Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Question One: Who uses Qimage, and how?

So I was talking to my husband about Qimage, the ways I use it, and how wonderful Mike is about constantly updating it and engaging with users' individual technical issues. And he said, "But I wonder how many people there are out there who actually do home printing with multiple images on a page?"

I know there are many other uses for it as well, and I'd be interested in hearing about the various ways people use it, in addition to the ways I do (I also use it to print single images, but I probably wouldn't have bought it years ago if not for its ability to print several different images on a page). I have no professional uses for it--photography is totally a recreational activity for me.

Question Two (though this my be confidential information): How many users (or at least purchasers) are there?

Question Three: How do you pronounce it, anyway? Sometimes I say Kimage and sometimes I say Cue-image....

Liz

Hi Liz,
Let me be the first to answer.
I do; like you, most of my photography is recreational but I make "albums" as a visual record, photographic diary and a convenient way to show others my stuff.
See attachment below.
I also print single images for competitions and occasional exhibitions. I belong to a local photography club and like to participate in most of the competitions so produce mounted prints for that.
There is usually a projected image section which I also enter; I use Qimage to prepare those images with Print to File so that the image and projector resolutions match, and to add borders.
I always prefer the more tangible offering of a print and even if I don't get a placing, judges nearly always comment on my print quality.
The other use is to try out different aspects of the program before answering "how to" questions here.  ::)

I would guess thousands, after all Mike seems to survive quite well on the sales  ;D

For me: "Cue-image"

Liz,
Glad you brought that up.
I did the same thing. I bought it (cant remember when) but it was just changed from being called PEG ME to CUE image, because of the Queue.
I think it was late 90s?
I make everything from contact sheets to 13 x 19s, and I know loads of pros that print from it into Epson 9600s, 9800s, and the larger Epsons, and use Q exclusively.
Why? The interpolation; best on the planet.
The ability to save the printer settings for all their packages and sizes, printer setups, etc.
It is fast and easy for them to pop out a job once they get the hang of it.

Question 1) Who?  I wish there was a way to disseminate the qualities of Qimage to new people who are just getting their first or second digital camera.
On here, we are mostly preaching to the choir. That's why, if you really think the world of Q as I do, you must tell everyone.

Question 2) I have a close idea, having been here with Qimage since the Crusades, but that answer is for Mike to give out.

Fred

I do! When Qimage came out with the version that supported RAW files from the Panasonic LX3, I wrote about it in various "What software can you use to process RAW images?" threads at DPReview. I have no idea if anyone bit, though!

Liz

Terry,

Thanks for your reply. I love your album pages! Now, I haven't even attempted to use borders like that--I must go back to the manual, because they look great. I just recently stopped cutting all my photo pages apart into separate 4x6" images, and putting each one into its own little sleeve. Now I am putting them as whole pages into an 8 1/2 x11" binder, inside acid free plastic sheets--quite the time saver.

Liz

I don't like prints in sleeves  because I often use pearl paper so I use filing strips; clear plastic punched strips that stick to the back of the page edge. No punched holes in the page and the full area of the page used.  :)
I may use a Q frame, like a drop shadow, to make the page look more interesting, but simple borders are the favourite.
Terry.

I don't punch holes in the photos, and because there is usually a white border, the photos themselves are totally visible. But I am not familiar with filing strips, and a Google search mostly led me to EU or UK sites. I see what they look like from the image you uploaded, but I don't recall ever seeing them anywhere in my area (Boston, MA, USA). Now I am on a quest!! I wonder if they go by an different name in the U.S.? (you know, the boot/trunk, frock/dress thing!)

[a few minutes later] Ah! Self Adhesive Multi Punched Binder Insert Strips, perhaps! Do you think these are more or less the same?
http://tinyurl.com/qwcny2

Liz

That's the ones.
Terry.

Liz-

I do multiple prints, but for a different reason.  I try to group things into a print run.  I may be doing three to 10 images the same day.

