Cal: While we're at it (speaking of K7 inks), did you focus on one of the ink sets, pick out a custom set by ordering one bottle at a time, or go with a ready-made set of "Warm Neutral", "Carbon", "Selenium", "Special", or "Neutral" route? or did you try them all? (I think the Pro set is supposed to offer the printer the sense of "having it all" in one set, but at perhaps a bit of a give-up relative to a dedicated single purpose set - if that's right). Or do you use the K7's for Digital Negatives? And is it fair to assume you have the DN's printed by Cone or someone else?
Sorry to pester with questions, but it's what comes to mind... THanks for your patience!
Skip,
You ask thoughtful questions, so it is no bother.
With K-7 I decided to go splitone. I blend my own inkset for cool highlights (Selenium) and warm shadows ( Warm Neutral). In effect I get a three way split because the black is a tone of its own that brings out mucho depth in the shadows. Really dramatic in night shots.
K-7 really is about shadow details. Many people crush the blacks in their prints. I can be a bit of a jerk, and one of my friends from the NYC Meet-Up, Joe, gave me a remarkable file to print shot near Columbus Circle, but within Central Park where somehow remarkably he captured the surrounding skyscrappers without blowing them out. This file had incredible amount of dynamic range (shot on a Monochrom) on a otherwise bright sunny day.
Understand that I dim down my EIZO to about 50 Lux to lower contrast, and this is in a darkened room. So of course I really pull the contrast down and maximize everthing for dynamic range. I use the image on my EIZO as well as the histogram to draw out all the maximum detail.
So in this print I compared the print to the image on my EIZO and discovered a squirrel in the foreground in the shadow of a tree that was not visible on my EIZO. This was an epiphany for me because I learned that I can print what I can't see. Pretty much there is mucho shadow detail available in my files, and most people, including me crush out detail in the shadows.
Now I learned that at this level I have to proof prints and actually have learned how to tease out even more detail. If you look at and admire large format prints you will take notice of the enhanced amount of shadow detail that is present, and the amount of depth displayed.
In my prints there is a certain amount of depth created via the split tone. My early K-7 prints blended my split 50%Selenium/50% Warm Neutral at shade 4, but this was too much warmth, so I further diluted shade 3 25% Selenium/ 75% Warm Neutral. Understand all Piezography inks can be blended, the only rule is not to mix shades (exception was for an old digital negative system that now is obsolete). Pretty much I made my own custom inkset by blending inks.
After experience with Piezography Pro with the new PK-HD, I decided to upgrade my inkset to K-7 HD. Pretty much it involved just changing out the PK (black) cart for a cart filled with PK-HD (Glossy Black High Density) and using brand new curves developed by Walter.
You need to know that this PK-HD is the same glossy black developed for Piezography Pro. This black is so dense that interesting to note that in use not a lot is used in printing, and mostly on my printers the inks most depleted through use are the mids.
Also know that from using PP extensively I learned to moderate my splitone in K-7 even further, so I increased the dilution in shade three, and even went a step further and started diluting Shade 2 with Selenium to tone down the warmth.
Basically I made the splitone more subtle and nuanced. Some might say I kinda neutralized the warmth from the ink, but the proportions of 50/50 don't work that way, especially since all the papers I use/like are kinda warm, and that interaction of warmth from the paper interacts with the warmth or coolness from the ink. There is mucho complexity going on here, but in a print it is very clear: a new layer of detail.
I would say my initial K-7 prints are inherantly overly warm, especially images/files that have mucho blacks and lots of shadow details. On some prints it is a bonus, but on others overdone. This is one reason why I say PP is a great thing, dispite the wonder of K-7 HD. In particular NYC night shots are rather spectacular in a splitone.
Selenium is the most favored inset at Piezography. It is hyped as being most like a wet print when used on Baryta coated papers. The amount of depth created with cool highlights verses warm shadows with the blackest-black available is pretty hard to imagine.
If you look into Piezography you will learn that each shade is a very long curve that interacts and overlaps with many others. It seems in the bigger prints things really open up, the image becomes less about contrast, and is more about fine gradation and detail revealed mostly in the mids.
This is how I am able to transcend formats and get medium and large format results from a small format camera. Also I will repeat that the original Monochrome has an innate huge midrange to exploit, and that the M-246 (a better more advanced camera in almost every way) has scooped mids in comparision, but smoother roll-off in the highlights, and better/more shadow detail.
For K-7 I have the ultimate printer, Epson 7800, (same as 7880 as far as hardware, only thing different is the inkset), the only thing better would be a 98XX. All I need for my glossy printing is eight channels: 7 for black inks; and one for Gloss Overcoat.
Pretty much from PP I learned once dialed in the splitone settings are really paper dependent. The Canson Platine Fibre Rag and the Jon Cone Type 5 I use are both rag papers, both are Baryta coated, and both look great with the same blend of split one, but the Canson is a true glossy, and the Jon Cone Type 5 has a "satin" finish and to me is not a true glossy. In effect I use this as my "matte" print.
Another point is that the Gloss overcoat adds durability and protection to my prints. At Meet-Ups I horrify people where I spit on one of my prints and squeegee the wetness off with my hand. No damage occurs.
For more detail on how "Big Prints Don't Lie" check my post on Bill's thread "Splitting Hairs." It further explains why I like printing big and the effects that others disregard. It takes a lot of "balls" to print big, it definitely will be judged, and judge by many who don't know or understand the impact and meaning of a big print.
Cal
