Epson PM4000-PX - Bronzing problems

[Thomas Krüger]

I'm posting this for a panorama photographer based in Japan, Roger Williams at usefilm.com/member/roger
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When I got one of Epson's first pigment-based printers some
years ago I knew not to expect glossy prints. Sure enough,
colours were soft, natural, but strictly matte or a strange
"semi-matte" that was still far from glossy.

I recently started using it to print some holiday photos, and was
surprised to see Epson "glossy" paper recommended for use with
the pigment inks it uses. I got a set of the six ink cartridges
needed at the same time as I purchased 50 sheets of this paper.

The prints really do have a nice gloss. They also have good
colour, acceptably close to those of my LCD display.

However, I notice that the glossy surface of the prints is dull
(non-reflective) where black is used in dark shadow areas. If
you hold the prints up to the light at the right angle you can
see exactly where the darkest areas are by their dull surface.

I am still using up a photo-black ink cartridge from years ago,
and I wonder if the glossy surface is only obtained with the
newest inks? I guess I'll find out when it comes time to replace
the photo-black cartridge. At the rate I'm going that could be
months away...

The printer is PM4000-PX, the inks are the ICxx23 series, where
"xx" is PB (for photoblack) or MB (for matte black) etc. I
am using ICPB23 black.

The paper is K2L50PSK, where 2L is the size of the paper and
50 is the number of sheets I bought. PSK appears to be the
critical designation.

Thanks,
Roger W.

[RogerWilliams]

[quote name='ThomasK' date='Jul 16 2010, 09:24 PM' post='376633']
I'm posting this for a panorama photographer based in Japan, Roger Williams at usefilm.com/member/roger
------------------------

I am the Roger Williams that ThomasK mentioned in his kind post which forwarded my question while my own registration at LuLa was pending.

I perhaps should mention that I have experimentally reduced the ink colour density in the "paper config" option under "advanced" custom settings in the Epson printer driver and this appeared to reduce both the intensity and the area of the non-glossy black ink. At the moment I have set this to -5%, but I wonder if there is any downside to reducing the colour density still further? Or is there something else I should be doing either in addition to this or perhaps instead of it? I really would like to eliminate these dull areas.

Looking very carefully at my prints, I can see that there are a few other areas where the surface is dull. One is where there is no ink at all, i.e., areas where the paper shows through as pure white, with no overlay of ink. The paper itself appears not to be particularly glossy. I assume the inks themselves are contributing the gloss. All very mysterious. I would be grateful for any comments on this effect and any help in minimizing it.

[Sven W]

The Ep4000 was never a hit when coming to glossy papers, compared to the newer printers with Ultrachrome K3 and HDR inksets.
To much bronzing and gloss-differential.
The only papers that worked OK for me was(are) the Ilford Galerie Smooth series. Like Gloss, Luster and Pearl.
/Sven

[edwinb]

I'm posting this for a panorama photographer based in Japan, Roger Williams at usefilm.com/member/roger
------------------------

I am the Roger Williams that ThomasK mentioned in his kind post which forwarded my question while my own registration at LuLa was pending.

I perhaps should mention that I have experimentally reduced the ink colour density in the "paper config" option under "advanced" custom settings in the Epson printer driver and this appeared to reduce both the intensity and the area of the non-glossy black ink. At the moment I have set this to -5%, but I wonder if there is any downside to reducing the colour density still further? Or is there something else I should be doing either in addition to this or perhaps instead of it? I really would like to eliminate these dull areas.

Looking very carefully at my prints, I can see that there are a few other areas where the surface is dull. One is where there is no ink at all, i.e., areas where the paper shows through as pure white, with no overlay of ink. The paper itself appears not to be particularly glossy. I assume the inks themselves are contributing the gloss. All very mysterious. I would be grateful for any comments on this effect and any help in minimizing it.

one of the benefits of the k3 inkset is the light light black coverage for no ink areas- you will not acheive that with the 4000 but could choose paper that minimises the problem  or try a 1% tint
Edwin

[RogerWilliams]

one of the benefits of the k3 inkset is the light light black coverage for no ink areas- you will not acheive that with the 4000 but could choose paper that minimises the problem  or try a 1% tint
Edwin

Thanks for the reply Edwin. I cannot replace the PM4000-PX, so I assume I should ignore the suggestion about using k3 inks, which apparently cannot be used with this printer (I'll have to check just what "K3 ink" means--forgive my ignorance). I would be more interested in your suggestion for different papers that might work better and how I might apply a 1% tint.

[RogerWilliams]

The Ep4000 was never a hit when coming to glossy papers, compared to the newer printers with Ultrachrome K3 and HDR inksets.
To much bronzing and gloss-differential.
The only papers that worked OK for me was(are) the Ilford Galerie Smooth series. Like Gloss, Luster and Pearl.
/Sven

Thanks, Sven. Unfortunately I am stuck with the PM4000. So I will see if I can find Ilford papers. How would I get the appropriate colour profiles for these papers if I can find them? I didn't notice any listed in the PhotoShop CS5 pulldown.

Roger

[Sven W]

Thanks, Sven. Unfortunately I am stuck with the PM4000. So I will see if I can find Ilford papers. How would I get the appropriate colour profiles for these papers if I can find them? I didn't notice any listed in the PhotoShop CS5 pulldown.

Roger

Photoshop never ships with specific printerprofiles. That's a combo depended on Printer+Printdriver+Mediasettings+inkset+media.
You can download profiles for your printer here.

K3 is an inkset containing LightLight Black, giving three(3) shades of Black(K) and also from printermodels x880, Vivid Magenta.
The formula is also improved for Glossy surfaces.

HDR inkset is K3+VM+Orange+Green.

/Sven