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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

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Karen Renford Comes Home

Just a drabble exploring a side character who is a whumper in a class all her own. I’m not tagging this as directly part of the Kauri story, as it’s not. Just a character study. Takes place within my variation on the Box Boy universe - original idea from @sweetwhumpandhellacomf.

Who is Karen Renford when she’s not at work? She’s this.

CW: Referenced violence and physical abuse, forced feeding/starvation, dehumanization, pet whump. Referenced/discussed whump of a minor/foster care whump (though none occurs directly within the piece, it is discussed from the POV of the whumper and could be triggering, stay safe)

Contains a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to one of my favorite Whump storylines, @comfy-whumpee‘s Alistair and Ellis stories, and this excellent drabble I’ve returned to over and over.

Also includes Henry, who belongs to @spiffythespook and is used with permission, and her OC Wright Farling is referenced but does not appear directly.

When Karen Renford comes home at the end of the day, it’s Dex who greets her at the door.

Her oldest Boy isn’t a boy at all, of course; Dex turned 39 this year, making him only a few years younger than Karen herself. He’s dressed in a simple green sweater with jeans, tall and slim - she insists her Boys maintain their physical fitness even past the point they function as entertainment for friends and other guests - with short dark hair starting to pepper with silver and a hint of crow’s feet beginning around the edges of his dark brown eyes.

He wears a simple green leather collar with his name stamped at the front just below his Adam’s apple, as always. He has one to match every color of shirt he is allowed to wear, and he never forgets to wear the right one.

Dex has his hand out for her coat before she’s even fully crossed the threshold, and smiles for her just the way she likes; a slight expression of warmth, nothing false or overly effusive.

The expression never reaches his eyes.

Karen grants him a peck on each cheek, watching him gently lay her coat over his arm with a practiced, experienced grace. “Good evening, Dex. I assume no one started any obvious fires today?”

His smile might widen, imperceptibly, at the humor; it might not.

Dex’s only answer to the question is a nod, stepping back and out of her way as she enters the foyer. Pulling sleek leather gloves off her fingers one by one, Karen lets her eyes skim over the dark custom-ordered wood doorframes and cream-colored walls, the grand staircase that wraps up to the second floor.

Minimalist but with a subtle, simple lived-in look and feel.

She has worked hard for every inch of her success, signed up with Whumpees-R-Us fresh out of college and was part of the neurological engineering team to develop the first truly successful training protocol, and Karen Renford will never apologize for the wealth on quiet display.

She earned every cent.

Her position as Director of Client Success now is really a way to help her make her first steps towards retirement, not that she could ever imagine doing any such thing. Karen loves her job. She’s good at her job.

Every job Whumpees-R-Us has ever placed before her, Karen Renford has set new standards that the other employees must then meet.

But she is proudest of the Boys she has taken a personal stake in, starting with Dex himself. Dex was one of the first ten success stories, and she’d been the one to guide him right from his first day at the Facility (it was a different building, back then; much smaller, more cramped, but you make do and excel with what you have).

Dex had been her Christmas bonus, when it became clear that the training to make him seen and not heard had been entirely too successful and his intended owner returned him.

Dex hasn't spoken a word since the day, twenty years ago, when 19-year-old Dex (just called 10, before they changed to a random numbering convention), had slapped 24-year-old Karen Renford across the face and said you'll never shut me up, you fucking bitch, I'll kill you myself!

Now he smiles, with an empty gentle affection, as he takes her gloves and packs them away within the pockets of her soft coat.

He's a raging success, as far as she is concerned, in his pristine contented silence. Never so much as an eyelid flicker to betray any evidence of the thoughts she is sure she took away from him a very long time ago.

"Henry?" She asks, craning her head slightly to look around.

Dex gestures with one arm gracefully towards the kitchen.

"Ah, lovely. Did he invite himself, or did Seb ask him?"

Dex holds up one finger, then steps over to the foyer's closet, hanging her coat with nimble fingers, pressing it lightly with his hands to ensure there will be no wrinkles. Then he turns back to her and signs, quickly, fingers flying through names and words fast enough that even Karen must sometimes ask him to slow down.

