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Digi neg newbe questions

atlcruiser

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Hi All,
I will try to limit my really dumb questions and concentrate on the just the dumb ones


I am very new to DN. I have a R2400 and a V700, know how to use both. I currently use light room 3 and do not have photoshop yet.

I just bought the e book precision digital negatives and currently am reading it for a guide.

My goal is to first make silver contact prints from 6x7 and also pano contact prints from my x pan. later I plan to get into some alternative procresses.

1. Can i get this ball rolling with lightroom 3? I sort of feel like I can. I dont expect perfection but I hesitate to lay out $600ish for PS not to mention the learning curve....I want to make negs now!

2. Thoughts on pizeography? I had seen a post form Jon and mailed him about r2400 profiles. he mentioned that he had just placed the info on his web page with profiles.
http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.15/category.1243/.f

This stuff looks great and, over the long haul, cheaper than epson inks. Any thoughts on this for a beginner? Is this getting in too deep? My thought is that i want to start with a good workflow then tweak what I have.


Thanks and feel free to add

david
 

gmikol

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I'm not too familiar with PDN, but you might have some difficulty doing it from within LR.

You have to figure out if LR can do 2 things:
1) Output a negative image
2) Accurately colorize the negative

Keep in mind that you may need to figure out your best PDN color, and then figure out the opposite of that color, so you can colorize your positive and output the proper negative.

The R2400 is supported in QTR (QuadTone RIP), so you may want to download that and check it out, too.

Piezography inks, if you get the right set that work well on OHP film, may be an option, especially if you think you will make prints with them as well. But due to the way the curves are created, they are not amenable to a lot of manipulation at the moment. (Another forum user is working on a tool to do that, but it's not released at the moment.)

See here:

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2099


Good luck--

Greg
 

pschwart

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My advice:
- Keep it simple to start. PDN is a good way to learn the basics -- the manual
is very good, and there are plenty of users and a forum where you can find
support. Once you have the basics down you will be in a better position to
evaluate 3rd party print drivers and inksets.
later
- You will need a way to create, edit, save, and load correction curves.
I don't think Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Picture Window Pro, or Paint
Shop Pro do this, but I don't use these so you should confirm. I find
Photoshop indispensible even when I am printing from QTR or using some
other workflow. Maybe you can find an older version on eBay (but don't get
anything older than CS). PS is probably the single most important tool you
could own.
 
OP
OP

atlcruiser

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I think LR3 will do both things.... I will play with it and check on the outut but I sure think it can.

So I am looking at QTR. If I am thinking about this right I can/should use the QTR to build/modify curves and ICC profiles. I then would import that data into PS or LR3 to use to print specific papers and inks. Is that the idea?

thanks

david
 

R Shaffer

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I really love LR, but I don't think it is the best tool for creating digital negatives. You could make a rather rough digital negative just by inverting a greyscale image and printing it on OHP.

There may be plug-ins for LR that will allow you to do the following, IMO, crucial steps to creating a linearized digital negative for QTR or RNP.

You can't convert to a purely greyscale image ( ie no R,G or B info )
You can't measure the %K, which is critical for calibrating.

I would agree that you could colorize in a rough sort of way.

If you don't want to drop the $$$ for CS, which I can fully understand, then you should take a look at GIMP ( which is free ). It is not quite as easy to operate as photoshop, but you would be able to manipulate the images and take measurements. You would just follow the same workflow as for photoshop. You might want to search here on this site for RNP digital negatives as it is relatively simple method of getting good results.
 
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