HP offers Large Format Photo Negative application

HP has launched a Large Format Photo Negative application to allow professional photographers using the Designjet Z3200 photo printer to produce fine-art quality prints or hardcopy image archives.

The application is generated with a free software package and the Designjet Z3200 photo printer series, which is said to allow photographers to use a digital file from a film scan or digital capture to produce a photographic negative on a transparent substrate.

Large-format photo negatives can be used as masters to produce high-quality fine-art prints in a range of classic, alternative photographic processes.

These include monochrome or colour processes, such as cyanotype, photogravure, platinotypes, dye-transfer, gum bichromate and carbro.

Any professional photographer with an HP Designjet Z3200 photo printer, the correct substrate and the free software package from HP can produce the photo negatives.

The software package will be released at the Photokina exhibition in September.

Elliot Erwitt, a Magnum photographer known for his back-and-white candid shots, has used Large Format Photo Negatives to create limited editions of some of his most famous and iconic photos.

With the large-format negatives, he was able to produce 76 x 102cm (30 x 40in) platinum prints of four of his images on cotton paper.

Erwitt first worked with Gabe Greenberg to retouch the images in a digital format prior to printing.

Once approved, the digital files were printed on the Designjet Z3200 photo printer in the form of large-format negatives with green and black Original HP photo inks.

Greenberg has worked with platinum printmaker Arkady Lvov for eight years experimenting with various inkjet printers to find a streamlined method to create large-format photo negatives suitable for platinum printing.

With the printed negative in hand, Lvov coated cotton paper with a mixture of platinum salts and various other components to make the substrate sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light.

The coated paper and negative were then sandwiched together in a vacuum frame and exposed to UV light, causing the reduction of the platinum salt back to its metallic state based on the level of opacity from the negative, forming the images.

The final prints are claimed to offer a superior range of grey levels, smooth tonal transitions, excellent contrast and good separation in shadows, highlights and mid-tones compared with other solutions.

Once final, the platinum print was tagged with ArtTrust, a self-certification system from HP that allows artists to provide individual identity to any pigment ink print produced on an HP Designjet Z series printer using Original HP photo inks and any compatible media, including HP fine-art printing materials.

ArtTrust provides traceability and control of authenticity, as well as certified information about print longevity, for each pigment print.

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