Rangefinder Magazine
December 2001/Columns

First Exposure: Epson Gemini
Professional Portrait Printing System

For some photographers the beauty of going digital is the ability to regain control of the photographic process from shooting through to printing. It avoids the use of a wet darkroom or farming out printing to a lab. For others, the fact that one has to get back into “darkroom” work is disheartening—it’s so much easier to just palm off printing to the professional lab.

One thing is for sure, as more and more photographers switch to digital imaging there has been a matching need for better printers that can cope with a heavy digital workflow.

Gemini Professional Portrait Printing System includes two printers installed in a metal cabinet along with a LCD screen for viewing the status of the printers and jobs in the print queue.

Epson has made a name for itself as the leading maker of inkjet printers that are capable of producing photographic- quality prints. Publicity naturally centers on the consumer level printers, which are capable of producing very high quality images. Many professional photographers are using printers such as these for producing low volumes of prints.

However, one has to start looking at high-end printers if print volumes exceed a couple of hundred prints per month.

With this in mind Epson has been developing the Gemini Professional Portrait Printing System for most of the past year. It is more than just a printer though, as it’s been designed as a complete package specifically for professional photographers. It’s actually two printers housed in one unit with three custom programs that run on a Mac to control the Gemini and provide a workflow system aimed at wedding, portrait and event photographers.

The Gemini system is built around two modified Epson Stylus Pro 5500 inkjet printers that are housed in a case along with a PC server that manages the printers. The box (34 wide x 57 tall x 24-inches deep) also contains an UPS Backup along with a LCD monitor. The printers offer up to 1440 x 720 dpi hardware resolution using six-color Epson Archival pigment inks and media that can resist fading for years, according to Epson.

	The Portrait Printer monitor screen displays the status of the Gemini system as well as indicating the process on print jobs in the queue. It can be viewed on the attached LCD screen or remotely on the networked Mac.

The system’s printers can print a high-quality 8x10 in about 3.5 minutes and can match the quality of a silver halide-based 8x10 in about 5.5 minutes. As the system uses two printers, the effective output is doubled to anywhere between 20 and 30 prints per hour. Each printer has two trays that can each hold up to 50 sheets of different media in 8.3x11.7 (A4) or 13x19 (SuperA3) sizes.

The printers feature Epson’s Micro Piezo DX3 printhead technology with 96 nozzles to place extremely precise and variable-sized droplets of ink on a wide array of media for ultra-sharp resolution and high print-to-print consistency.
The Gemini is networked via its built-in PC server while a program on a Macintosh (not included) is used to prepare the images for printing. Epson expects to have a Windows version of the programs available later in 2002.

Epson is not selling the Gemini system; instead it is using the old “Xerox” photocopy business model, whereby a photographer pays $5000 up front as a commitment fee to lease the system for three years. Then each print is charged on a sliding scale, beginning at $4 per print, (8.3x11.7), with a minimum of 200 prints per month. The price drops to $2.25 per 8x10 print for those printing more than 1000 prints per month. These prices are tentative, according to Epson, but will be finalized when the printing system becomes available in January 2002. For this price the photographer gets usage of the machine, software, all supplies, (ink and media), maintenance and upgrades on a continuing basis. The running total will be metered by the printers’ server automatically and Epson plans to credit studios for prints that are spoiled due to a printer or computer malfunction but not ones spoiled due to operator error.

The Epson Portrait Printer Layout program includes the ability to automatically crop and rotate pictures to create packages.

Epson believes this pricing method is competitive with traditional lab prices and that it is the right type of system for mid-size studios producing 200 to over 1000 prints per month. It also takes away the anxiety of worrying about having the latest equipment and supplies as well. This obviously could be a major benefit to those photographers who are hesitant at investing a lot of money in digital equipment that can become obsolete too quickly for their liking.

“We are getting most interest from those studios doing a high volume, as they are frustrated with the turnaround time from labs,” says Tim Mathiesen, Gemini product manager. “It’s like adding a 13th month of sales in their shooting schedule because they aren’t dependent on the lab’s cutoff dates to meet their deadlines, especially during busy seasons.”

The system is simple to operate and the server stores print jobs so they can be queued and left for unattended printing. The printer’s operating system allows the print job order to be changed and prints needed urgently can even be inserted during a batch job without losing any work in the queue.

Ira Ellis, the owner of Ellis Portrait Design in Moorpark, CA has been one of the beta testers of the Gemini system and has been using it on a daily basis since May. His wife, Sandy, regards him as a perfectionist and she says the system has allowed him to improve the quality of the studio’s images. Even on a school shoot he has been able to justify spending an average of 3 minutes per image doing touch-up work in Photoshop. Then he selects the package template and prints them out on the Gemini within minutes. The result has been increased sales and increased satisfaction. At first he was shooting film and scanning images, now he has started going all digital. Although he might be spending more time on each image, it does not add up to much more compared to having the film and processing done by a lab, as he is in control of the process from start to finish.

	The Epson Portrait Printer Layout program offers dozens of pre-set templates for creating packages. Custom ones can also be created to suitea studio’s needs.

As Ellis puts it; he gave up on having a darkroom but now he has a “DIM” room—Digital Image Management Room. Nonetheless, he seems happy to be back in control. “With a lab print it was always only within a range of acceptability, now there is no such thing as not good enough as I can improve an image.” He also likes the fact he can do reprints within seven or eight minutes, which is a nice service for repeat trade.

Apart from the software that controls the printer and helps store jobs on the PC server, the Gemini system also includes a couple of other integrated packages. One is Epson’s Portrait Printer Layout. This program offers dozens of different templates for ganging up prints and producing packages of prints on 8.3x11.7 or 13x19 stock. It also offers cropping and rotating tools to provide maximum flexibility in laying out the images for optimum efficiency. It also automatically prints file names and other needed information on prints as required. Ellis says it offers far more flexibility than a lab can offer.

The other is Epson’s Portrait Printer Works, which is somewhat akin to Photoshop. However, it is a bit more intuitive than Photoshop and offers a logical workflow that would probably suit a portrait photographer who does not want to learn the intricacies of Photoshop. It offers pretty much all the same tools for adjusting colors and doing simple digital image editing. One advantage is that the program does not alter the original file but only creates an auxiliary file that saves the changes that are made in order to obtain the desired final image. “It’s easier to learn than Photoshop,” says Ellis. “It’s got some advantages although it’s not as powerful.”

For those who don’t want to use Photoshop, the Epson Portrait Printer Works program offers a more intuitive interface and helps improve the workflow.

Based on a look at the beta Gemini Portrait Printing System, it seems medium to heavy volume wedding, portrait and event photographers who are interested in going digital should consider it as it was designed from the ground up, for photographers rather than photo labs. Kudos to Epson for developing the Gemini Professional Portrait Printing System with photographers needs in mind.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder.