Digital Negative advices

[photo8x10]

Hi to everyone, I'm not a very active user in this forum, my photographic work is completely analog,infact I'm a bit more active in Apug, but I would like to start a new way for a little part of my work.
So I'm interesting to make digital negatives of my 8x10" negatives, and maybe, but not sure yet, also for my 8x20" negatives, to create a big prints in Platinum/Palladium, only for special editions.
My work is all printed in Lodima paper, in contact,even if sometimes I print in PT/PL, but some collector and galleries, asked me special editions of my prints, especially if possible in Platinum/Palladium.
So I would like to make them, and I start to read a bit of book about digital negatives, but I'm very confused
First of all the printer, I would like to buy an Epson R3880 for my negatives, to make 16x20 negatives, it's a good choise? or there are better printer to make them?
As support I'm thinking to use Pictorico, or there other alternatives?
My bigger question is about ink, what inks I should use? the Ultrachrome standard of the printer or a Piezography inks?

Ciao
Stefano

 

[Hatchetman]

I don't have any advice for you, though I am interested in what others say. Personally I send digital files to someone else for printing. I figure they *must* have better equipment than I can buy, right? Scanning is my real problem. Drum scans are sooooo expensive.

 

[photo8x10]

Surely you are right, I have a technical that scan for me with drum my negatives 8x10 and 8x20, and I have great scan of my negatives ready to get a digital negative. So maybe it's the right way to find a good laboratory that print for me my files, even if I would have more control by myself about them...

 

[cnz]

Hi

For the printer you should consider 3880 or old 7600 , hp make also great printer for digital neg

 

[Doyle Thomas]

the thing about Pictorico is that it has a very high clay content (hence the milky color) that allows for a high ink loading. that is, it can hold more ink without smearing or blocking up resulting in higher contrast. Inkpress is also good. as for printin I know that the Epson drivers allow you to adjust the ink loading, not sure about the others.

 

[cnz]

In europe good ohp could be find in the U.K. at revolution transfer, both the HD and the premium are as good as pictorico

 

[lenny]

I'd say go piezography. Jon's done a lot of research, he's mapped out the whole thing for you, and it works.

Lenny

 

[rst]

I use Pictorico and an Epson R3000 printer which as far as I know has the same printhead and ink set as the R3880. I use the original Epson inks and am pretty satisfied with the negatives I get. But I do kallitypes, so pt/pd may be a different story.

I found the following links kind of helpful when I started to produce negatives out of digital files (be they scans from negatives or files from a digital camera):

How to Make Digital Negatives by Christina Z. Anderson.

Series of youtube videos by Will Salley. I think the videos are based on the first article and Will demonstrates it for Albumen prints.

I think if you go with an Epson R3880, that is the right start and I would first try the original inks and only switch to some third party inks if you do not get what you want. Maybe you can find someone near you who has such a printer and can print some negatives for you. Then the initial costs would be a pack of pictorico and the time you invest in calibrating the process for someone else's printer. But if you get what you want, re-calibrating it for your own printer should not be too far away from making another test-print.

Cheers
Ruediger

 

[photo8x10]

Thanks for your advices... Now I'm some information to work...