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Photo Paper

hkwiles
Posted 24/02/2012 - 11:41 Link
I have just purchased an Epson SX 435w printer and was surprised at the quality of my first phot prints. They were so dull and lifeless, looked like underexposed photos. I was using Kodak Glossy Paper . After talking to support on line it appears it is adviseable to use the printer manufacuturers own brand due to the different printing technologies used.
I am assured if I switch to Epson paper all will be well. Is this the case ? I asumed most brands of paper would work equally well.

Howard
Body: K7 of course !!
Lenses: DA18-55WR,DA50-200WR,FA50-1.4
PeterKR
Posted 24/02/2012 - 12:27 Link
Hi, Howard.

Welcome to 'the real World' !

Printers, inks and photo paper are a mine of confusion and all printer makers will insist that you should use only THEIR branded goods (of course !)
In your case I think it might be a problem with the use of Kodak paper as I have had similar results previously with an old Epson printer, when I found that Epson paper definitely gave brighter results.

I now have a Canon 'all-in-one' printer and started using up my supply of Epson Photo Paper 170 GSM as this was quite low price and BOGOF from 7DayShop. The results were every bit as good as the genuine Canon papers samples !

However, I have now moved to 'Full Colors' paper from www.cartridgepeople.com as I find it also give very good bright results as good as the Epson paper as very low cost.

It's one of those things that you just have to experiment with but at the price of the Full Colors paper that come quite cheaply ! Some people have said they had paper-feed problems with the Full Colors paper but I have NOT had any problems.

Good luck

Peter
grahamwalton
Posted 24/02/2012 - 12:52 Link
In my opinion the best all round Photo Paper for my Epson printers is Permajet Oyster.
Friendly Regards
Graham
chunky
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:05 Link
I totally agree with what PeterKR has said.
The world of printers and inks is a veritable minefield.
One major consideration is just how serious are you about your printing and the accuracy of
print colours as seen in relationship to your monitor?

Most people will view a print they have produced and be quite pleased when using manufacturers ink and manufacturers paper and using the recommended settings.
However as you become more experienced and perhaps your interest and standards grow higher you will seriously need to think about calibrating your printer and your monitor, using the paper and inks of choice.
Just about everyone on this forum who is serious about printing will come up with a different combination of
printer, inks and paper. Pretty much as we did in the days of the wet darkroom. When we all had our favourite
paper, developer, fixer and toner.

I use Epson wide format printers and experimentation has brought me to the point where Epson inks on Ilford papers using Ilfords free ICC profiles gives me superb results. Ilford Gallerie gloss or smooth pearl for printing our greetings cards and Ilford Gold Fibre Silk for the fine art work.
We also have an Epson printer using Fotospeed inks to print matt finish images on Fotospeed 'High White Smooth' matt paper.
So you see we use paper of different grades and finishes and by different manufacturers and we truly get identical results (apart from the finish) from all the paper ink combos.
I have no doubt that other forum users have widely varying ink, paper, printer combinations.
It also has a lot to do with your 'style' a friend of mine has a hugely successful gallery and he prints only on matt papers. Using Epson Archival Matt for proofing and Fotospeed' High White Smooth' for his finished fine art work. His style of landscape photography is full of very gentle soothing pastel tones and his ink paper combo works just fine. For him. It won't suit everybody though.
My golden rule in all things is "Effort and quality on input equals reward and quality on output."
Chunky
beakynet
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:12 Link
Different printers, mostly down to the ink they use, will show different colours bassed on the way the paper absorbs the ink and the underlying colour of the paper itself. This is why many paper manufactures produce colour profiles (ICC) that you can download and install on your printer. ICC profiles will be tied to the printer and spacific for the manufacture and type of paper, i.e. Pearl, Gloss, High Gloss, Satin, Mat etc.

Permajet produce ICC profiles, however I have found great results from my Canon without the use of profiles. Also when I attempted to use a ICC profile from Ilford it did not improve things much.

You could use printer profiling system if you really want to get things right.