This time, she keeps up, and nods. "Good. I'm glad they get on so well. Sweet boy." She moves in that direction, then pauses, turning back to Dex, who raises one thin dark eyebrow in question.

"Where is Peter?"

Dex's mouth quirks to the side in what might be meant as either smile or sneer. He signs again, curtly, ending the sentence with a flourish of his hands.

Karen laughs.

It's not much of a sound, short and quiet and a laugh devoid of affection or warmth, but it is a laugh nonetheless. "Well, if he learned his lesson, I don't mind him sitting with Henry. How is his back healing since the caning?"

Dex shrugs, and Karen moves away without asking for elaboration. If the careful set of his shoulders - and the tense expressionlessness of his face - relaxes when her back is fully turned to him, Karen does not see it.

She finds the other three in the kitchen, right where Dex said they would be.

Sebastian is her beauty - her personal chef and second Box Boy, her second large-scale bonus after she introduced a widely successful and lucrative change in price-per-position for the Romantic/Companion poses. Owners were buying their Boys (and Babes) for the purpose regardless, why not add some fun and extra profit into the options available?

She'd received Sebastian - and a promotion - for that one.

Sebastian stands at the counter chopping vegetables with a sharp chef's knife nearly a blur in his hands. At 34, Sebastian's youthful looks - blond hair with a cowlick, a sharp jaw, hazel eyes - have begun to deepen into a sharper handsomeness she appreciates, at least aesthetically.

Karen's never cared for much beyond aesthetics. In that, she is a rare pet owner indeed.

"Good afternoon, Sebastian," Karen calls.

"Good afternoon, Madam," Sebastian replies without missing a beat. "Filet mignon, tonight?"

"Sounds perfect."

She pauses.

There are two more young men in Karen Renford's house, and both of them sit with their backs to her, and neither of them has moved.

One is her Peter, the third Boy at 24 and a gift from a very good friend who had, she thought sometimes, played a bit of a prank by buying her a Boy who still needed correction - and Henry…

Ah, Henry.

Her foster son, 17 years old, sits with his head bent before an array of worksheets, chewing thoughtfully on the end of a pencil as he considers the formula he's working on.

Henry is not one of her Boys, but he is hers. And she will be soon correcting and removing all that need for independence, that sense of certainty in a future that Karen does not command. Once Henry turns eighteen, he will understand his place in her household is a permanent one.

But Henry is not the one she focuses on now.

"Peter," Karen says, with a hint of reproach. "Your Madam is home. Show some respect."

Peter, all soft brown hair with a hint of curl and a hopeless cowlick and warm brown eyes, pushes himself out of his chair quickly, turning to face her and falling to his knees into Position Two. His collar is a silver chain and she can still cut his breath with a single hard yank, and everyone here has seen Peter pass out at her hands before.

"S-sorry, Madam," He says softly, his voice trembling. She loves a good tremble, and her friend must have chosen Peter with the way his voice can shake so beautifully in mind. "I was, um, I didn’t hear you-"

"I know, beautiful boy. Your hearing hasn't been the same since that last repair, has it? Still. You can show more respect than that, don't you think?"

Peter swallows and nods, leaning further over until his face is parallel with the floor. She sees him wince as the motion pulls at the bandages layered over the vicious caning he'd received at her hands the day before. The sight makes her smile, but she says nothing until finally he bends completely in half, breathing harshly, to rest his forehead on the floor.

She does not require Dex or Sebastian to fall into Respect any longer. They haven't needed it in years.

Peter, though, still needs reminders.

Karen would never admit how much she enjoys providing them.

She waits until his breathing is ragged with the ache before she nudges him with the rounded end of one perfect black shoe. Peter swallows, hesitates perhaps a fraction, and kisses the pointed toe before returning to his position.

She nudges him with the other, and he repeats the motion on that shoe, too.

She lets out a slow, soft breath.

Karen requires little more than aesthetics from her boys - but there is something to be said for the curve of a neck and the flush in the face of someone doing something they truly do not want to do.

Peter is imperfect - but Karen is absolutely certain Wright requested him that way when he bought him for her. It had been such a lovely Christmas, that year...

“There, don’t you feel better, doing what you are meant for, Peter?” She asks in a soft voice.

“Yes, Madam,” Peter replies almost too quickly. She’s not convinced he even heard her, to be honest - he really is nearly deaf in one ear as a result of some defiance during his time in the Facility.

But the respect is what matters, and the willingness to literally kneel and kiss her feet.

Henry never moves, doesn't even turn his head. He keeps working, scribbling some formulas on the notebook he keeps for workpaper before carefully writing the answer in the provided space on the worksheet.

Henry has been living with her for not quite half his life, now. Seeing Peter kiss her feet is in no way unusual for him. He and Peter had gotten closer than she liked recently; Henry had been tasked with assisting her with his last caning and it seemed to have put the correct emotional distance back between them.

She hoped. She might need to speak with Dex and have them watched to be sure.

"You may rise and attend Henry," Karen says and moves carefully, casually away. Peter waits until she is over with Sebastian in the prep area before he gets back to his feet, sitting with delicate slowness back down at the table, face pale and teeth gritted. Karen wonders if blood will begin to spot through the back of his shirt again, if he will bleed through his bandages.

She loves the look of fresh red blood on a perfect white shirt.

The same year Wright had gifted her with Peter, she had given him a painting she had had commissioned of his favorite son at the time, painted from the back with bright red spots in a perfect aesthetically pleasing pattern, like a constellation of learning what you are.

Wright had been delighted.

Honestly, if either of them had been remotely attracted to the other, they could have made quite a marriage.

Sebastian hums to himself as he works, not quite tunelessly, his own collar a shining black leather that sits against the pale skin of his throat like he was born wearing it. He's already poured Karen a glass of her favorite dry red wine, and she lifts it to take a sip, eyeing the array of ingredients.

If Sebastian stands straighter when she looks at him, moves more carefully, if he smiles less and looks nervously eager to please her… it is only what she deserves. What she worked very, very hard for.

"How was class today, darling?" Karen asks Henry, turning her eyes to him.

Henry finally looks up, a little dazed and daydreamy from the math he's still working through. "It was good," he says, a touch curtly. One day he won't be curt, Karen thinks. He will have none of that left in him.

He is very nearly perfect now.

Nearly… but not quite.

"Lovely. Will you be singing tomorrow night for my gala? There are some very influential people in the industry who will be there. I'd love to show off what I've paid for."

And watch those pet lib assholes squirm knowing that you'll be mine, in just a few months. Mine like my other Boys. Mine for life.

Henry smiles for her, and she does love his smile. She'll be sure to train him to smile more often than he does now. Smile even through tears. "Of course, ma'am. Whatever you need me for. The black suit?"

"Hm, the blue one. I'm wearing blue. Vincent Shield will be making an appearance, isn't that exciting?"

"He hates your company, though," Henry says doubtfully. "Doesn't he? I saw it in an interview. And his girlfriend really hates you."

"That's half the fun of inviting him, darling," Karen replies, taking another sip. “The wine is warm down her throat and through her shoulders. “The studio head for his next project is a personal friend of mine. He needs to maintain ties with the important people in the industry.”

“His industry, or yours?”

“Both.”

"If you say so," Henry mutters, doubtfully.

She'll have him broken of that, she thinks. She detests muttering, but one must expect a certain amount of it in teenagers. Once he signs his contract, she’ll ensure that his handlers - and he will have two assigned personally to him, nothing but the best for Karen Renford’s Boys - know that he must never mutter or doubt her again.

She wonders, idly, what Henry will look like with a shock collar around his neck. All her Boys start with shock collars - they earn the pretty ones they wear now. By the time they’re good enough for her, they see anything as a mercy compared to that.

Karen lets her gaze move idly around her kitchen as she luxuriates in the simple daydream of her Henry, her good little son, as a Box Boy that meets all her expectations and then exceeds them.

He is not a crier - she loves that about him. She wonders if he will cry when they ink the barcode into his skin.

She spots something out of place - not at all where it should be - and holds up one hand. Sebastian freezes immediately, his eyes moving to her face. "Madam?"

"Why is there a small salad bowl by itself?" Karen points at the garden salad nestled in a spot nearly hidden by the angle where fridge and counter meet.

She sees, all at once, both Peter and Sebastian tense up. Then she understands.

"Ah. For Peter. He’s doing it again.”

"Peter was a vegan before he came into service," Sebastian says softly. "He struggled with meat at lunch again today and I thought rather than force him to feel stomach pain-"

"Were you trained to think, Sebastian?" Karen's voice drops into a deep chill.

Sebastian stills even further, slowly setting the chef's knife down. "No, Madam. I was not."

"I did not think so. Peter," Karen says, pitching her voice louder. Peter doesn't react at first, until Henry leans over to nudge him and point in Karen's direction.

"Y-yes, Madam?" Peter turns to look at her, and his hands shake where they are laid flat on the table.

"You will eat two servings of filet mignon for dinner tonight, and nothing else. If you cannot keep it down, you will eat nothing but the nutrient drink for three days. Sebastian, dispose of the salad. Peter will have none."

Peter and Sebastian meet eyes, briefly, and them both of them nod.

"My apologies, Madam," Sebastian says softly. "Peter did not ask. It was my idea."

Peter looks over at Seb, worriedly. "No, I-"

"It was my idea entirely," Sebastian says, more firmly this time. "I will require correction."

Henry's eyes are up again, carefully reading the expressions of everyone in the room. Karen sits back, feeling the glow of the wine beginning to relax her shoulders and sink nicely into her veins. Dex moves through the room on his way to some other task, and Sebastian and Peter are frozen, waiting for her decision.

"Fine. You will take fifteen stripes tonight for going against my express directions to feed Peter meat with every meal."

"Yes, Madam."

"You may continue dinner preparations." Sebastian nods and picks the knife back up, returning to work. "Peter?"

"Yes, Madam?"

"You will return to your room until you are called to eat. You will receive five new stripes tonight for not reminding Sebastian that what you eat in this house is entirely dictated by your owner."

Peter swallows, already looking a little sick. “Of course, Madam. My apologies.” He pushes himself to his feet and nods, giving her a bow before he walks away. Dex shadows him, unobtrusive but ensuring he goes exactly where he is ordered.

Henry watches all of this carefully, then goes back to his work. He is a hard worker and good at studying, and Karen loves to see his mind rolling around in the math problems he loves so much.

He thinks he will study statistics and mathematics in college.

He thinks he's going to college.

In truth, he will be Karen Renford's newest resounding success - a placid songbird and piano player with all those memories and that annoying independent streak removed with surgical precision.

A new acquisition to stay with her, entertain her, be carefully honed into the final missing piece from Karen's idea of a perfect life of total, unending, complete control over her four Box Boys.

And everyone in this household knows his future but him.

#whump #box boy #box boy universe #karen renford #creepy whumper #violent whumper #distant whumper #referenced violence #forced feeding #tw: mention of force feeding #tw: mention of starvation/food control #reference to whump involving a minor but no minors whumped #collaring #pet whump #dehumanization #caretaker whumpee #broken whumpee #tw: foster care whump

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josephlrushing · 4 years

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Nine Months with Samsung Galaxy Note 10: My 12 Favorite Things

We recently recounted our six-month experiences with the Google Pixel 4/4XL, and if you took even a brief at my sections, you would see that ‘disappointed’ doesn’t begin to describe my take. My problems had very little to do with Android, as I have had another device that more than met my needs over the same period, so I wanted to highlight some of the coolest features of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus (or 10+, I tend to use them interchangeably).

As reviews from release noted, this phone delivers: from gorgeous screen to great speed and multitasking to excellent cameras to massive battery life, the Note 10+ promised a great deal. But so often those early reviews fail to capture the reality of long-term use. Now nine months later, I wanted to step through why I would rate this device as one of the best I have ever owned.

I wrote about the announcement and release of the Note 10 phones, but never got into my impressions. One thing I have always loved about the folks at Gear Diary is that while we all love the cool new toys, there is also the element of ‘let’s wait until it gets boring and see if we STILL like it’! I feel that came through in the Pixel group-review with the excellent variety of opinions, and it is what I am trying to bring to this list of favorite things about the Note 10 Plus. Every day I grab it out of my bag and drop it on my desk and just pick it up for any number of reasons throughout the day, no longer thinking ‘oh this is cool’ – until now. So let’s get right to it.

1. Screen – I have been thrilled about how Samsung has packed larger and more vibrant screens into pretty much the same frame since the Note 8. The Note 9 was great, and yet the Note 10+ is enough of an upgrade that I had no qualms about upgrading just a year later. The 6.8″ OLED panel dominates the entire device in an incredibly efficient way that makes every bit of glass something of value. The screen is very bright and crisp regardless of whether you change settings to maximize performance or battery life or balance both. It is without question the most gorgeous screen I have ever used.

2. Edge Panels – the Edge display seems to be divisive, but among Note fans such as myself, it is adored. The Samsung Edge pioneered using curved glass combined with a touchscreen at the edge of the device to give you a couple of millimeters to add ‘handles’ to pull out feature menus. At first, it was finicky and slow, but now these are fast, flexible, and they allow you to layer multiple feature menus. I have mine set up with three menus – one for quick-access apps, another for system utilities, and the last for a compass and level.

3. Cameras – if you had asked me to name the weak spot of previous Note devices, it would have been the cameras. They have always been good – just never competitive. With the Note 9 we got a good rear camera set, but the front camera was weak and got distorted very easily. Now we have a camera set that is competitive with the best from Apple, Google, and others on both the front and rear. The wide-angle camera will naturally distort the edges of an image unless correction is used – and the correction for wide-angle, portrait mode, and low light situations all work well. And while I wouldn’t say the Note 10 Plus offers the best current smartphone camera, neither did I ever see a reason to use either the Pixel 4 or iPhone 11 Pro instead.

4. DeX / PC Link – for years we had to connect our phones to our computers in order to transfer information such as images or music. Now our phones are so powerful that the screen is the limiting factor. Samsung’s DeX offers a USB-C conduit that runs apps on your phone and uses your computer display to view things. This can allow you to do simple things like typing text messages on your computer keyboard, or get better access to smartphone-only apps. At first, I thought it was a gimmick (especially on the Galaxy Tab 4 and 6), but now it is something I use almost every day!

5. S-Pen – in my opinion, there is no need for the Note without the S-Pen at this point. There are plenty of large screen, large battery phones with expandable storage, and while the Note always gets the latest and greatest new hardware, it is still the S-Pen that sets it apart. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen the S-Pen go from a simple stylus to a paired controller to an active part of the device. You get sensitive positional recognition, button presses for control, and now air gestures for even more control. And while the utility of each of these features varies, the core stylus functionality has been refined and improved with each iteration and remains a key differentiating factor.

6. Performance – anyone who has ever built their own computer can tell you there is more to performance than just the CPU, and that is certainly true with smartphones as well. Not to keep picking on the Pixel 4, but it uses the same Snapdragon 855 SoC as the Note 10+ and putting them side-by-side you’d think the Pixel used a mid-range 7-series Snapdragon! Samsung has always had great strength in putting together excellent hardware (that used to be hampered with lousy software), and the Note 10+ continues that with stellar performance that blows away the already top-performing Note 9. I am sure the generous 12GB of RAM helps in terms of giving apps and the system extra breathing room, but before that could matter the company would have to get the fundamentals right – and they did. Months later, the Note 10+ still feels just as fresh as when it was brand new.

7. Battery Life – rounding out what I call the ‘Four Horsemen of the Note series’ aside from display, S-pen and performance, we have battery life. The Note 10+ has given me two-day battery life since I got it, which in practice meant that I seldom end the day with less than 50% power remaining. Even on days when I use the Note 10+ constantly from before dawn until late at night, I have never managed to get the phone under 30% battery in a single day.

8. Sound (Dolby Atmos) – paired up with stunning visuals and performance, the Note 10+ has a great audio system whether you are using headphones or listening through the stereo speakers. In the past, I found the Note series to have mediocre sound, but the Note 10+ has both hardware and software that deliver great sound for music, video, and games. The size of the body provides a resonant quality, and while the phone volume is loud it never loses clarity. The Note 10+ includes a Dolby Atmos software sound enhancement system which lets you customize the response. And suddenly the audio in the Note series is at least as good as any other flagship device.

