Piezography Pro

[Calzone]

So I feel like a crack head. I had to go home to get a credit card because I had paid down my bills aggressively, and in my bank I did not have funds/cash for a paper fix.

At home I grabbed 9 prints I now considered fully baked and finished, and got a free transfer on the subway after taking the bus home. I save $2.75 by being clever.

So I create another flash mob in the used gear department. Chris says I blew him away with these prints, and he strongly remembers from a week earlier the test prints. Brent sniffs the paper saying my prints even smell like wet prints, and other comments strongly suggest that all my decades of shooting film comes out and is expressed in these digital prints shot with a digital camera. To me this was the most flattering of remarks.

I am deeply influenced by a MOMA show I saw in the late 70's of celebrities shot by Richard Avedon with an 8x10 and printed life size. Of course the prints were spectacular and perfect in every way. One image that stood out as being iconic/memorable was the portrait of Andy Warhol lifting his shirt to expose all the bullet scars when "Viva," one on his groupies, caught him in an elevator and emptied a 38 into him.

Another large format shooter that deeply influenced me is Bernice Abbott. At the hospital where I work is a display/folio of her work that depicts "A Changing New York." The paper used appears to be dry mounted and single weight, and I suspect that the paper is Kodak AZO, a silver cloride paper that is favored by large format shooters for its detail and extra long tonal scale.

So for many years I shot mucho film in small and medium format trying to emulate these large format shooters. I figured out how to remake Diafine and exploit its compensating effect to get a HDR like effect of long tonal range and fine detail in small and medium format film. I have posted here on RFF my "Slacker's Brew." My friend Christian, a large format shooter, looked at some of my 6x9 negatives on my light table and said, "With negatives like these you don't need a 4x5."

So it seems all this analog work has paid huge dividends in my digital printing. Seamlessly it seems I have an analog look without trying, but my choice of paper (always Baryta coated) printing glossy, and enjoying smooth papers to promote fine detail all add voice to the print.

So my friend Gil in the paper department at B&H tells me I am buying the last three packs of 17x22 Canson Baryta they have in the store, and that only 10 packs are in the warehouse in Brooklyn. So far my paper bill for January is more than $500.00, and this was money I wasn't planning to spend... Perhaps I can at least get through January and perhaps the first week in February without having to reload.

When I showed Gil my 9 finished prints he said they were the best prints he has seen in 11 years come his way in the store. Gil went on to mention other photographers, some from Magnum, and I am too embarrassed to repeat any more of the flattering remarks.

Anyways I feel really great about my work and I am mighty proud, but realize humbly it has been a lifetime of struggle to get to this point. Anyways the prints speak for themselves. Don't discount all those decades of shooting film.

Cal

 

[jsrockit]

It's like reading a diary in here Cal.

 

[Calzone]

It's like reading a diary in here Cal.

John,

It clearly displays a rather unstable obsessive character.

You are a moderator: Why so many views and lurkers? Are people scared of me? LOL.

Anyways somehow I have embedded a blog within RFF.

BTW the prints I made after Sunday's NYC Meet-Up are so much better than the one's you saw. There is a striking difference. That early work was testing the system and experimenting. Too bad it cost over $200.00 in paper.

Over 4K views. LOL. I think I won the lurking award. LOL. So few posts and so many views. Does RFF do analytics?

Cal

 

[jsrockit]

You are a moderator: Why so many views and lurkers? Are people scared of me? LOL.

No, I think many of us aren't interested in Piezography but find you entertaining. 😀

 

[Calzone]

No, I think many of us aren't interested in Piezography but find you entertaining. 😀

John,

Character and strange behavior are part of my "branding."

Never realized I had so many followers. LOL.

Anyways everyone should know by now that I am a lazy slacker, and one of the reasons I do all this writing is to stay awake at work. Never before has a man been paid so much to do so little.

Perhaps the ideal day-job...

Another Calzone quote: "If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't be called research." LOL.

Cal

 

[robert blu]

Now what we have here is a ...Cal Fan Club 🙂

robert

 

[Calzone]

Now what we have here is a ...Cal Fan Club 🙂

robert

Robert,

I have too much personality, I tell you.

But here at work, I work with people that have none. Real flat liners. LOL. People that have negative numbers in regard to personality.

My boss really hates me. LOL. Anyways he is not in my fan club. LOL.

Since I work in a hospital once a month we would go and donate blood. My boss is kinda full of himself, and I caught him out bragging about his perceived good looks, so I cornered a bunch of nurses and asked them directly between my boss and I who is the better looking man.

So pretty much I am like a game show host, and surely the woman had feelings and opinions to express especially under such unusual circumstances that I somehow spon-tain-ly created like the word I just created.