SInce I start the process with small prints, adjusting as I go, I will print four different images as 4x5 on a sheet.  After making adjustments on the ones that don't look right, I'll move up to two-5x7's, etc.  All the time I am marking my current print settings on the edges in pencil.

Although I can save these as print jobs in QI, I do not want to always print them the same.  Some imagess I will print then look at in a day or two and make changes.  Dry-down has an affect on some color and B&Ws.  Sometimes it's just a change in my own mind on how it should look.

Inasmuch as my printers stay on all the time and there is very little dye lot (pigment actually) variation in my inks, it's just my likes.

What do you do with them once you're satisfied with the results?

Liz

I never followed up on your initial thoght/thread idea.
I use Qimage in hobby mode, and I love to print my work, and wife Marilyn's too. We generally make 11 x 14 on A3 Epson Luster or Ilford Pearl. Either is wonderful paper.
Then we buy inexpensive frames that have the 11 x 14 matte inside the 16 x 20 frame. We mount them, hang them in the dinette, entranceway, etc.
About every two or three years we will find another set of fresh new winners and replace them.
As for outside prints, everyone knows us, and we gladly do family get togethers and local events strictly in hobby mode.
The last time I sold anything was about a dozen images that went onto picture postcards that are and were being sold on those rotating stands you see in gift shops etc.
The best enjoyment I have is when someone asks me to print *this* for them. They want a really good print to give or hang.
That is my ego boost!
I also like to find ways to solve challenges using Q to be able to make this or that!
Fred

I do something similar (minus the wife), only the prints are letter size and the frames 11 x 14. I usually use Epson Premium Semi Gloss, but I do have some Ilford Pearl too. I'm not too good about rotating anything, though--the same ones stay up year after year!

Liz

Keep the larger ones as a record for a starting point.  Give or sell the smaller ones as A/P, unless it is a customer's image.

 Liz,
After many years of trying various papers from various sources, (less expensive the better) I tend to weed out the so-so quality papers and settle in on the Quality prints since I will either be hanging them, or donating them.
IMHO, for glossy, nothing beats Epson Prem glossy.
Very close second, is Ilford Gallerie Professional Glossy *

Semi gloss, my choices are Epson Prem. Luster
Very close second, (so close I have trouble deciding which is which without peeking at the back) is Ilford Gallerie Smooth Pearl.

I don't use much matte paper... seems like the luster coating types have my attention, but I do have some hanging where I used Epson Colorlife paper.
Not sure if that is still viable with pigment inks, and honestly (remember changing prints every few years) they get a yellow tinge. They were printed years ago on my Epson 1280 with the old ink.
I made a wonderful printer profile for the Colorlife and the Epson 1280 and it was a marriage.

You saw that asterisk above? (*)

* I don't know if there's a SAMS near you, but I buy the Ilford Gallerie smooth gloss at Sams, for 20 bucks /100. It is a skinch 250 gsm vs 280 thinner than the box you buy from other outlets, but the coating and the prints are identical.
I tried both side by side.
Happy printing with Qimage!
Fred

Agreed~!

As for matte, my current printer won't use Colorlife, though my first one did years back (do they still even make it?), but Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte (what a name!) is quite nice.

Happy printing back to you!

Liz

Fred-

Are you talking about the print paper turning yellow or the image? 

UV fading will normally take the yellow ink first, then magenta.  If you are talking ink fading and your cyan and magentas are going first, you may have an environmental issue.

Must be the sulfur in the well water for the sprinklers.  :D ;D
Fred

Fred-

There are two others that really exceed Epson:
Harman Gloss FB AL Baryta available at Red River, etc.
From Uwe at Outback http://www.outbackprint.com/papers/paper_directory/Harman_FB_Gloss.html (http://www.outbackprint.com/papers/paper_directory/Harman_FB_Gloss.html)

Also, Red River's own 66lb. Arctic Polar™ Gloss at http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/66lb-arctic-polar-gloss.html (http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/66lb-arctic-polar-gloss.html)
A bright white, high gloss, optimized for pigments.  Free ICCs.

