The color output is set up to produce the greatest possible permanence without sacrificing color gamut. I start with a good file, optimize it, and output on the custom profiled state of the art Epson 9570 44" wide printer, or the HP Z3200 or Z3100 44" wide printers. All have the ability to reproduce photographs, paintings, drawings, or other 2D artworks very accurately. The kind of color rendition we output ranges from the high saturation high resolution results that greatly surpass the dynamic range achieved with traditional, non-archival "Type C", Lightjet, or Lambda prints, to the soft delicate pastel qualities previously the domain of Iris, platinum, or multi-color silkscreen prints. Both the quality and permanence of these processes are influenced by the type of media used. However, accurate color and tonality can be reproduced (and expanded upon) on most of the coated media we have profiled. The HP Z series uses color and neutral gray pigments and their hues have shown from three major testing facilities to have by far the most lightfast inkjet pigments (for color prints) in use today. It can also quickly profile any specialized alternative media internally with its onboard Eye One color spectrometer within 20 minutes. The new Epson Pro 12 color pigments have the best color gamut and resolution available anywhere for an OEM pigment inkset. It also has the best permanence ever achieved for a photo quality printer with this level of image quality.

Both of our Epson printers and both of our HPZ printers have exceptional black and white pigment ink capability. Unlike other brands, these inks and workflows exhibit clean neutral monochrome with no color casts or metameric failure under various light sources. Of course color toning is totally available as well, which applies both to the great fiber semi gloss, gloss, and matte and matte rag surface papers. This is the best black and white inkjet rendition ever achieved by Epson. Not only is this printer resolution razer sharp, black density amazing, gray ramp totally smooth, but the printer is several times faster than previous inkjet printers. Also both brands have off the chart permanence in daylight . They can last for several centuries if cared for appropriately. It really is a new standard that no other system has matched. See Permanence page for a discuss of this aspect.

We have used Piezography seven channel pure carbon inks for over 15 years and they have been in a class by themselves in regard to longevity and tonal dimensionality. We will try to keep these going in our Epson 9890 as long as they are practical to use. Epson has locked out all third party inks from their new printers . These custom inks also have become more expensive, so this year will most likely be the last for us.

The print color of pure carbon is warmish in appearance and this set with our workflow is appropriate for printing on matte media only. One way to describe them is they are similar to a platinum/palladum print with much better black density and much better resolution. Besides photographs, it is also a very beautiful process for reproducing fine drawings, lithographs, or etchings. And they would be designed to last as long as the originals.

To read more about my experiences with CK7 you can read what I wrote on the Piezogrpahy blog here.

I am now set up to make large high-resolution 16 bit RGB files for fine art reproductions of a very high quality. We are using the recently released Fuji GFX 100 S medium format camera that saves files at 100 megapixels. This system fitted the with great new Fuji optics designed for this camera creates 200 megabyte Raw files out of the camera. These files can render canvas or paper prints in really big sizes, especially if used in conjunction with the new Topaz Photo Ai software that can easily double or triple this file size without adding noise diminishing sharpness and fine detail. Each digital capture of a painting, illustration, print, or drawing is made with a custom lighting/camera ICC profile created with X-Rite Color Checker software. This profile is simply dropped into Lightroom at the time of accurate color correction for print matching.

Why would anyone want to get involved in very high-end drum scanning these days in a world where film and photo labs are vanishing before our eyes. I can think of two good reasons, which is why I decided to continue it.

First, there are still some folks left in this world who still shoot film for one reason or another. Compared to other forms of scanning, fluid mounting on a PMT drum scanner produces much smoother grain, better shadow detail, less noise, and it removes scratches and dust that can take forever to clean up in post processing. It also does a great job with color negative material, provided it was accurately processed and not shifted from heat and poor storage.

Second, there exists tons of archived film from photographers of the last 100 years that is just begging to be scanned, cleaned up and printed or saved for future generations. As a matter of fact, most of the great photography that exists in the world today was captured on film. If that film was color it is already starting to deteriorate if it hasn't already, and it is just a matter of time before it is totally lost. If it was shot on black and white film and carefully processed (rare) there are so many things that can be done to enhance, enlarge, finesse, and print that imagery these days that many people have not even considered.

For the last 15 years we have been using the Aztek DPL Hi-Resolve 8000 scanner for all the film scanning. This unit combined with the Digital Photo Lab Pro version software, is as good as it gets for film scanning. Not only can we scan transparencies and black and white negative material to very exacting standards, but also the more difficult color negative film of all sizes as well. This scanner will scan up to 8x10 inch film @ 8000 ppi or smaller resolutions at 48 bit color depth and an aperture down to 3 microns. The DPL software allows us to produce custom calibration media settings from any film type on the fly, whether the film is still made or not, to render the most accurate color and smoothest tonal range, while giving the sharpest result possible. So in effect each piece of film has its own custom color and tonal calibration. This keeps you from having to do radical tonal adjustments in Photoshop which can be quite damaging to the file.