Society Photographic Education Conference Mar 27-29 Dallas
2009-03-25 by Jon Cone
I will be there on the exhibition floor with two interesting experimental Piezography processes. One is a dual PiezoTone (Selenium/CarbonSepia) ink system sharing one black and using two different curves per paper in conjunction with the curve blending options of QTR. Its very subtle but effective in maximizing visual contrast. The other is Piezography Glossy Selenium MPS system with GO and a new very high dMax MPS black. This new black is a technological breakthrough as it uses a new type of macro-molecular modification that is not normally applied to ink making. The black without GO is typically about L*5. With GO at L*1.75 to L*1.5 and I have not yet bottomed it out in curve designing. This is still in progress and the inks are designed around heated paper. But the prints are very good. dMax is 2.45 or better on the 5 papers I am bringing. I think with time I can get more dmax but I do not know if anyone can really tell how black black gets visually after 2.50. The linearization on these prints is very open. The shadow detail is extraordinary considering the dMax. I personally have not see anything like this before. They look very much like silver prints with a palladium linearization (straight line). The expectation of the silver toe and shoulder are missing. I plan to perfect the surface sheen and offer several GO options and this will become the heart of the Piezography B&W Printing Labs. The next phase will be split-tone Gloss. I hope you can venture out to Dallas and make some comments and critiques. http://www.spenational.org/conference/conf2009/index.html Jon Cone