9. Handwriting to Text – one of my all-time favorite gadgets was the Apple Newton MessagePad 2000, and I fell in love with its ability to deal with my sloppy penmanship. It might seem like a small thing, but as someone who uses the S-Pen every day, I love the ability to quickly jot down notes and then choose later if it is something I need to transcribe or just leave it as written text. Once you have transcribed your notes, they are traditional digital text that you can use the same way as any other text on your device.

10. Super-fast 45W charging – I have two wireless chargers – one at home and at work. Each is hooked to a high capacity charger, so I can easily unplug the wireless charger and get the Note 10+ charged up very quickly. Of course, because of the mammoth battery that is something I have only ever done a few times, but it is a great option to have.

11. Size & Weight – to put it into context, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus is roughly the same size as the Google Pixel 4XL in terms of dimensions and weight, but the screen is a half-inch larger on the Note 10+ due to lack of bezels and better space utilization. The Note series is the original ‘phablet’ and as such it is bound to be large, but now we are seeing it offer a huge screen, big battery, lots of cameras and S-Pen … all in a competitively sized package.

12. Expandable Storage – not long ago, SD card support was an iOS vs. Android differentiation. Now many Android phones (such as the Pixel and various Huawei devices) exclude expandable storage support – and while this is less of an issue as we move to more streaming and cloud support, the ability to have files on your SD card for access remains very useful in a number of settings. Since I use my Note 10+ for a variety of work functions, I have appreciated the quick access to encrypted files directly on my phone.

13. Customization – one of the key advantages of Android, in general, is the broad customization available in terms of launchers, defaults, and pretty much everything else. Samsung expands upon this in nearly every way. The notification menu has been tweaked for better quick access control, the S-pen control shortcuts all over the screen, side panels, customization and quick access in settings menus and so many more – whenever I want to do something I fend there are at least two or three ways to do it, each of which is more or less efficient depending on what I am currently doing, and often what you are doing is tunneling into the main settings controls through an app-specific setting. Contrast this with iOS where you need to access every setting through the settings app regardless of your current action.

In terms of negatives, things that typically come up are slower updates, the fingerprint reader, and the lack of a headphone jack. In terms of major OS updates, Samsung has definitely improved, with my Note 10+ getting the update by the end of 2019. But that is still nearly three months after the launch of the Pixel 4, and while Samsung’s own OneUI updates bridged the gap considerably, there is obviously further to go. In terms of the monthly updates, Samsung has been amazing – my Note 10+ has gotten updated before the Pixel 4 at least half the time over recent months (including the May update!), so I have no complaints there.

My fingerprints have always been an ‘easy read’, and I have never struggled with any reader (except the Note 8 where I constantly put my finger on the camera lens!), but I have still been impressed with the Note 10+ in-display reader. At first, it seemed a bit slow, but over the months it has become nearly instantaneous at recognizing me and unlocking the phone. As for the headphone jack, this was the subject of many heated debates when the Note 10+ was announced. On a phone as large as the Note it seems like a headphone jack would fit easily, but given the increase in the battery capacity took additional space, for me it was an easy trade. Then again, given that none of my current phones (Note 10+, Pixel 4, iPhone 11Pro) have headphone jacks, I have already adjusted to using either USB-C/Lightning cabled or Bluetooth earbuds.

I am not typically someone who uses a phone for more than 6 months – I’m more someone who will put a relatively new smartphone into pure ‘backup device’ mode while waiting for the ‘next great thing’ — to have a device still totally captivate me after nine months of daily use is unprecedented. But the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ ticks so many key boxes for me – performance, multitasking, screen, optimized size, S-pen, and so on – that I have never found myself itching for a change. Sure I have used other phones – the Pixel is just inferior in every way so was easily put into ‘for reference use only’ mode; the iPhone fits into my personal life, although it lacks many of the professional tools I rely on every day. But since launch day 2019, the Note 10+ has been in my pocket, on my desk, hooked to my laptop, and otherwise my constant companion.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/05/13/nine-months-with-samsung-galaxy-note-10-my-12-favorite-things/

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sailorrrvenus · 5 years

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Does 900 DPI Make Better Prints?

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900 dpi prints?! That’s kinda crazy, right? You just need to print at 300 or 240 or 200 because somebody on the Internet told me no one can tell the difference.