So it became rather funny because it was expressed by not only the majority, but all the women that I was the much better looking man. I started laughing, and the women also, but my boss did not think it funny. LOL.

"I'm so jealose," he said. LOL.

Later when we were donating blood, a nurse tells my boss that his blood pressure is a bit high and that perhaps he should visit his doctor, and my boss yells, "My blood pressure is high because I have to work with him," and my boss points to me. LOL.

Anyways you can't make this stuff up.

BACK ON TOPIC: tonight I can't print because I will be photographing a fashion event.

Cal

 

[stompyq]

Robert,


But here at work, I work with people that have none. Real flat liners. LOL. People that have negative numbers in regard to personality.


Cal

As much as I like to bash Cornell for the colossal mismanagement, I would hardly call the majority of people working there flatliners. Some of the most interesting and entertaining people I've met work there. Maybe you should interact more with the medical school and graduate school

 

[stompyq]

Robert,


But here at work, I work with people that have none. Real flat liners. LOL. People that have negative numbers in regard to personality.


Cal

As much as I like to bash Cornell for the colossal mismanagement, I would hardly call the majority of people working there flatliners. Some of the most interesting and entertaining people I've met work there. Maybe you should interact more with the medical school and graduate school

 

[JonB]

John,
Why so many views and lurkers? Are people scared of me? LOL.

Speaking only for myself: I find your observations and commentary both informative and entertaining. I'm just getting started in printing (got a 3880 a few months ago and have been learning the ropes on the stock cartridges, and got a matte K7 system running on it not too long ago). Paper and ink is a proud, brave, and sometimes intimidating world coming from the land of screens and pixels. I'm loving it but haven't got anything to share with the world yet -- I don't have those decades of experience to anchor and provide context for all this new stuff.

So I thought I'd share that I'm also enjoying your thread, as it were. 🙂 I think printing generally and Piezography specifically deserves more press, and I hope to contribute something to that effort as I get up to speed.

Please, carry on!

Cheers,
Jon

 

[Calzone]

As much as I like to bash Cornell for the colossal mismanagement, I would hardly call the majority of people working there flatliners. Some of the most interesting and entertaining people I've met work there. Maybe you should interact more with the medical school and graduate school

Pro-Mone,

I was not generalizing nor speaking of the majority: I was specifically speaking of people I work directly with.

Also know that my lab is really like a bunker, built literally on Madhattan bedrock, and since it is a nuclear facility access to normal people that have personalities is rather exclusive and rather limited. In other words I work in a bubble that surely does not totally represent the bigger institution. BTW I actually work with very few people: about a handful.

My boss says, "I come to work for fun." This is no joke. Basically he has no life, no friends, and I don't even think his wife talks with him. Very sad.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Speaking only for myself: I find your observations and commentary both informative and entertaining. I'm just getting started in printing (got a 3880 a few months ago and have been learning the ropes on the stock cartridges, and got a matte K7 system running on it not too long ago). Paper and ink is a proud, brave, and sometimes intimidating world coming from the land of screens and pixels. I'm loving it but haven't got anything to share with the world yet -- I don't have those decades of experience to anchor and provide context for all this new stuff.

So I thought I'd share that I'm also enjoying your thread, as it were. 🙂 I think printing generally and Piezography specifically deserves more press, and I hope to contribute something to that effort as I get up to speed.

Please, carry on!

Cheers,
Jon

Jon,

Thanks for joining in. Know that I have been only printing digitally for about two years.

Wow a fellow K7 user. I kinda modified my K7 glossy into a warm neutral shadows to selenium highlight splitone. On the warm papers I like to use I found the warmth to be over the top if I stuck with the recommended 50/50 split at shade 4, so I toned down the warmth further by diluting shade 3 75% WN with 25% SEL.

I think I can get my K7 to closely resemble PP with a new dilution. Now after using Piezography Pro I think I will dilute my shade three further to 33% SEL.

I find in Piezography Pro that establishing a strong neutral midrange as a transition is a nice nuance that creates mucho depth and spreads out the splitone into a wider range of variation. Depending on the image I kinda mostly tweak the warmth, dialing it up, or toning it down depending on the levels of shadow detail.

I like the highlights to pop because they draw in and catch the eye.

Anyways this embedded blog is the result of a creative person forced into a deprivation chamber for 7 1/2 hours a workday with no source of stimultion other than the internet.

A while back I had a friend here at work. His name was Andrez and he was a PhD Radiochemist. Andrez was very smart and he went to the MIT of Poland, was able to work in Germany, spoke Russian, and somehow made it to New York. Anyways we both were armchair economists and loved talking about the markets, but our co-workers and bosses did not like us being friends. Anyways it did not feel like we lived in a free country.

