B&W printing 13x19, PrecisionColors Inks and Re-prints Update

After all of the testing, experimentation with OEM, LD and PrecisionColors inks, I finally settled on a final solution.
LD dye inks of CLI-251 carts C,M,Y,G. Precisioncolors photo dye black for both CLI-251 Blk and CLI-250 PGBK.  The CLI-250 PGBK is supposed to be filled with pigment black but I am now and have been filling it with PC photo black. The reason is that after I printed the whole set of photographs from the UK and Europe and the Belle Isle Love In and actually delivered them to the DIA last May - I looked critically at the duplicate set I kept here and compared them to the prints I was making after May after having arrived at the system above (using photo black in the pigment cart), I realized to my horror that the pigment black prints were dull, lifeless and lacked deep, rich blacks. I decided that I would absolutely have to re-print all of them and I emailed Nancy B. and informed her of that fact and hoped they had not started to digitize them into the system. They had not.
So I ended up re-printing 2 new sets of the UK/Europe prints plus The Belle Isle Love In prints as well. Some of the prints were OK and did not need re-printing because I had originally printed in color mode and adjusted the colors and tones — about 11. The rest were printed using black only.     

Precision Colors Inks

From a Word Press blog post - July 25, 2018

Still printing from my England/Europe negs. Been reading about compatable inks other than LD which I was using before I went back to Canon OEM. As I posted before, I'm printing my b&w with OEMs using the 'gray scale/plain paper' setting which uses the pigment ink from the PGI-250XL cartridge almost exclusively. Gives me, as noted before, a harsher almost xeroxy look. But printing on matte paper doesn't produce saturated blacks.
I've decided to replace that OEM cart with a Precision Colors one filled, by me, with their photo black dye ink. In fact I have the ink, cartridge, re-fill needle but am waiting for an 'O' ring (rubber washer) for the ink bottle cap from PC.
I'm, of course, hoping to get better and deeper blacks and the cost savings will be welcome. Been buying the OEM PGI-250 pigments carts on line --- ebay at about 2/3 the cost.

Museum and Book Prints

This post from a Word Press blog - March 10, 2018


Since my last post I've been printing 13x19 b&w ink jets from a few random negatives of girls but primarily from my 3 trips to England and Europe - 1987, '89 and '90. These will be for the DIA if they will have them. Gifted of course so why wouldn't they.
I am also designing another Blurb book in one of their editing platforms called Bookwright. It's quite different from their other one called Booksmart which I've used for years for other books. Those books took shape as 8x10s, 7x7s and 6x9s. This one, called LONDON, LIVERPOOL and EUROPE, is in magazine format - 8.5x11 as was a previous one in Bookwright called FACTORY, published just a couple months ago.
Anyway,  I said in my previous post that I switched completely back to OEM Canon inks to see if I could print without the blues and magentas in b&w prints. Well I couldn't! That is, not the usual way.

Cont'd 4/3/2018 * So far as of this date I've printed over 40 UK and Europe negs on 13x19 paper. I've settled on OEM for all colors and blacks (2) and gray (1). I'm primarily using the pigment black to print these pics. The printer mixes in the other colors and the one black and the one gray by default. The resultant print looks a bit harsh and xeroxy but there are absolutely no RGBCMY colors apparent. The grays and shadow areas get a bit depressed but as in the darkroom I can use the dodge, burn, contrast, brightness controls in PSE to adjust the tones. Also, printing on matte paper isn't ideal if the result wished for is snappy and brilliant blacks.
The main thing about OEM inks is the cost. I've buying the OEM black pigment carts on ebay at discounts of 20-30%. Not using as much of the other inks but am considering using the 3rd party color inks from 4Inkjets when comes time to replace. I still have a set of OEM inks to go through first.

What A Kick Printing 13x19 prints

The following is a posting on my WordPress blog from August 31, 2017

Ever since I was forced to print 13x19 b&w on my Canon printer, a whole new world has opened up for me.

Earlier this year I was informed that a local bank expressed an interest in a few of my Detroit architectural photographs for their art collection. A gallery I was once affiliated with was to be the broker for this sale.