Another thing to remember is that monitor callibration is key to getting things right during editing otherwise your prints may never match what you see on screen!
Bodies: K5IIs, K7, MZ5n, LX, MV
Lenses: DA*16-50, DA18-55WR, DA18-135, DAL35, M50 F2, A50 f1.4, FA50 f1.4, DA*50-135, DA55-300, Tamron 70-300, DFA 100 WR Macro, M135 f3.5, Sigma 120-400 APO DG HSM, Tokina 500 f8.0
Flash: Metz 58, Metz 48
Accessories: BG4, Pentax right angle finder, Pentax mirror adaptor lens, O-ME53 Viewfinder Loupe
Auto 110 System: Auto 110, Winder, 18mm, 24mm, 50mm, 70mm, 20-40mm, AF100P, 1.7x telecon
Blythman
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:13 Link
First step has to be calibrating monitor.

Whilst not perfect I have calibrated mine against a test print which I downloaded from http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/images/calibration_image.jpg
Alan


PPG
Flickr
gartmore
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:16 Link
The instructions included with the Kodak paper give instructions on use with other maker's printers including where to obtain the printer profiles etc.

Having said that I use Kodak inks and papers with my Kodak printer and all things Lexmark with my Lexmark one.

Good golden rule Chunky.
Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -
greynolds999
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:28 Link
The main issue is that both your editing software and the printer driver will be trying to adjust what you are doing.

My advice is to make sure you have disabled all colour management on the printer, then get a test page (such as this) and load it into your editor.
Then change the settings until you get to what seems to be a good benchmark.

After that, it's a matter of trial and error!
SteveF
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:34 Link
I use Ilford Galerie paper with my Epson without any problems.
hkwiles
Posted 24/02/2012 - 13:46 Link
All interesting replies , I must admit when I bought an HP deskjet 540 yonks ago I never actually used it on colour ( cartridge dried up!) So I had never given any thought to the compatibility, I'm sure many users simply grab a printer and a sheaf of photo paper. By the way ..I simply inserted the sd card in the card reader and used Easyphoto, expecting it to all be Hunky Dory ....
I've just ordered some Epson BOGOF paper from 7daystore so I will see how it goes. At this stage any prints will be for family and friends and merely a means of displaying some of my photo efforts, rather than leave them on the PC never to be seen !

Howard
Body: K7 of course !!
Lenses: DA18-55WR,DA50-200WR,FA50-1.4
beakynet
Posted 24/02/2012 - 14:46 Link
I remember Easyphoto! Actually a great piece of software, however I believe that it will use colour profiles based on the type of paper you select.

One point of note, my Canon software has a little (hard to notice) box for vivid prints . Ticking this does improve clarity and pop my colours nicely. Can't remember if Easyphoto has the same.
Bodies: K5IIs, K7, MZ5n, LX, MV
Lenses: DA*16-50, DA18-55WR, DA18-135, DAL35, M50 F2, A50 f1.4, FA50 f1.4, DA*50-135, DA55-300, Tamron 70-300, DFA 100 WR Macro, M135 f3.5, Sigma 120-400 APO DG HSM, Tokina 500 f8.0
Flash: Metz 58, Metz 48
Accessories: BG4, Pentax right angle finder, Pentax mirror adaptor lens, O-ME53 Viewfinder Loupe
Auto 110 System: Auto 110, Winder, 18mm, 24mm, 50mm, 70mm, 20-40mm, AF100P, 1.7x telecon
hkwiles
Posted 25/02/2012 - 10:33 Link
gartmore wrote:
The instructions included with the Kodak paper give instructions on use with other maker's printers including where to obtain the printer profiles etc.

Having said that I use Kodak inks and papers with my Kodak printer and all things Lexmark with my Lexmark one.

Good golden rule Chunky.

I didn't realise that. Just adjusted settings as they suggest, seems the trick is selecting the appropriate paper setting. Managed some sort of reasonable prints at least. Think for now I will stick with Epson inks and photo papers.

Howard
Body: K7 of course !!
Lenses: DA18-55WR,DA50-200WR,FA50-1.4

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