X-Rite 361T

[Michael Slade]

Alright guys,

Just unpacked my X-Rite 361T for the first time ever. I bought it used at an APIS conference in Santa Fe several years ago, but have never used it since I got it.

It was calibrated by X-Rite just before I bought it, and all of the calibration tests I have just ran on it look spot on.

Getting ready to print my first PDN negatives, and was wondering if anyone has any advice or suggestions on using the densitometer to check my negs.

Sorry if this is redundant with some of the directions in the PDN manual, I'm just looking for some real-world experience.

Thanks!

[sanking]

Alright guys,

Just unpacked my X-Rite 361T for the first time ever. I bought it used at an APIS conference in Santa Fe several years ago, but have never used it since I got it.

It was calibrated by X-Rite just before I bought it, and all of the calibration tests I have just ran on it look spot on.

Getting ready to print my first PDN negatives, and was wondering if anyone has any advice or suggestions on using the densitometer to check my negs.

Sorry if this is redundant with some of the directions in the PDN manual, I'm just looking for some real-world experience.

Thanks!

Assuming you making negatives for UV processes, just set the densitometer to read UV densities, zero it out, and then take readings in the shadows and highlights of your negative. Subtract the shadow reading from the highlight reading and that will give you the approximate density range of the negative, which should correspond to the print exposure scale of whatever process you are using. Actually, this is something you establish in advance by printing the Soufffer step wedge and adjust chemistry until you get the density range you want. If printing straight palladium this would be about 1.75 to 1.85, and this will also work well with carbon.

Sandy

[Michael Slade]

Sandy,

I'll be running some Kallitypes as 'tests' for my pt/pd prints...I'm going on the assumption that they take a negative of similar tonality. I printed some Kallitypes last week with some 4x5 in camera negatives and they looked pretty good, so I'm back in the saddle, at least for Kallitypes for now.

I've calibrated for UV, which is the main reason I bought this particular densitometer, so thanks for the reminder.

I haven't made any digital negatives yet...this is my first go through, so I might have some newbie questions that might be better off answered through Mark, and/or more comprehensive understanding of the manual.

Thanks!

EDIT: Here's something I just wondered...if you have a Photoshop file, can you use the information in the 'Info' palette to predict what kind of tonal range your negative will have? Is there any kind of a 'digital densitometer' that can be used, at least to predict the tonal range of the file as it stands digitally but not printed? If you could predict that, then you could also maybe take the material you are printing on, which would be a known quantity of UV transmission, and you would be able to 'virtually' measure your negative? If this is just wishful thinking and not really feasable, let me know quickly...I may just dwell on it all day tomorrow.

[sanking]

Michael,

Kallitype will need a negative with about the same density range as a straight palladium print. I use the dichromate system of contrast control and my recommendation of the DR of about 1.75 is based on the addition of about 2ml of a 5% solution of potassium dichromate per liter of developer. If you don't use any dichromate kallitypes and palladium prints can be very difficult to clearl.

Sandy

Sandy,

I'll be running some Kallitypes as 'tests' for my pt/pd prints...I'm going on the assumption that they take a negative of similar tonality. I printed some Kallitypes last week with some 4x5 in camera negatives and they looked pretty good, so I'm back in the saddle, at least for Kallitypes for now.

I've calibrated for UV, which is the main reason I bought this particular densitometer, so thanks for the reminder.

I haven't made any digital negatives yet...this is my first go through, so I might have some newbie questions that might be better off answered through Mark, and/or more comprehensive understanding of the manual.

Thanks!