Interestingly, my "homebrew" printing results are turning out better
than the lab's (I have routinely used a well-respected, high-end custom
pro lab in Washington, DC).
I'm scanning the film on an Epson 4990 flatbed at 2400 dpi, then
reducing the file to 300 dpi and increasing image size to 8" x 8" for
printing. My printer is a modest Canon iP4200 with separate yellow,
cyan and magenta ink cartridges and two black pigment cartridges (one is
dedicated to grayscale printing only). I'm currently printing on Kodak
Ultima which is giving me a better results than the Canon Photo Paper
Plus Glossy that's standard for the printer.
Although it's impossible to detect on a screen display and at 72 dpi,
the tonal range of the final prints is exactly as it should be -- or at
least better than I've been getting from the lab.
Before he passed away, Barry Thornton wrote a book on black and white
digital scanning and printing which is quite good. It's called
"Elements of Transition" and is available on CD from
www.monochromephotography.com . I think it's a worthwhile presentation.
By the way, has anyone tried the Ilford "Gallerie" inkjet papers? If
so, how are they?
Many thanks,
Craig Roberts Washington, DC --- Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
