with micro-lining and dither on this new Epson head w/ QTR but haven’t had time to dive deep and see what is really going on. So make sure to have x900 series printers or x880 series printers if you want the best PiezoDN experience when it launches.