Glad your move went ok and you're getting settled in the new location/home!
I will post the signup for the June/July bi-monthly exchanges on or shortly after June 1st.? I'll add you back for the both the B&W and color exchanges.
Gary
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UPDATE for APRIL/MAY Print Exchanges
Hi folks.? I am still waiting for a few sets of prints to arrive.? I'm leaving for Washington state this morning.? I know that prints from Jayanand and Nara are on the way.? If all the prints arrive here while I'm gone, I will get them packed up and mailed back to you shortly after I return on June 4th.
Gary
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Gary,
I moved and got my printer ready to go. ?What are the details for the next exchange?
Regards,
Rob _________________ Rob Schwartz +1.617.797.4625 (M)
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I'd like to see both prints as well.?
And I used a lot of the Moab Entrada rag natural paper, as well... I still have a few sheets but not enough to do an exchange.? In fact, I thought about doing a "toss off" print in one of the exchanges, printing the same image on the last few sheets of several paper types I have left over...
I feel like I need to make the rounds again of printing process videos by people using the current Epson printer line.? I don't feel as if I am as successful with my most recent prints since getting the P800 as I was with the 3880 or even the 2880, and I need a workflow tune-up.
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Gary, Include both prints for me
Cheers Jayanand
Following up on the recent questions and comments about QTR, ABW and ImagePrint, I decided to make some prints with QTR of the same image I recently printed with ABW for the April/May exchange.? I’m going to make additional QTR and ABW prints of other images that I may submit for this and future exchanges.
With this first set of QTR/ABW prints, I have not see significant differences in print quality.? These were printed on one of my favorite papers (Moab Entrada Rag Natural) with various QTR and ABW settings.
The prints I had made and will be submitting for the April/May exchange using ABW have a “Neutral” color tone and the “Normal” brightness tone.? If anyone would like to receive an additional print made with the comparable QTR settings, send me an email and I will include it.
By the way, the image I printed was shot on film in 2003 with my Pentax 67.? I had made a high resolution scan of this negative in 2010 with my Epson V700 Pro scanner.? I don’t think I’ve submitted a print of this photo to the exchange in the past, but can’t be certain.
Gary
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Following up on the recent questions and comments about QTR, ABW and ImagePrint, I decided to make some prints with QTR of the same image I recently printed with ABW for the April/May exchange. ?I’m going to make additional QTR and ABW prints of other images that I may submit for this and future exchanges.
With this first set of QTR/ABW prints, I have not seen significant differences in print quality. ?These were printed on one of my favorite papers (Moab Entrada Rag Natural) with various QTR and ABW settings.
The prints I had made and will be submitting for the April/May exchange using ABW have a “Neutral” color tone and the “Normal” brightness tone. ?If anyone would like to receive an additional print made with the comparable QTR settings, send me an email and I will include it.
By the way, the image I printed was shot on film in 2003 with my Pentax 67. ?I had made a high resolution scan of this negative in 2010 with my Epson V700 Pro scanner. ?I don’t think I’ve submitted a print of this photo to the exchange in the past, but can’t be certain.
Gary
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FINAL: APRIL/MAY Print Exchange Participant Lists
We have 11 for B&W and 10 for Color.? A good turnout for the 20th anniversary of the B&W exchange! Please send your prints to me before the end of May. Thanks! Gary The following photographers are signed up for the Black & White exchange:
- Tom O'Connell
- Gary Benson
- Jayanand Govindaraj
- Steve Mustoe
- Westley Clavey
- Nara Narasimhan
- Otto Bacon
- Jeff Deam
- Amy MacKenzie
- Mike King
- David Lackey
The following photographers are signed up for the Color print exchange:
- Tom O'Connell
- Gary Benson
- Jayanand Govindaraj
- Steve Mustoe
- Nara Narasimhan
- Otto Bacon
- Jeff Deam
- Amy MacKenzie
- David Lackey
- Mike King
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Re: Signup for April/May print exchanges
Yes sorry I meant 120mm I actually tried to make the 110 work with extension tubes but too much distortion close up. So go the 120mm and its pretty good without extension and I can get reasonable close up. ?Others have reported its not so good with extension tubes - not tried that yet.?
Mike
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On 16 Apr 2022, at 20:44, Gary <bensonga@...> wrote:
?Will do Mike! ?That brings us up to 10 for the color exchange and 11 for the B&W exchange. ?I hadn’t thought of looking back 20+ years to find some film era images to print, but I like that idea. ?I’ll look through my B&W large and medium format negatives for something to scan and print.
You mentioned using the 110mm macro….did you mean the GF 120 macro? ?I know you have the GF 110/2 lens, but that’s not actually Fuji’s GF macro.
I’ll have to give a setup like that a try with my GFX-50R with either my Pentax 645 or Mamiya 645 120mm macro lenses (both manual focus film era lenses).
Gary
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Re: Signup for April/May print exchanges
Will do Mike! ?That brings us up to 10 for the color exchange and 11 for the B&W exchange. ?I hadn’t thought of looking back 20+ years to find some film era images to print, but I like that idea. ?I’ll look through my B&W large and medium format negatives for something to scan and print.
