Confessions and Revelations

[rafeb <rafeb@channel1.com>]

1.  After steadfastly claiming, for many months now,
    that my Epson prints don't fade, I must finally 
    admit that there is some slight fading, on a
    print made about five months ago, and stored in
    the dark.  The overall image has turned just a 
    bit green (loss of magenta ink?)

    I discovered this by reprinting my "reference"
    image, from PS4, and comparing it to the print
    made five months ago.  I suppose there could be
    other explanations for the color shift, but
    fading seems the most likely culprit.

2.  Some -- or most -- of the extra contrast and punch
    in my Wizi results seems to be coming from my
    use (or misuse) of PS5 color spaces.

    The same image, printed on the same Epson paper,
    with the same Epson ink, looks somewhat more
    contrasty when printed from PS5, than when 
    printed from PS4.  No printer profiles in *either* 
    case.  Clearly, I have some issues to work out with 
    my setup/usage of PS5.

3.  Considering 1) and 2) above, I must now confess
    that Wizi is doing a very good job.  I think
    it still has a problem with cyan skies, though,
    and just a touch of excess red in the shadows.
    The effects that I found so shocking in my
    last few posts now appear to be coming mostly
    from other issues.  (Hopefully, I'm not just
    rationalizing all this!)

4.  A profile made for the Hahnemuhle Photo-Matte
    170 paper (again, with Epson ink) was spot-on,
    first try.  Except, of course, for those cyan
    skies.  Wizi seems to produce very consistent
    results.  As I recall, there had been some
    comments that glossy papers are harder to
    profile (on Wizi, anyway) than matte papers,
    and I think I agree.  But the Hahnemuhle paper
    is a good, hard-coated stock that produced
    pretty nice results even without a profile.


Wow! Life is for learning!

Somerset Velvet will be the next test, and I'll 
probably have to move on to that Generations ink
cart before the day is out...

My thanks to all of those on this list who pushed 
and nudged me into doing all this extra work.  I
think I'm finally starting to "get it."


rafe b.


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