Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Ellen,
I miss Portland.
Recently I stumbled upon the Dew Tour being held in Brooklyn. The first stop was Portland and then it was Brooklyn. Last month I saw the Portland and then the Brooklyn events televised.
The world is not that big.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Pro-Mone,
No free film, but I scoured a free digital silver 8x10. Also I am taking advantage of some promo deal of $1000.00 worth of printing at Digital Silver Imaging for a $500.00 pre-pay offer.
Cal
ornate_wrasse
Moderator
Cal,
The Dew Tour sounds cool. If you're ever in Portland, let me know. You and Maggie are welcome to stay at my place.
Ellen
stompyq
Well-known
Yeah I saw that deal for DSI at the expo Cal. I was very impressed by the prints they had. I think the $500 off custom printing deal was one of the best bargains of the expo
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Pro-Mone,
The pre-pay deal ends 9 November. If you are interested I can forward you the link.
I was very impressed by the one B&W 20x30 of the abandoned chain in the dishoveled room. I was told that that image was shot using a Leica Monochrom at high ISO.
It seems 20x30 is not really that big for a MM, and I really loved the IQ of a fiber wet print. Of course the price is not cheap, but this solves the 17x22 size limitation of my Epson 3880.
Cal
Oh, I get that Cal... just a friendly debate. I know you've seen the advantages of digital with you MM. It can only help your film work in the end. I know it's made me respect great work with film even more.
I can agree with that. I especially have to pay attention to fundamentals due to my tremor in my hands (faster shutter speeds). Especially now that I use a 36mp camera.
No provocation Cal... just differing philosophies. They are a dime a dozen in photography.
It's all in good fun. I hope you agree.Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Oh, I get that Cal... just a friendly debate. I know you've seen the advantages of digital with you MM. It can only help your film work in the end. I know it's made me respect great work with film even more.
I can agree with that. I especially have to pay attention to fundamentals due to my tremor in my hands (faster shutter speeds). Especially now that I use a 36mp camera.
No provocation Cal... just differing philosophies. They are a dime a dozen in photography.
John,
No doubt the demands of digital (totaly unforgiving) is a great challenge. The best thing I ever did was get the Monochrom because it really advanced my photography to a whole new level.
I guess we will see when I get my $1K worth of large prints printed from Digital Silver Imaging. I bring them around to a future Meet-Up.
Really glad I saw the Salgado show. Talk about big prints and high IQ. It does seem like I find the crossroads for me is trying to get that large format quality using whatever the means wheather digital, or analog, or both.
Cal
Yes, I was impressed with the show and it was good to bring the GF to as well since she was into the environmental aspects of it. It kills me when I hear people dismissing this work and the show as somehow inferior. We should all be so lucky to do anything on the level he is working. I'm not saying people have to like the work, but you have to respect it IMO.
Have you thought of using LF film at all? I look forward to seeing the prints.
Range-rover
Veteran
Your right they were not their, that pretty sad I hope they get things
together. Hey I guess the Hockey stick name is catching on that I
started. (Sorry Sigma)
Particular
a.k.a. CNNY, disassembler
The guy from kodak was there walking around and handing out film. I saw him stop a couple of students who had driven down from New Hampshire and were sporting some beat up nikons. He quizzed them what film they like and handed the some more from a big bag, like a Santa Claus.
I lost track of him or I would have hit him up as well.
I lost track of him or I would have hit him up as well.
jpfisher
Well-known
I was working the show on Thursday and Friday (stayed home to relax on Saturday). Not having the Kodak booth there handing out rolls of Tri-X made it feel a bit odd, but glad to here that someone was on the floor filling that gap. I always treasured my yearly rolls of free Kodak film from PhotoPlus.
Range-rover
Veteran
At least they were there in some form!
Bob
Bob
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
The Salgado exhibition at ICP is a display of some of the creative and asthetic possibilities showing a rather inventive combination of analog and digital technics. On one level it seems to me a very brave/bold/move that true is a high bar that opens Salgado's work to criticism. If one questions if the work was intended to print big, one criticism might be. "Why didn't Salgado just shoot a large format film camera?"
I think Salgado displayed a lot of courage and fortitude to produce this body of work that spans about a decade. I also appreciate how he adopted and adapted mediums and formats that were out of his comfort zone. As an artist, a word I do not use lightly, Salgado made a personal challenge for himself that I think will add to his legacy.
If it were me, and if I had the intrastructure that Salgado enjoyed I would do things a bit different, but so what: I am a different artist. Anyways I found inspiration through the display of possibilities, and I did some serious forensics to understand all the possibilities and limitations that were presented in Salgado's hybrid technical challege of merging analog and digital.
I took in the show in three ways: one was an overview to see the range of work; another was to look for and analize the images that stood out as iconic, meaning the images that would persist in my memory; and lastly sorting out the images using 2008 as the boundry where image capture moved from analog to digital (Pentax film 645 to Canon DSLR).
What I found so remarkable is how close his printers could get the analog and digital to look the same. It took very careful examination to see the subtle differences that I somewhat expected: the digital image capture had slightly more resolution and contrast; but the film captures had more midrange and a a bit more highlight detail.
For me the iconic shots I will remember are the giant land turtle, the penguin shot with the converging sky with the rocky foreground that has this forced perspective, and the huge iceberg print at the beginning of the show.
Of course I looked close for the detail of the prints, and on some of the larger prints I saw a bit of fuzzyness that might make me ask might it be a better print just a little smaller because the scale of the prints was kinda over the top. For reference I judged using Richard Avedon's life sized prints that were shot with an 8x10 view camera that were displayed at MOMA in the 70's.
People who are dismissive of this body of work really I think can't really relate to a great accomplishment.
