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Professional Photography » Photokina Report 2: The HP Artist System
Photokina Report 2: The HP Artist System
By David Saffir 

The HP Artist System for Digital Fine Art Reproduction is truly something new under the sun. First demonstrated with the Designjet Z3200 at Photokina 2008, this system incorporates end-to-end production tools and workflow for very high-quality fine-art reproduction. What used to be a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive task is now much more streamlined, consistent, and less costly. In fact, my preliminary analysis shows that the cost of reproducing one piece of artwork can now be reduced by as much as 70 to 80%. This does not include any savings which may be realized through reduction in wasted materials or unneeded proofs. 

In the past, photographer/printmakers such as myself typically used some type of  flat-copy setup to photograph artwork. Supported by an easel, the artwork was illuminated by two lights at opposing 45-degree angles. With the camera centered on and parallel to the artwork, I photographed the artwork then printed it.

This method involves several problems. First, the lighting setup described above makes it difficult to render finer details of textures and brushstrokes in the reproduced print. Given the uniformity of the lighting, the final image often looked “flat.” While advanced lighting and Photoshop techniques can mitigate this, it requires additional time and expense to do so. 

Controlling the color temperature of lighting can also be problematic, as can ensuring that illumination is perfectly even (i.e., +/- 1/10 stop). Some lighting types can be inconsistent and reflectance and density vary from painting to painting, as does color. In the past, managing these variables has required painstaking attention to detail at every stage of production. In order to succeed in the fine-art reproduction business, a photographer needed experience and specialized training.  

The new HP Artist Solution streamlines the workflow, provides critical support in key areas of production and quality control, ensures consistent results, and saves time and money. The HP Artist solution is embedded in Ergosoft’s StudioPrint RIP, a specialized print-management program for wide-format photo printers.  From the main menu, choose Tools>HP Artist. This dialogue box will appear:  
      

There are ten basic, easy-to-follow steps: 

Step 1: Set the artwork up on a flat background, preferably black in color.

Step 2: Ensure that your workroom doesn’t allow ambient light to interfere. 

Step 3: Set up your lights, continuous or strobe. They can be arranged in a copy-style setup, or on only one side of the artwork to emphasize textures. 

Step 4:     Place a clean white board (such as a matt board) on the easel. Illuminate the white board as you would the artwork.

 

  


Step 5: Set up your lighting. It isn’t necessary to create even illumination on the target. The computer program will correct any variations in luminance, even in the corners. Allow your lighting to warm up for 30 minutes, or fire strobes several times. 

Step 6: Set up the camera on a tripod or studio stand square to the white board, and photograph it at a proper exposure (check your histogram!) The Nikon D3 using the 105mm Macro VR lens is recommended.

Step 7: Without changing the placement or geometry of the setup, place the artwork on the easel and photograph it. Once work has begun, you can photograph as many additional pieces as necessary.

Step 8: Save these files to a folder on the same computer where you keep the HP Artist software. 

Step 9: Follow the provided instructions. You will now take simple measurements of the lighting striking the target, the white board, and the artwork. The artwork measurements involve sampling colors from the piece itself using an X-Rite i1 spectrophotometer. With a bit of practice, I can do this for a 20 x 30 piece in about five minutes. 

Step 10: Load your measurements and images into HP Artist software. Click “Process.” In less than a minute, you’ll have your adjusted image file, ready for final editing in Photoshop

How does this system compare to older methods? 

In my view, HP Artist provides a greatly improved adjusted image file, ready for final tweaking in Photoshop and printing. Time to completion is significantly less.  

The chart below is based on my own experience over the past few years. It compares the amount of time it typically took me to set up and shoot artwork using my previous steps to the time it now takes me to do the same job with the HP Artist software in the Ergosoft RIP.

Note that a job that once took more than five hours (315 minutes) can now be done in slightly more than a hour (67 minutes). 

The cost savings are substantial. Assuming labor and overhead costs of $150/hr., a job that once cost $800 to complete can now be done for about $165.This savings of $630 doesn’t even take into account any additional materials costs that might have been incurred making multiple proof prints. Even if my HP Artist cost estimates are off by 50%, the cost reduction is still quite significant. 

In my next post, I’ll present a pro-forma Profit and Loss statement that can help you evaluate what type of impact this kind of investment can have on your business.



PREVIOUS METHOD Minutes
Set up lighting 15
Meter and adjust lighting on artwork 25
Photograph color chart or gray card  5
Photograph artwork, review result 15
Adjust camera/lighting. Photograph again 15
Import image into Photoshop. Edit color, luminance, contrast, etc. 90
Calibrate printer 30
Profile media 120
TOTAL TIME 315
   
HP ARTIST SOFTWARE IN ERGOSOFT STUDIOPRINT  
Measure artwork 10
Photograph reference backing board 1
Set up lighting 5
Measure lighting incrementally by hand w/ incident lightmeter 1
Photograph color chart or gray card 5
Photograph artwork, review result 15
Adjust camera/lighting. Photograph again 0
Import measurement data and images into HP Artist/StudioPrint and process 10
Calibrate printer using automated system on StudioPrint and Designjet Z3200 10
Profile media using automated systems on StudioPrint and Designjet Z3200 20
TOTAL TIME 67
 

 

Posted 10-08-2008 4:43 PM by Eileen Fritsch
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Comments

Ursula wrote re: Photokina Report 2: The HP Artist System
on 10-08-2008 10:19 PM

Sounds good but where can one download this software?

Eileen Fritsch wrote re: Photokina Report 2: The HP Artist System
on 10-29-2008 9:59 PM

David Saffir told me that the HP Artist Software is included in a special edition of ErgoSoft StudioPrint RIP (www.ergosoftus.com/studioprint) and is being made available through Ergosoft.

Eileen Fritsch

silverstickman wrote re: Photokina Report 2: The HP Artist System
on 06-05-2009 12:41 PM

You can find more info here: www.hp.com/go/HPArtist

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