Sadly Andrez was forced into retirement. Here was a truely smart man, and we coped together.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

So at last night's event it really was a MFA exhibition of fashion photographers from the School of Visual Arts. My gal knew one of the grads, and her work stood out against others.

I remarked about the perfect lighting, and she said it was natural lighting. What displayed particular skill is her models were of mixed race. The male was a dark black man, and the woman white. Not an easy exposure to reveal all the texture with all that contrast in the same frame.

Also I could tell she likely made the prints without having to ask. Something kinda special when a shooter prints their own work IMHO. Anyways in Lane's work it seemed her vision was more complete.

It seems obvious the prints I saw printed on metal by another shooter were commercially done, and in other people's work it seemed like generic commercial printing that did not stand out, except for one artist who seemed to bleed the pigments on a color print to resemble a watercolor painting that was soften and blurred by some wet-on-wet technic.

So I found this water color like printing engaging and beautiful, especially one image that resembled a dancer perhaps painted impressionistically like a Degas painting. The original shot was sparse, almost like a painting that was a incomplete work, or a work in progress. In this fashion the print displayed elegence and it really was the wind blowing the billowy dress that suggested a dance movement.

Because I went to art school in the seventies, and because I use to be a painter, I did my forensics to investigate how this printing was performed so I could steal it. But to be humble and not to be blamed for stealing I will call this technic "the JonB Method" so he is the fall guy. The only thing I need is the fact that everyone now knows that JonB is a K-7 matte printer as evidenced by his public post above. Here at RFF everything you say can and will be used against you. LOL.

In this age of fake news and promotion of bad information all I need is one piece of true information to set the hook into a gullible general public, and then I can always blame the internet for the reposting of bad information until the truth and blame can be put upon poor JonB who is the vick-tum of my criminal behavior. Now everyone knows by JonB's post that he is a K7 printer... Anyways that is my hook.

So now back on topic. The prints paper was smooth, which suggested a glossy paper. Upon further inspection I kinda recognize perhaps a Baryta coated paper, and along the left hand border I saw the forensic evidence of some form of masking.

My guess without lab analysis is likely masking tape that has its tack removed an appropriate amount by taping the masking tape a number of times to some cloth. I witnessed some fine thin lines of seeping that perhaps only a printer with a trained eye might notice, but I hold this lack of perfection against the artist and call him/her sloppy. Perhaps the evidence suggests the artist did not draw the tape tight and somehow ink seeped under perhaps a wrinkle. BTW the possible wrinkle was in the middle of a rather large print that suggests perhaps the artist might be of only average height.

So I believe masking was used to maintain the hard edge between the print image and the border. Basically the fun part would be misting water to basically to destroy/blur/soften the image to create an abstraction.

Anyways this print was in a color print, but I imagine it would look more like an Asian pen and ink drawing performed by a Sumi brush and India ink.

So now all you need to remember it is called the "JonB Method" and know it is JonB's fault for the inspiration for my stealing. "All I'm trying to do is mind my own business..." LOL. Remember this is the "JonB Method" and JonB stole this technic...

Cal

 

[______]

BTW the possible wrinkle was in the middle of a rather large print that suggests perhaps the artist might be of only average height.

Did you do your forensic work in your own "mind palace"? 🙂

 

[Calzone]

Did you do your forensic work in your own "mind palace"? 🙂

F,

That's really funny because I'm kinda dumb. Always stood out as a rather strange and odd kid though. If anything my identity is of a lazy slacker, a clever kid who basically likely disappointed mucho people.

My poor dad. It seems parents love the most the kid they really should hate, and I was a rotten kid. Took me decades to figure out that I put him though hell with constant worry, and it was after his death that I kinda figured out out of 5 kids I was his favorite. LOL.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

SMUT: A friend of mine reports that rewetting OEM Epsion inks and K7 do not run as I have described, and this is from a guy who worked in a real print shop and collaborated with artists.

It was suggested using alcohol on a still wet print. I have done this with alcohol preps to clean up borders that suffered headstrikes. The smudgy effect is perhaps what I was seeing? Anyways perhaps some solvent when the print is still wet?

So now the forensics are pointing to wet-on-wet technics before a print dries. Perhaps I was being a bit harsh when I called the artist sloppy due to the seepage.

Could what I believed was a area of seepage be a headstrike? But this was in the middle of the print and on the left edge.

Oh-Well another artistic dill-Lou-sion. This sometime happens to me. Now I'm disturbed. How were those images made? LOL.

 

[Calzone]

MORE SMUT: I checked the Private Forum, so a new development that is not available to the general public is that there has been a release of new master curves for x800, x880, x890, and x900 printers.

Anyways I know of two people who will be happy they bought refurbished 3880's.