I think one day I might get into large format. Crazy as it sounds I was thinking 8x10 and contact printing instead of printing big. For me it is more about image capture and shooting because printing big is just about spending lots of money. Let's see those Digital Silver Imaging prints before I get too far ahead of myself.
Cal
Yeah, I think it is only us photo geeks that get right up close (inches) to the photos looking at the technical aspects. I've seen big prints that were a lot worse in the fuzziness department. I was looking at the image of an unemployed blackjack dealer in Reno at the MOMA recently and was blown away. Didn;t have the same impact on me 20 years ago.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
As mentioned above in this thread, I pre-paid $500.00 for $1K worth of printing at Digital Silver Imaging.
I was very impressed by a 20X30 print shot with a Leica Monochrom at high ISO that remained remarkably tight, I wondered how good is the resolution of the MM, and I wondered how big is overstepping the realm of printing big.
When I was offered a free 8x10 and was told that if I'm considering a large print that they could make my free 8x10 a zoomed in crop of a 40 inch print it became a no brainer. I have to see and test the limits to see how big is big. I'm thinking that I will get the free 8x18 from a 40 inch print just to evaluate how close to a Salgado sized print I can get.
Truth be told I would be mucho happy with a clean 24x36 from a image capture made at an ultra-high shutter speed. I can't see a need for a 40 inch print, and besides in my one bedroom apartment it would kinda take over the space and hang like a sculpture. In a way it would be like being Salgado, meaning crazy, he's my kinda guy.
In the past you mentioned wanting a print of mine. Any idea of how big? I was thinking of getting a few 20x30's of "Sal" from 116th Street. I think you remember the shot I took of him with my 28 Cron that is sharp as hell. This is one image I want to see printed bigger than 17x22, and I intend to get it silver printed on fiber that is wet printed archivally. Discounts for multiples apply so now is the time to place your order with mine.
Cal
Range-rover
Veteran
I went to visit my old store today and along the way went to the Salvation Army
Oh Boy I did it again I picked up a printer that it's one of the ones I alway's
wanted a HP B9180 it a big printer and I heard from those I know a good printer, it
has eight inks 7 are dyes and 1 the black is pigment. so far all I need is a yellow
and Matte Black cart.
Bob
Oh Boy I did it again I picked up a printer that it's one of the ones I alway's
wanted a HP B9180 it a big printer and I heard from those I know a good printer, it
has eight inks 7 are dyes and 1 the black is pigment. so far all I need is a yellow
and Matte Black cart.
Bob
Particular
a.k.a. CNNY, disassembler
Bob,
That is the more pro version of the B8850 that John gave me last year. It uses the same print heads and ink. The image quality is great, but I am still struggling to get it to function reliably. These things can be really fussy. I can answer a lot of your head cleaning and ink related questions, so just let me know when you need help.
That is the more pro version of the B8850 that John gave me last year. It uses the same print heads and ink. The image quality is great, but I am still struggling to get it to function reliably. These things can be really fussy. I can answer a lot of your head cleaning and ink related questions, so just let me know when you need help.
Range-rover
Veteran
That would be great, I tried tonight to clean the ink sponges they were full of ink,
Sunday I'm going to B&H and get the Yellow and Matte Black inks and pick up some
distilled water to clean the ink heads. If you have any advice on the basic cleaning
it would be great.
Bob
Sunday I'm going to B&H and get the Yellow and Matte Black inks and pick up some
distilled water to clean the ink heads. If you have any advice on the basic cleaning
it would be great.
Bob
Particular
a.k.a. CNNY, disassembler
One thing to know is that if any of the cartridges are past their expiry date, the printer will reject them. This is something HP was sued about, and they stopped doing it. I read that on your printer you should be able to disable this in the software. On mine that doesn't work. As I started by buying cheap expired ink from eBay, the only way I could print was to back date my computer. I am now using third party ink and cartridges which don't have this problem. There is an instruction on how to clean the heads with distilled water and cotton buds. That works well, but you will need patience. If that is not sufficient, I had success by soaking a pec cleaning pad with isopropyl alcohol in a tray, and sitting the head on that. After 30 minutes I wiped off the alcohol with water, and put it back I the printer. You have the right idea with cleaning the sponges. If they are flooded, the heads don't get cleaned. For me that was the break through. At the moment I am waiting for a new black and grey print head, because it keeps rejecting the existing one. I think the copper electrical foil got un stuck, and then got damaged. There is someone on eBay who sells a protective metal sleeve for HP print heads, because it is a common problem. I may have to devise my own version. The other issue I'm having is with paper that doesn't sit flat catching the print heads. I have lots of scratched prints. This may also have damaged the print head. So use flat paper if possible. I have also learned to live with the HP software crashing or freezing every time you send a test print, do a head clean etc. It does what it is asked, it just needs restarting afterwards. It has been like this through at least three updates. It is just a minor annoyance . Did I mention that when everything works the prints are nice?
Range-rover
Veteran
Thanks for the info, I was able to remove very carefully the sponges, they were in
bad shape so when I went to work the houseware department is downstairs so I
purchased a sheet of air condition filter it's a little more dense than the original and
was able to thread it thru the holder it looks good, but I'm going to have to replace
all the heads there from 2009 and the black and light grey as you said the head
has separated and another one has been rejected I know there expensive but
I heard this printer does great print's so it might be worth it.
Bob
bad shape so when I went to work the houseware department is downstairs so I
purchased a sheet of air condition filter it's a little more dense than the original and
was able to thread it thru the holder it looks good, but I'm going to have to replace
all the heads there from 2009 and the black and light grey as you said the head
has separated and another one has been rejected I know there expensive but
I heard this printer does great print's so it might be worth it.
Bob