Piezography anyone ???

[Steve Karr]

Hi Everyone,
I have been fighting with trying to like Piezography for a year or two. Is there anyone who is thrilled with this process and has words of encouragement?

I mostly don't care for the Matte paper I guess. The supplied profiles, ICC for preview, ... I think I'm doing it all right.

I have the Special Edition inks... if that helps.

Thanks~
Steve

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Steve,

I am intrigued by your reaction. I've seen Piezography many times at trade shows, and been very impressed indeed, but I've never heard a reaction from someone who, like yourself, has actually sprung the money for it.

What do you dislike? For me, it has an 'alternative process' look, which isn't a problem -- I like Argyrotypes, POP, etc -- but I've always wondered how many of my own actual pictures this look would suit.

Incidentally, totally off topic, although I like quite a number of the individual images in your signature bar very well, I find the solid block of them a bit, shall we say, overly vivid. This may well be just me, but I hope you don't mind my pointing it out.

Cheers,

R.

 

[JonCone]

Steve,

We may not have been offering the Glossy Piezography systems when you purchased Special Edition inks. The glossy dMax is close to 2.8, whereas the matte inks only produce about 1.65 on papers such as Hahnemuhle Photo Rag.

I put up a webpage on inkjetmall.com where you can upload your image files and purchase inexpensive Piezography prints with any of the ink options I offer. Selenium K7 and Warm Neutral K7 both available as matte or glossy - or Neutral K7, Sepia K7, and Special Edition K7 which are matte only. Here is the link to this: Piezography Online Printing.

You might want to try a glossy Piezography print. Also, if you think you may not be doing it right, you can compare to how I print Special Edition inks using the system - and get some tips on your file preparation (just in case you are not using it to its best advantage.)

 

[Steve Karr]

John,
Thanks for the reply.

Well, my Peizo hardships are more than glossy prints. I bought carts for an R1800 a year ago, could not get the printer to work right with them, or QT rip to work with the profiles. Bought Special Ed inks and refilled & reset, chips all will not be seen by printer. Got copy/paste support from Dana, a few DAYS later. After inquiring about someone else's cart to get the Peizo stuff working & many emails back and forth was "sent" a new set of inks. It never got here, Lost they said. Wells seem interested and then forgot about me I guess. So I bought a $40 set of Japan carts and the system printed something, a year later. Was not worth the wait.

I guess I'm not the only one who thinks the support is a bit weak, Read above.

Anyhow, I want my printer to work, not buy prints from you, So what gives?

Then I read on the Peizo forum to change the 6 & 7th shade to print gloss. Wicked I think. ( Sel. set)

Now I don't know who to believe.

I have $400 of your product & $40 for someone else's ... and still ... not thrilled. You may see why my frustration.

Regards,
Steve

 

[JonCone]

Hey Steve,

I think the Piezography users group is a good place for information. No one ever answers any questions by guessing. It's a focused group of just under 3,000 users with a lot of combined experience. Some of the members have been printing with Piezography since 2000. Almost all are now on QTR. But, Dana is the best in the business in regards to Epson printer support and technical understanding. She does use a very comprehensive set of informational questions to narrow down the time it requires to pinpoint a problem/s. Please do not interpret that as copy and paste and then not get the benefits of her help. She is the one that I go to when I exhaust all other possibilities... So don't give up on us!

Now I can't admit that we are able to solve everyone's problems - but we do work hard to try. We never give up on anybody - nor lose interest. Sorry about your frustration which I can understand. A year is a long time to not make a single print. Not to mention having postal issues - Wells told us you also had in addition to our inks going missing, a Leica Lens not delivered by the Post Office. You should definitely go postal style on them for that one. He brought up the refillable carts you purchased just a few days ago while we were having a tech meeting. You're on the radar for sure.

But, the thread on the list about glossy Piezography is more than just changing out shades 6 & 7. Piezography Glossy requires Piezography Photo Black and the Gloss Optimizer - along with the six other shades of glossy compatible Piezography ink. Your Special Edition set has a matte black rather than the photo black. Also the R1800 is supported by our custom glossy profiling of the QTR rip. So there is a bit to it, but we can get you running that way.

We can send you another set of no charge inks - just not through the US Postal System this time. And we can get you up and printing, but only if your printer will recognize carts.

 

[hlockwood]

Hi Everyone,
I have been fighting with trying to like Piezography for a year or two. Is there anyone who is thrilled with this process and has words of encouragement?

I mostly don't care for the Matte paper I guess. The supplied profiles, ICC for preview, ... I think I'm doing it all right.

I have the Special Edition inks... if that helps.

Thanks~
Steve

Steve,

I can offer encouragement but only for matte paper. I had used Han Photo Rag for all my archival prints until I started getting very uneven results, especially tonal separation, on my R2400. Jon confirmed that Han quality control was a problem. I switched to Premier Alise (310 gsm) after having Dana develop a new profile for me. I like the results very much. Tonal separation with K7 Neutral inks is beautiful.

Also, I'm printing with a CIS having tanks from one company and auto-reset carts from another. The CIS is a pita at times, but the economy is compelling.

I don't do color, ever.

Harry

Harry