These curves are not for PP and are for normal Piezography, but know that these new curves offer a choice of blacks: Piezography Photo Black (formerly WN1); new Piezography PK HD (originally only sold for Pro ink purchases but available soon for every Piezography customer); and the new UltraHD-MK ink.

So in my case these curves offer (I have been holding off on buying more WN1 knowing new darker blacks and curves were coming) a blacker black that will cut down on ink usage, offer better gloss differential control, have higher dMax (with both WN1 and PK HD), and better dot placement.

The UltraHD-MK master curves will also work with normal Piezography MK (Neutral 1) and will actually increase that ink's printed dMax slightly.

Basically these new curves will work with ink you alreay have, and will work with new UltraHD-MK and PK-HD inks if you decide to upgrade for your traditional Piezography printer. For me that is K7.

Anyways mucho thanks to Walker. Lucky me is that I already have that blacker-black PK-HD from my Pro inkset. Now I have that added contrast and broader tonal range in K7. Mucho good.

Cal

 

[JonB]

Hm. I might want to play with the JonB method at some point, novel as it is to me. Three ideas come to mind: pre-wetting the paper; using the largest possible platen gap; and designing a curve to ink the page so wet out of the printer that you can use it as an offset plate to make the final print, perhaps with multiple iterations that include direct printing to achieve plausible density in the shadows.

Ooo. UltraHD-MK sounds interesting. Admittedly, I'm only getting started with Piezography -- I completed a single print before heading overseas, and I'm not home yet -- so I'm quite happy with K7 as it is. But, having a potential upgrade once I run through my initial tanks is a tantalizing prospect.

Printing is fun.

Cheers,
Jon

 

[Calzone]

Hm. I might want to play with the JonB method at some point, novel as it is to me. Three ideas come to mind: pre-wetting the paper; using the largest possible platen gap; and designing a curve to ink the page so wet out of the printer that you can use it as an offset plate to make the final print, perhaps with multiple iterations that include direct printing to achieve plausible density in the shadows.

Ooo. UltraHD-MK sounds interesting. Admittedly, I'm only getting started with Piezography -- I completed a single print before heading overseas, and I'm not home yet -- so I'm quite happy with K7 as it is. But, having a potential upgrade once I run through my initial tanks is a tantalizing prospect.

Printing is fun.

Cheers,
Jon

Jon,

Thanks for sharing some creative possibilities. It seems like the painter in me is getting curious about matte papers.

I feel lucky in that I already have that dark black from PP that can serve my K7.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

So I printed a file I knew would be a ringer for a great print with PP. My first print I felt was a bit too warm, so I toned it down and expanded the use of the neutral sliders. It seems via contrast more micro details gets revealed and in my second print the image seems and appears sharper, more detailed and has a 3-D pop.

Anyways the image is of an abandoned Domino Sugar refinery that stretches for eight blocks along the East River with Madhattan in the background. I used the pedestrian walkway on the Williamsburg Bridge to get an ariel panoramic view, and know that by the cason there was an opening that is now blocked off by a chain link fence where I use to be able to climb a railing and hang over to get my shot over a drop to South 5th Street below that is about a 100 feet.

Someone must of seen me take this shot again and again over the years and reported seeing someone doing something rather foolish, dumb or dangerous, so now the shot with my 28 Cron is blocked.

In my shot the clouds are pronounced due to the use of a yellow filter on my Monochrom. A small building on South 3rd Street dates back to the 1800's, use to be a burlap bag factory for back in the day when men manually loaded and unloaded ships with hooks held in their hands. In that brick building was a loft that I lived in way before Williamsburg was conquered by hipsters.

The main building of the abandoned refinery looms large and in my print I see the faint traces of the lightning rods on the chimeney even though it is a quarter a mile away. This print is from an amazing file that will print mighty big. The level of detail looks like a tripod shot taken with a large format camera say with Tri-X. Anyways the IQ is that good. Not very often you get a file this great, even if you shoot a lot.

So now this shot is somewhat historical. The area is changed and much of the Sugar Refinery already has been dismantled as part of a big redevelopment project. When I lived in the Southside of Williamsburg the refinery was actually working, and know that sugar refineries are known to explode, and I lived basically right next to a gigantic bomb factory half a block away.

The air sometimes smelled like cotton candy, other times like burnt newsprint, but the air was heavy, dirty and not likely healthy to breath, but know that this location one day is destine to be the next "Dumbo" and is being redeveloped by the same developer (Two Trees).

Anyways I am a gentrifier who repeatedly gets displaced again and again so I knew the importance of taking that shot again and again over the years to record what I knew would be destroyed. Likely some of the tallest buildings in Brooklyn will be built there.

Cal