You mentioned using the 110mm macro….did you mean the GF 120 macro? ?I know you have the GF 110/2 lens, but that’s not actually Fuji’s GF macro.
I’ll have to give a setup like that a try with my GFX-50R with either my Pentax 645 or Mamiya 645 120mm macro lenses (both manual focus film era lenses).
Gary
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Re: Signup for April/May print exchanges
Hi Gary,
Put me down for the colour exchange as well - I have a film image from
a bit further back than 20 years that I will submit.
In fact I think I will see if I have a suitable film image for the B&W
exchange from 20+ years back. It seems appropriate to be printing 20+
year old photos for this nostalgic exchange.
Just in case anyone is interested, I am "scanning" the images using
the110mm macro on the GFX100s.
I am simply putting slides with their frames on a light table and with
the camera tripod mounted I am just focus stacking the shot, with a
wide 60 frame stack. That deals with any bending of the film. Then I
pick only the frames I need, convert to tiff in PS and stack them with
Zerene stacker. Then I delete all the raw and tiff files and move
forward with just the stacked image.
At the closest focus point I get about a 14mp image from 35mm frames -
that's more than enough for the quality of these old slides and enough
for a nice A3 print. I may try putting an extension tube on as well at
some point to see if I am missing some detail.
I am going to try doing the same with some Mamiya 6 x 7 film.
Probably put at least one of these in the exchange as well.
Best,
Mike
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On Sat, 9 Apr 2022 at 20:32, Gary Benson <bensonga@...> wrote:
Thanks Mike! I'm really glad we will see your print in this April B&W exchange on the 20th anniversary.
I know it's not always easy to find time for printing etc when work, family, travel and other challenges of life take precedence.
Gary
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I’d love to see prints made with the Cone inks and QTR, even though it is not something I would try myself.? I still use QTR now and then with my P800/Epson inks, but I don’t have the ability to create my own paper profiles for QTR, so just have to choose one of the few profiles for papers that are available to me and might be similar to the paper I’m using.
I’m clearly way behind the curve of technology, both on the image processing and printing side.? Now that I’m retired I’ve thought more about trying to “up my game” on the image processing end, maybe get ImagePrint RIP or really learn to use QTR, create profiles etc.? That said, I’ve generally been happy with the BW prints I’m getting with ABW.
I don’t think this conversation needs to be taken offline/email.? It’s interesting to many of us and relevant to those in the print exchange group who are still participants or might be.
Gary
On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 6:59 PM Jayanand < jayanand@...> wrote: Westley, My experiences are from around 2005-7, which was a long time ago. Both Inkjet Mall and John Cone just refused to answer any query whatsoever, or extend any service at all, because, IMHO, they could not be bothered with what a stray user at the other end of the world thought about them, because that was never going to be a market for them. Things might have changed, I have no idea.
I find the Epson inkset has been more than adequate for my needs over the years, and allied with ImagePrint has delivered whatever I have wanted since I made the decision to use only native inks. I would guess that the dedicated B&W inksets were more relevant in those early days of inkjet printing when getting a neutral B&W print was tough - now I presume that it is very much a hobbyist interest, because any large format (A3+ and above) printer's
native
inks will deliver absolutely neutral B&W prints. If I were starting out today with Epson (the only brand I have experience with), I would be perfectly content to print using the ABW driver.
Cheers Jayanand
On Fri, Apr 15, 2022 at 12:19 AM Westley Clavey via <wesclavey= [email protected]> wrote: Reading these posts makes me wonder if I have made some mistaken plans...
When I upgraded my old Epson 3880 to the newer P800, I got aftermarket carts, flushed out the old system, and put it into storage until the time I retired.? My plan has been to begin to use it with the Cone black 7 ink kit and QTR as a dedicated B&W printer.? I had figured that it would take a while to get calibrated, but I went through the process a few years ago of setting up QTR to use the Epson inkset, just to I would know what I was doing when the time came.? I think I even submitted some prints to the exchange that I made with QTR + Epson inks in the workflow.
Now that I have retired I have been planning to get started on that path.? But some of the comment here sound like this may not be a viable solution for B&W printing.? Is there further guidance that someone can offer?? We can take it offline to email if we don't want to fill-up peoples' exchange notifications.
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Westley, My experiences are from around 2005-7, which was a long time ago. Both Inkjet Mall and John Cone just refused to answer any query whatsoever, or extend any service at all, because, IMHO, they could not be bothered with what a stray user at the other end of the world thought about them, because that was never going to be a market for them. Things might have changed, I have no idea.
I find the Epson inkset has been more than adequate for my needs over the years, and allied with ImagePrint has delivered whatever I have wanted since I made the decision to use only native inks. I would guess that the dedicated B&W inksets were more relevant in those early days of inkjet printing when getting a neutral B&W print was tough - now I presume that it is very much a hobbyist interest, because any large format (A3+ and above) printer's
native
inks will deliver absolutely neutral B&W prints. If I were starting out today with Epson (the only brand I have experience with), I would be perfectly content to print using the ABW driver.