Seth we have no disagreement on two planes.
1) Paper selection is totally subjective,
2) Whether the paper you cite is better than Epson prem glossy or not is up for debate.
3) You have to put a cost limit on anything like this discussion.  The paper you suggested is double the cost of Epson Prem Glossy.
Like saying there are better cars than a Caddy. Try a Bentley or a Ferrari.
Such as it is....
Fred

Seth,

I was curious, so I followed the link to the Harman web page. There seem to be two variations on this paper, one called Warmtone and the other lacking this designation. Which one are you using?

Liz

I use it for personal and business use.

The most important aspect for me is the ability to call up previously saved jobs and have everything--print layout, printer settings, sharpening, etc.--automatically set up.  Someone calls and says they want xyz print: All I need to do is recall the the job, load the printer and go.

That actually brings up a question, but I can start a new topic for that.

Mark

Sorry, Liz, maybe a misconception.  I have tried Harman but use the Red River product (and EPson).  Not because it is better.  I just like to minimize sources.  I use RR because they have pre-scored cards, panorama pre-cut sheets so I don't have to use roll paper, etc.

The other papers I use are from Hawk Mountain.  They will actually let you send a target from your paper/ink/printer combination and do a free profile. 

One place I would also direct you to is http://www.cjcom.net/articles/digiprn5.htm (http://www.cjcom.net/articles/digiprn5.htm) and read Clayton's eval on papers based on dMax, whiteness, brighteners, etc.

BTW-
Hawk and RR have sample packs that are worth getting.  Order two to play with.

One more thing.  I RARELY print gloss or pearl/semi-gloss on inkjet.  I use various matte papers so I get better archivability and display longevity (not the same.)

I do use heavy gloss paper for color laser photos, but this is Cast Coat and others that will take the heat factor.  (I get into that in Harald John's book Mastering Digital Printing.  The laser prints are even more permanent and have a different effect.)

Mark-

There is a "save as job" option.  Is it not saving everything you need?

Seth

No problem on that Seth, but thanks. 

I just purchased a new printer and my question involved transitioning over 100 jobs that were created with the old printer.   I think I answered my own question:  Whatever you do, don't uninstall the old printer and profiles until the old jobs have been converted to the new printer!

Mark

Optical Brightener (OBA) fading in the paper coating and possibly the paper itself will shift the paper from cool white to warm white. Depending on the quality of the OBAs used, their presence in the coating and/or the paper itself you will see that yellowing happen. As they are basically dyes they will fade when exposed to visible and UV light and if not protected by RC barriers fade to gas (Ozone mainly) too.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Thanks Ernst
Next time I replace a print that has been hanging for years, I will have a closer look.
They were dye ink prints from an Epson 1280.
So far the pigment prints from my R1800 printed in 2007, still pert and perky.
The frames are cheapo s, and the "glass" is really not glass, but acrylic. I would have to check, but it is likely that UV passes through that stuff????
As to Ozone, not much of that in the house, but plenty of Methane.
Fred  ;D :-[

Looking in Wikipedia, I found this:
 Answer

In short, your initial assumptions are flawed. Every different chemical compound will allow light of some wavelengths to pass through, and will absorb some other wavelengths. In the case of glass and many acrylic polymers, they both appear to be clear because most of the light in the visible spectrum passes through. It is not generally true that glass allows infrared light to pass through, nor is it generally true that acrylic polymers will allow ultraviolet light to pass through. The infrared light absorbed by both acrylic and glass heats up the material by causing bending, stretching, and twisting of mmolecular bonds. The ultraviolet light absorbed by these materials generally causes ionization.

Fred- Dunno who wrote that stuff at Wiki, but-


Or, in the case of solids, reflect or absorb.  Duh! That's what causes color--or the lack thereof.

Totally bollocks.  It depends on the type and composition of the acrylic.  If the statement were true, nikon SB-xxx, canon ef-xxx, etc. wouldn't put out UV when they go off.

