Digital BW, The Print

I just got some Alise Natural from Atlex in the mail yesterday.  Got both
letter and 13x19.  Have not opened up the 13x19 yet.  I printed about 4-5
pages on my 2200 last night.  It did indeed have some curl to it.  Not a lot
but enough to where I did not even try the normal page feed instead using
the lever to open the paper through-put and slip it in manually thru the
back of the printer.  No head strike issues at all (and I do have headstrike
issues sometimes with some of the Harman papers....)

Absolutely gorgeous prints with great blacks using Epson Matte Black ink and
printing BO on the 2200.  One flake on one print but I cannot say it was not
from dust.  Others look fine.

Got an Epson 1400 that should arrive today or tomorrow and a set of eboni-6
carts from MIS coming next week.  Will report more on using this paper, that
ink and the 1400 soon.....

You know, now that you mention it I think I may have an old box of
letter-size RR Aurora on a shelf somewhere.....

-- 
Richard S.
Albany, CA (San Francisco bay area)

My Photography Website
http://www.lightshadowandtone.com

My Flickr River
http://flickriver.com/photos/rich8155/popular-interesting/

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 10:31 AM, KentB <philip@...> wrote:

>
>
> I had ordered some of the Alise Natural in November...I ultimately returned
> it to Premier, due to the curl. Atlex was really good about handling the
> return. I had major head strike issues even though I was using a 4880 with
> the highest vacuum setting. Premier said they were aware of the curl and
> were dealing with it. Yesterday, I spoke with Atlex...and they assured me
> that Premier had corrected the curl. I cannot validate this, but I plan to
> order a bit again.
>
> I concur with Paul Roark...after I sent back the Alise...I ordered a box of
> Red River Aurora Natural. After a bit of extra profiling in QTR...I am
> getting very acceptable dmax. I did have to add a more significant Black
> boost to my profile for the Aurora...but it appears to handle a good load of
> ink. After first emerging from the printer, the maximum black looks a bit
> over inked, but upon drying...it is visually just as black as the Alise. Of
> course this is not a scientific appraissal, but the Aurora prints are quite
> lovely...I would be proud to hang them in a show.
>
> Price is reasonable on the Aurora and it has the added benefit of being two
> sided. It lays out dead flat.
>
> I compared identical images of Alise and the Red River Aurora. Both are
> nice...I cannot honestly say Alise is significantly nicer. I would have to
> think twice about paying twice the price for Alise. The differences are not
> all that great IMHO. Perhaps for some images needing a wee bit more of that
> special something....but for a lot of images..I am not convinced that the
> chase for dmax is the holy grail.
>
> I have to believe that a lot of the new papers are marketed with hype.
> Alise has certainly not been immune to the hype about dmax.
> Have you noticed how Epson Exhibition Fibre was hyped as the best baryta at
> an outrageous price. It is now one of the lowest priced barytas... Go
> figure???
>
> Phil
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "ClaytonJ" <cj@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hello Paul,
> >
> > >One of the aspects of the Alise Museum-Natural that appears to appeal to
> both of us is the relatively low Lab B of the paper. That is, it is a
> relatively neutral or "bright" natural paper as opposed to the usually more
> creamy look of non-OBA papers.
> >
> > Yes, I like that very much, but the main thing for me was the dmax.
> Finding a non-OBA paper with dmax over 1.7 was a major big deal. All the
> rest was icing on the cake.
> >
> >
> >
> > >Have you tried the Red River Aurora Natural? It's even more neutral. It
> may have the lowest Lab B of any of the non-brightened papers.
> >
> > No, but I'll get some and test it. My primary non-OBA paper has been
> Innova's Soft Textured Art with Dmax 1.62. Very pretty paper (responds
> beautifully to K3) but is quite warm and thus more limited. Aurora's 1.65 is
> good and a whiter paper would make it more universal.
> >
> >
> > > With QTR I'm getting a dmax of 1.65 with the Aurora, which is not
> spectacular, but good enough that only those on this list would notice the
> difference.
> >
> > Maybe it should be classified as a disease <g>.
> >
> > After your previous post about PA papers I went back through my past test
> prints and realized I never tested the PA325. The 1.70 dmax sounds real good
> so I ordered some. Hopefully it won't have the curl that Alise has and will
> allow flake spotting.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Clayton
> >
> >
> > Info on black and white digital printing at
> > http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
> > I-Trak 2.1 http://www.cjcom.net/itrak.htm
> >
>
> 
>


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