Cheers Jayanand
On Fri, Apr 15, 2022 at 12:19 AM Westley Clavey via <wesclavey= [email protected]> wrote: Reading these posts makes me wonder if I have made some mistaken plans...
When I upgraded my old Epson 3880 to the newer P800, I got aftermarket carts, flushed out the old system, and put it into storage until the time I retired.? My plan has been to begin to use it with the Cone black 7 ink kit and QTR as a dedicated B&W printer.? I had figured that it would take a while to get calibrated, but I went through the process a few years ago of setting up QTR to use the Epson inkset, just to I would know what I was doing when the time came.? I think I even submitted some prints to the exchange that I made with QTR + Epson inks in the workflow.
Now that I have retired I have been planning to get started on that path.? But some of the comment here sound like this may not be a viable solution for B&W printing.? Is there further guidance that someone can offer?? We can take it offline to email if we don't want to fill-up peoples' exchange notifications.
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Reading these posts makes me wonder if I have made some mistaken plans...
When I upgraded my old Epson 3880 to the newer P800, I got aftermarket carts, flushed out the old system, and put it into storage until the time I retired.? My plan has been to begin to use it with the Cone black 7 ink kit and QTR as a dedicated B&W printer.? I had figured that it would take a while to get calibrated, but I went through the process a few years ago of setting up QTR to use the Epson inkset, just to I would know what I was doing when the time came.? I think I even submitted some prints to the exchange that I made with QTR + Epson inks in the workflow.
Now that I have retired I have been planning to get started on that path.? But some of the comment here sound like this may not be a viable solution for B&W printing.? Is there further guidance that someone can offer?? We can take it offline to email if we don't want to fill-up peoples' exchange notifications.
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Jayanand, ? My experience mirrors your story. …? Junked ‘dedicated’ B&W printers & inksets (don’t you miss the ink all over your desktop loading carts?) > Epson’s B&W software (which wasn’t too bad) > ImagePrint and Silver Efex Pro. The evolution of new papers has also helped. ? Plus the development of great apps for the iPhone which have led to mobile B&W processing on the iP and iPad. It’s been rewarding. ? I’m very grateful to Tom C, Gary, Jim and all the guys that have kept the exchange running all these years! ? Best to all – Tom F ?
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Re: UPDATED: APRIL/MAY Print Exchange Participants List
Hi Gary, got the prints. thanks
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Hi Doug. ?Great to hear from you again! ?I posted the signup on April 9th so you’ll find more info in that post.
No theme for this exchange. ? I’d like to receive all prints by the end of May. ?Do you have an inkjet printer now or have access to one?
Gary
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I still remember getting in touch with Tom sometime in 2004, and being told to submit a print to start the journey, and not worry too much about quality, for which I will be eternally grateful to him. The exchange of info now is a fraction of what it was in the early years, when getting a neutral B&W inkjet print was more art and luck then science, and high experimentation was the norm. My development as a printer was entirely due to the exchange - there was hardly any information on the internet in those days to refer to. I junked two printers after trying third party dedicated B&W ink sets, and realizing that the manufacturers could not care less about users halfway across the world! That made me turn to RIPs, ImagePrint in particular, after which I could finally get consistent B&W prints. To me two bits of software, other than Photoshop, have been critical in my development - ImagePrint and Silver Efex Pro.
Cheers Jayanand
Tom mentioned some of the major changes that have transpired in the last 20 years of BW inkjet/carbon printing.? It certainly is much easier to produce very good BW prints now.? I do miss seeing prints from many of those who participated in the earlier exchanges, but I’m VERY thankful for all who are participating now and keep the exchange going.
Gary
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Tom mentioned some of the major changes that have transpired in the last 20 years of BW inkjet/carbon printing. ?It certainly is much easier to produce very good BW prints now. ?I do miss seeing prints from many of those who participated in the earlier exchanges, but I’m VERY thankful for all who are participating now and keep the exchange going.
Gary
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This certainly brought back memories and a smile to my face Jayanand! ?:-)
Gary
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Re: UPDATED: APRIL/MAY Print Exchange Participants List
I will look up April 9 email. No inkjet printer. Shooting a lot, film & digital. Married a photographer since my last participation. Doug
On Tuesday, April 12, 2022, Gary < bensonga@...> wrote: Hi Doug.? Great to hear from you again!? I posted the signup on April 9th so you’ll find more info in that post.
No theme for this exchange. ? I’d like to receive all prints by the end of May.? Do you have an inkjet printer now or have access to one?
Gary
--
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Re: UPDATED: APRIL/MAY Print Exchange Participants List
Hi Doug. ?Great to hear from you again! ?I posted the signup on April 9th so you’ll find more info in that post.
No theme for this exchange. ? I’d like to receive all prints by the end of May. ?Do you have an inkjet printer now or have access to one?
Gary
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Westley Clavey, W5WMC
Jayanand
Tom Fielder