For a long time, we’ve been stuck with printing at about 300 dpi because that’s what the highest end print devices could handle, and that resolution was often fixed by physical and mechanical limitations of our print devices.

For 16×20 and larger fine art prints, it’s worked really well. But for 11×14 and smaller, there’s always been something lacking for me.

If you’ve ever seen an original print made by Ansel Adams, it’s hard to miss the sheer amount of detail captured. Minute blades of grass, caterpillar holes in aspen leaves, the many textures of Yosemite’s granite and trees. And no wonder because a large number of Ansel’s photographs used 8×10 film, which is roughly equivalent to 1,000 megapixels (yes, one thousand — a gigapixel!)

Film’s resolution varies depending on lenses, aperture, and diffraction, but 3500 dpi is a good ballpark for an 8×10 original. So when you look at an 8×10 inch print from 8×10 inch film by Ansel, you are looking at about 35,000 x 28,000 pixels, which is over ten times the amount of information in an 8×10 print made at 300 dpi (3000 x 2400 pixels). All those extra pixels make a difference, and that analog 8×10 film print quality is something I’ve longed for in my digital prints.

So I tried some things on my Canon PRO-4000 printer on a hunch and curiosity. I made a print from a very high dpi file. The result was something I never expected to see. It was significantly sharper than the prints I had been making at 300 dpi, the resolution everyone said was correct.

I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was true, so I compared it to my library of test prints. And sure enough, what I was seeing was real.

This wasn’t a simple comparison. I’ve made fine art digital prints for clients for over twenty years, owned two $100,000 Chromira printers, as well as about every generation of inkjet printer since 2000. My high-end clients have high expectations…some of them even worked for Ansel Adams. That keeps me on my toes.

In the process of evaluating printers to meet these expectations, I’ve created a library of test prints on printers from Canon, Epson, as well as LighJets, and Chromiras, and on all kinds of papers with prints made at 300 dpi. Throw in a couple prints from other labs and it’s a snapshot of what professional fine art printing has produced in the last 20 years. This library, along with a couple Ansel Adams Special Edition Prints, gives me a point of comparison for evaluating any printer, paper, or process.

When I compared these test prints to my library, they far exceeded what has been the accepted “standard.” But this isn’t about some technical achievement. What grabbed me is they were more beautiful.

For the first time, an 8×10 digital print grabbed me the way the 8×10 Ansel Adams prints I studied while working in Yosemite grabbed me.

I wanted to understand how the printer handled different resolutions, so I devised a test. I took a very high-resolution file of about 100 megapixels and made copies that I then downsampled to various dpi settings from 150 dpi to 900 dpi at 8×10 inches, as well as an unresampled file at 959.556 dpi. Then I printed each of these files.

I wanted to see what was the limit of the Canon printer, how much dpi I could give it, and if I any resolutions would cause any problems. What I found was game-changing.

The more resolution I gave the printer, the better the prints got. It could handle everything I could give it.

More resolution led to sharper edges, more detail, more delicate features resolved. Fine branches moved from mushy to crisp and clear. But most amazing was how everything became more dimensional, more 3-D, more like I could reach in and grab it. It because more like those Ansel Adams prints that defined my expectations of what a photograph could be.

It makes me giddy just to think about it because it brings such a magical quality to my prints. I never expected digital printing would achieve this, and it is letting me make prints that are closer to my vision than ever before.

What makes things even better is, it’s a “free” upgrade. Giving your printer more dpi doesn’t cost you anything other than making a couple changes in your workflow, and at least with the Canon PRO 1000 and 4000 it seems to print just as fast as when I give it a 300 dpi file.

Application

Let’s talk about putting this into use. In most workflows when it’s time to prepare a file for print, you resample or resize the file to a recommended dpi. This step actually changes the file and either reduces the number of pixels or uses computer algorithms to increase the number of pixels in an attempt to replicate the original detail.

We don’t want to resample. We want to give the printer all the original resolution the camera captured, whatever that is. If you have 24 megapixels, give it 24. If you have 45 megapixels, give it 45. It requires us to change the way we think at this step. Instead of thinking about what dpi our file should be, we just give the printer everything the file has, and that will give us the best print for whatever size sensor you use.