Many acrylics will plasticize out.  This is the event that is deadly to photos, papers, etc. especially silver-based.

Long term museum (read: archival) storage by encapsulation is done in true Mylar sheet.

BTW- I don't use wood frames, especially the cheap laminated particle board stuff.  They have their own issues.

Seth

An example: I take photos at events for the county historical society and give them disks of both raw and jpeg images for their archives. I also select some representative images and use the full page editor to add and place multiple images on 13x19 prints. They can display these for people to see a summary of the event.


Tom

Sometimes i'll put put two 5x7's on a 8x10 paper and print them.  It sure is a great feature, i dont use it much though.   

 I bought qimage because everyone over at dpreveiw was going on about the sharpening.  I accepted the old school idea of only printing once and only as the very last step, so it made sense to sharpen in the program that you use to send the file to the printer.  I'm more of the new school three step sharpening system now.  Sharpen by USM once at the beginning to undue the softness created by the camera's anti aliasing filter.  Add  "creative" selective sharpening to specific area of photo ( that would require studio version I think), and output sharpening that will overcome any blurring caused during printing (easily done with smart sharpening). 

I dont really print much, i'm going to try to change that and print something at least every couple of weeks. Nothing is more frustrating than making a print and finding the inks dried up and clogged something because the printer has sat idle for months.

Carl   

Interesting--I have never even thought about the sharpening that Qimage does, and I knew nothing about a three step process!

Liz

None of the Qimage versions do "selective" sharpening. However the USM filter with Equalisation is excellent.

There's nothing that beats having a print in your hand, something tangible and completely different from a screen view in terms of satisfaction.
Get those nozzles flowing!   8)

What sharpening settings do you use?

I'm embarrassed to say that I probably use 1/4 of Qimage's possibilities. When I look at the sharpening options, I think, "I dunno--which ones should I use?"

Liz

This is automatically compensated for in the RAW options settings

That's a tough one. I'll try cuz Terry is likely ready for sleep.
Raw or JPG?
Is the lens soft? Each shot calls for its own amount of USM.
In Raw mode, QSE applies a certain amount of USM as a default. If you set that correctly in EDIT RAW Preferences, you rarely will need any more.
In JPG mode it depends on what your camera does when it saves creates the JPG.

So for fun!     You will have to do trial and error.
In Raw mode, try setting USM to 2/175 with a 75% Equalizer.
In JPG mode in the batch filter, try 1/ 100   then 2/150... and last try 3/350 with 90% Equalizer.
You have to play with the settings and after a while your eye will know.
As Terry said, one print is worth a 1000 words. Make a print... scrutinize.... reset... and make another print.
After 5 sheets of paper, you will be offering advice. :-))

Fred

Yawn  ::)
But I totally agree with Fred and have nothing to add  ;)
Terry

Ummm, I have already probably printed well over 200 sheets, and have quite liked my results! I just haven't done much with sharpening in Qimage (or, apparently, with many of Qimage's other tricks)--at least so far.

Liz

I never know if he is sleepy because in his time zone in the UK it's almost 11:00 Pm or because he is getting old!  :o :-\

Liz, that's part of the "point"
Just because a tool is available, does not necessarily mean you must use it.
I have tried to impart that trial and error is the key.... but adding experience to know what you see on screen is what will print, makes the process much easier.
I have super sharp lens and I have one that is soft when wide open, and one that is soft (70-200 mm) except for 100-150mm. You can see that there can be be no single formula.

Just for fun, if you wanted to send one RAW image to me via email, and see if we agree on the USM needed, can do.

Fred

OK, thanks, Fred--check your email!

Liz

Really wonder if that last part is a reply to my message but even where UV is cut out at 350Nm with normal window glass there still is enough visible light getting through to fade weak components of a print. There are estimations that UV fading isn't contributing more than 15% of the total light fading indoors. The weak components include OBAs but in your case the cyan ink too as explained below. The use of OBA loaded papers is a risk if long term preservation is a goal. The effect of OBA in frames behind more or less UV cutting glass is limited too.

