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| Professional photographer David Saffir not only produces original digital prints of his own photographs, he is also taking advantage of his HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer to expand his business into a new market: the digital reproduction of paintings. Saffir produces prints and sells them to artists, who in turn sell the prints to their customers. Facilitating Saffir’s expansion into this market is the HP Artist Solution for Nikon, an end-to-end workflow solution that takes in the photographer’s Nikon D3 camera with Nikkor 105-mm macro lens, the HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer, and processing software embedded in his ErgoSoft StudioPrint RIP. Thanks to the close collaboration of HP and Nikon, HP Artist Software technology has been optimised for the Nikon D3 and D3X cameras and integrated by ErgoSoft in the special-edition RIP. It combines with the automated calibration and media profiling features of the HP Designjet Z3200 to ensure high-quality reproductions. Lightning speed With the new HP solution, Saffir places a white board on an easel and arranges lighting (though the software automatically compensates for lighting variation, calculating an ICC profile for the final image file). Having photographed the board, he places the painting in front of it and takes a second photograph. “Once work has begun,” he explains, “you can photograph as many additional pieces as necessary.” Saffir then uses an X Rite i1 hand-held spectrophotometer to sample colours of the painting as well as the white of the board. He loads the measurements and images into the HP Artist software embedded in the SudioPrint DFA-edition RIP and, in less than a minute, has his adjusted image file, ready for minimal tweaking in Adobe Photoshop and for printing. What once took five hours, now takes about one. Saturated colour and outstanding print quality Saffir was quick to embrace the benefits of the industry-revolutionising HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer, with its outstanding photographic quality. Now that he has also taken on board the new HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer, he describes how technological developments have built upon the success of the Z3100 model and are helping his work: “The HP Designjet Z3200 Printer has a very wide colour gamut. It incorporates a new ink formulation for the red channel, called Chromatic Red, so images that contain a lot of red tones look better. You can see more details in red-tone highlight, shadow and transition areas. You can also achieve more saturated and vibrant reds and oranges.” The HP Designjet Z3200 has an Eye-One spectrophotometer embedded within, enabling easy, quick, accurate profiling of numerous, original media types. Photographers and fine artists can also draw from over 50 HP large format printing materials, including new HP Baryte Satin Art Paper. Providing an easy, integrated fine-art reproduction solution incorporating paper, printer, processing software, and camera optimisation, the HP Artist Solution for Nikon is producing spectacular results for Saffir and his artist clients – so much so that they are amazed when they see the prints. For the full story, please read on here. |