Photoshop

In Adobe Photoshop, uncheck “Resample”, then enter the height and width you want to print at. The resolution in pixels will stay the same, but how they are spread out, which is a fancy way of explaining dpi, will change based on the height and width you enter.

Lightroom

In Adobe Lightroom, turn on “Show Guides” under the menu View>Show Guides. This will show you the height, width, and resolution of your file in a little box in the upper left-hand corner of your image. Then uncheck “Print Resolution”. Now, if you change the height and width of the image, the number of pixels will stay the same, but how far they are spread out will change based on height and width.

Other Editing Software

What about ON1, Alien Skin, and other editors? I don’t own them, so you’ll have to figure it out based on my examples above. They should let you do the same thing, but they might have different names for it.

My test prints were made through the Canon Print Studio Pro plugin, but I’m suspecting that it will work through the basic Mac or Windows printer driver.

Just be sure to set the “Print Quality” to the highest setting available as shown in figure 3. This setting controls how the printer hardware works, and choosing the highest setting is essential to getting the most out of the printer.

I started this article by talking about 900 dpi prints to grab your attention, but now that I’ve explained it further, I hope you understand that I’m not telling you to print at 900 dpi. I’ll reiterate that with this process, we’re not trying to hit a specific dpi or file size. We’re just trying to give the printer everything we have. If you have 450 dpi, give it 450, or 625 dpi or whatever your file and print size turns out to. Because whenever your resolution exceeds the 300 dpi “standard”, our prints will have more detail and become more dimensional.

A couple of final details before we wrap up. As I’ve noted, my tests were done on a Canon PRO-4000 printer. I’ve also tested it on the PRO-1000 printer, and I’m assuming it will work on the current 24” and 60” versions of the Canon ProRO Printers. How, and if, it works with other models or brands will require you to do some testing. Changing any setting (variable) from my workflow may produce different results.

The other thing is that decimal numbers don’t seem to matter. For a long time, it’s been the belief that decimal numbers like 299.58 would cause rounding errors and affect quality, and therefore we should give inkjet printers whole numbers. I don’t see this as being an issue with the Canon PRO printers after using this workflow in production for myself and for my clients.

Lastly, the effect does follow a curve. The most noticeable gain in quality happens in the 400/500/600 dpi range. At higher dpis, it requires a little more squinting to see the increase at each step, but after looking closely with the naked eye and a loupe, as well as showing the prints to other knowledgeable viewers, the effect is there. I’ve printed up to 1200 dpi and it’s given me sharp definition on details that are hair thin in the print. There is a point of diminishing returns, but since there is no downside to using more dpi, I don’t worry about where that point is.

So now you have the secret to making your best prints ever. You just have to fire up your printer and put this process into action!

About the author: Rich Seiling is a photographer, master printmaker, and teacher who has worked with thousands of photographers to produce prints for museums and galleries. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Seiling shares his printing knowledge at MakeBetterPrints.com through articles, videos, workshops, and coaching sessions.

source https://petapixel.com/2019/02/21/does-900-dpi-make-better-prints/

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pauldeckerus · 5 years

Text

Does 900 DPI Make Better Prints?

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900 dpi prints?! That’s kinda crazy, right? You just need to print at 300 or 240 or 200 because somebody on the Internet told me no one can tell the difference.

For 16×20 and larger fine art prints, it’s worked really well. But for 11×14 and smaller, there’s always been something lacking for me.

I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was true, so I compared it to my library of test prints. And sure enough, what I was seeing was real.

For the first time, an 8×10 digital print grabbed me the way the 8×10 Ansel Adams prints I studied while working in Yosemite grabbed me.

I wanted to see what was the limit of the Canon printer, how much dpi I could give it, and if I any resolutions would cause any problems. What I found was game-changing.

The more resolution I gave the printer, the better the prints got. It could handle everything I could give it.

Application

Photoshop

Lightroom

Other Editing Software

My test prints were made through the Canon Print Studio Pro plugin, but I’m suspecting that it will work through the basic Mac or Windows printer driver.

So now you have the secret to making your best prints ever. You just have to fire up your printer and put this process into action!

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/02/21/does-900-dpi-make-better-prints/

0 notes