Your 1280 used Epson dyes that were originally claimed to be lightfast by Wilhelm and Epson but shortly after the introduction users complained about very fast cyan ink fading. Especially in places near shores with high Ozone concentrations. Office environments with laser printers have higher Ozone levels too. Epson compensated the US customers that complained after class action threaths. Epson adapted the US advertsing and product labelling accordingly. Wilhelm admitted that gas fading wasn't properly tested at that time. That case was called the Orange Plague and happened about 9 years ago. You will find reports on the web. The Colorfast paper though recommended for that dye ink type wasn't that archival either and certainly didn't stop the cyan fading.  Framing does help to reduce gas fading but one has to be very careful in selecting the materials used for mounting etc. so no gas is evaporated from tape and glues.

Whether Methane is healthy in relation to prints and humans is another question :-)


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Here is a paper from the german company Image Engineering about ozone and fading:
http://www.image-engineering.de/images/pdf/testreports/bildstabilitaet_artikel_en.pdf
http://www.image-engineering.de/images/pdf/whitepaper/whitepaper_printertest2.0_engl.pdf

Thanks Ernst.
Good information for me. I learn all the time, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge.
At the time I printed and hung those 1280 prints, I was laughingly saying that I would turn yellow before the prints did.
Turned out close to a tie. !! :-)
Fred

Hope I'm not to late to answer the questions

Question One: Who uses Qimage, and how?
I think I have the correct answer .. everyone that's on Qimage Forum
Do I get 5 points? ;D
I use Qimage because it does such a great job. I am no professional, just a guy with a camera.
Yes, Qimage can do more than I'll every know.

Question Two How many users (or at least purchasers) are there?
Can't answer this one. So I guess I just lost my 5 points :'(

How do you pronounce it, anyway?
Letter "Q"  Word "Image" 

The reason I bought Qimage was to have a printing program just for printing. Not knowing it was going to be such a great program to print any type of layout I would every want or need.

Now that there is this great forum I can see what you all can do with Qimage.

Hopefully more average users won't be afraid to post questions or a reply because there is a great group of people here willing to help.
Sure I can read the postings by not being Logged In. But some may not know you can't see some of picture you post unless you Login.

Enjoy learning for you all
Ya Me

Hey, Fred-
When you start pre-quoting yourself inside your answer, welllllllllll, TOO MUCH METHANE!  Open the window and leave the house immediately!!

Seth,
Oh I am so happy. UPS just dropped off my package. It's a SETH filter. B&H showed back ordered for a long time as the demand was so high!  

 :) :) :) :) :)

Fred

;)

Harurumph!
Mike is posting just to get his post count up and stay king of the hill!
 :'( :P ::)

I'm jealous .. I was told there was a recall on the SETH filter. :) :)

Ya Me

Mike-
You're bored.  Take the weekend off, then add a new button <GGGGGGGGGGG>.

(This is off the record, so don't quote me.

Hmmm, sounds like you want to get personal.  Sorry, I won't drop to your level.  This isn't the place.

Normally I wouldn't have quoted you, but you have unbalanced parentheses so I didn't know what to do.

:D

Mike

how not to highlight a reply to quote
so as usual my lack of patience made me believe i was doing something wrong
Carl, talking to myself

I can give you my answer
Problems with Quotes
Sometimes I just don't do it right
I'm human .. Just like anything else .. I make mistakes and can laugh at my mistakes

Ya Me

A Day Don't Go By That I Don't Learn Something New ;)

and

Hi Liz, where did you get to on this, just curious?
Terry.

The RAW image? Well, I sent one to Fred, and he played with it and told me what some of the settings he used were, and he also answered a couple of other Qimage questions that arose in the process. We didn't stay on the sharpening question that much.

You folks here are amazingly helpful and generous.

Liz