I've come to the conclusion that ink makers for our inkjet
printers never use them or are odor-blind.
Last night I printed up five 11x11s, two 7x11s, ten 8x8s,
fourteen 6.5x6.5s, and twenty 5x5s of two pictures. (Taken with
an OM-2S with 24/2.8). All are to be used for somebody's
trade-show display booth.
I'm VERY thankful that the Canon S9000 is fast. Even on the
highest quality setting it only took me a couple of hours for
the entire job.
Oh, and I learned something about rezzing up photos and printer
resolutions. I uprezzed a photo in 110% increments vs my
standard methods and ended up with zero loss of resolution as
seen on final prints and no stairstepping. The printer really
liked the higher density image files and the tonal smoothness
(and lack of dot-pattern) was very apparant. I'm learning...
Another picture (a portrait) was shot using Delta 100, scanned
on my Nikon BlurScan II (2700ppi) using VueScan and edited in
Gimp 2.0. This picture lacked resolution on-screen (due to the
scanner), but when printed appeared TOO sharp. This was at an
effective 8x12 print size. I decided I needed to dumb down the
picture some, so I applied a 4 pixel gauzzian blur to the file.
On-screen it really cruddied things up, and made the grain next
to disappear. Once printed out you cannot tell the difference
between the two prints. Maybe at 11x17, but not at 7x9.
Moral of the story? The Zuiko 100/2.8 SC is too sharp.
Imagine, having a fuzzy scan needing additional blurring just to
make it ALMOST acceptable for a print. Ok, so the paper was a
little different (heavy-weight matte stuff), but once in a while
a particular picture comes through and suprises you. Usually I
can't get enough sharpness, but this particular one I couldn't
get it soft enough.
On a semi-unrelated note, next week I'm trying something totally
new. I shoot a particular annual event and have done so for
around five years now. This is my first year shooting it
digital. Even though I'm hired by the organizers of the event,
I am given the freedom to sell prints to participants. So, this
year I'm going to tote the S9000 to the event with a laptop and
try to sell prints directly. I'll be using Canon's Photo Paper
Pro and Canon Inks because of instant-dry and color balance
issues. If the prints could be left to dry for a day or two I'd
use Ilford Gallarie papers. But getting 8x10s in under 90
seconds is crucial.
Oh, what about the digital camera? Minolta A1, stroboframe,
Vivitar flash with zoom head. I've got the white balance
settings down for use with this flash and a real suprise is how
well the flash's auto-exposure setting works. I've used OTF for
so many years that I've forgotten that Vivitar autoflash isn't
that bad. Best of all, I can punch a couple buttons on the
flash and alter my fill/ambient ratios so easily. I went back
and tried the same thing on my OM-2S and it works equally well
on it too. Of course, not OTF, but an effective solution for
those times when you need to reduce flash output some. Anyway,
with instant-review, I can immediately judge whether or not the
exposure was nailed. I will be shooting in RAW and
batch-converting on the laptop. This way I can always go back
and change the WB if I need to. Reading about S.I.'s workflow
taught me a couple new techniques. If history is any
indication, and knowing my penchent for shooting 3x more in
digital, I'll probably shoot around 1000 pictures in three days.
I've been extensively testing this setup and have great
satisfaction in it.
As a backup, I will have both the IS-3/G40 and the OM-2S with
24/2.8, 35/2.8, 100/2.8 and 200/4 in the bag. Client
requirements are digital files, so any film I shoot has to be
scanned.
A1-Schnozz
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