My choices were to print them myself or farm them out. My other choices were to print wet or digitally. The 16x20 wet prints I would have to do myself since there wasn't and isn't any printers that I know of who print wet. I checked around for ink jet print labs and found one individual in Canton who seemed OK. (The largest paper size the Canon accepts is 13x19. The image size on 16x20 wet prints would have been about 12x18 with a wide white border. Image size on the Canon prints would have been 12x18 with a narrower border all around.)

But I decided to wet print the four negatives for one reason or another but mainly I realized it would be my opportunity to begin to use up a freezer full of gelatin silver paper. Paper that had been in there for 8,9, 10 years. I was curious to find out if the 50 sheet box of Agfa 16x20 matte paper was still "good" - hadn't fogged because of age.

I tested the paper and found it was good. Before I printed I wanted to give the Canon a chance to prove it's worth. Up to that point I was having trouble getting satisfactory b&w prints. I should say extreme trouble getting neutral prints without color casts of green, magenta, blue. Everything I tried in Photoshop to get the right combination matching paper to color management choices hadn't really worked up to that point printing my factory archives on 8.5x11 paper. Plus the four prints for the bank were to have a brownish/sepia tone to them. That's what the bank saw when they chose the photographs.

The digital prints were terrible. Blue color casts in the darker shades of gray and some magenta in lesser shades of gray. I left on a scheduled two week vacation during which I mulled over my problem. I returned and wet printed the first negative of "City Woman". I had to use a diffusion filter to throw off the sharpness but it also reduced the contrast considerably. But it was unsuccessful. I could not get the contrast up even while printing through the #5 contrast filter. (I realized later that I didn't really have to use the diffusion because the enlargement was so big that it softened the sharpness enough anyway).

In a panic I went back to the Canon and tried again. This time I was able to get the brownish/blackish tones to closely match one print to the other but still with the blueish/cyan cast in the darkest grays. I reasoned that the client wouldn't care or understand that the casts shouldn't be in there. I decided they would accept it. And apparently they did. I delivered the final prints to the gallery and I got the check payment in the mail a few weeks later. I have no idea how they look on the walls of the bank's offices or conference rooms.

Because of that experience I had a 50 sheet box of 13x19 Canon Matte paper with about 35-40 sheets left. It wasn't until this month - actually a couple of weeks ago and 2 months after delivery of the bank prints - that I tried a couple of 13x19 b&w prints on the Canon. In the interim I've gone back to printing the factory negs but still having problems getting a neutral b&w print without color casts. I was having some success until I stumbled on a combo that gave me completely color cast free prints. The combo consists of choosing Plain Paper in stead of Matte, gray scale in color management and color space.

The Canon has 6 ink cartridges; cyan, magenta, yellow, gray, photo black and an over-sized pigment black for printing text. Well, the settings above use more pigment black than anything else, especially the color inks.  The resultant prints can look a little xeroxy before I adjust the tones. I'm not getting the full range of 256 shades from pure white to pure black. a lot of the mid-tone grays are dropped. But I'm having success adjusting the black densities and bringing back the grays. I really like what I'm getting - higher contrast with deep blacks, suppressing extraneous detail. Definitely not the Ansel Adams school of zoning.

 

DIA Exhibit Set for June 2019

A promised exhibition of my work is now planned for June 2019. It was previously set for September 2019.

I learned of this change last week via a return email from the curator, Nancy Barr. My email to her was an inquiry to the possibility of an appointment with her to hand over reprints of a set of photographs I'd gifted to The DIA in May 2018.

Subsequent to that May 2018 set delivery, I decided they were at least substandard and decided to reprint. Took me several months to research paper and inks and finally to print again. I've ended up with close to 100 prints - mostly 13x19 with also around 15 - 11x14 which were not included in the May 2018 gift. Plus 8-10 from the Belle Isle series. By the time of delivery I may have added more. 

Most of the photographs are from 3 trips to England and Europe in 1987, '89 and '90. There are also a set of photographs from a (photo) shooting in 1987 at the so called Belle Isle Love-In on the island of Belle Isle in Detroit. There are additional photographs in each set than were delivered in May 2018.

So a March meeting is good, just have to set a date with Nancy.