Hahnemuhle photo rag color prints

I have an Epson R2400 and made a color print on Hahnemuhle photo rag Satin paper. Shadow areas show banding. I used Best Photo & Archival Matte Paper settings in the printer properties. I used Photoshop manages colors, HFA_Eps2400_MK_PhotoRa​g printer profile and Relative Colorimetric. I am using MK black ink.

If I print with Pearl paper, PK ink and profile the print looks fine.

Computer is Thinkpad W700 laptop with Spyder calibration.

Is Photo-Rag Satin suitable for color prints or just B&W? Or could the profile be bad? Any help would be appreciated.

I use Photo Rag Bright White 310gsm for large color prints all the time on Canon's IPF5000. Spot on with no banding in any areas with the profile on Hahnemuhle's site. Check to see if you're also banding in large single tone gradients such as blue sky as it may help narrow down the issue. Hope this helps.

Yes, HFA is great for color. Not familiar with the 2400 driver, but isn't HFA supposed to be set at Velvet Fine Art Matte and not Archival Matte?

What is the native resolution of the image and what size are you printing to? Also, are you printing at the native resolution of the printer? Again, been years since using a 2400 but if I recall, it's 360. I prefer to have PS translate the file as opposed to the epson driver.

The 2400 and the original 3800 are very similar in the way they print, the drivers, etc. You might find some help on Eric Chan's epson 3800 pages.

Thanks R Hardman & N. Carolina for the inputs. I usually shoot with a Canon 5D II but I was testing a new Lumix GH2 at max resolution of 16 mp. The print resolution shows as 352 PPI at a 51% scale about a 10x13 inch print. I don't know how to answer the question about printing to the printer's native resolution. I'm just following the standard printing menus through Photoshop. I tried a lot of different combinations of profiles etc. I found that the best result is obtained using an Epson profile (SPR2400 EnhancedMatte). Using Printer Manages Colors also eliminated the banding; but had an unpleasant color shift so it wasn't useful.

Qbx wrote in post #11620824
TI'm just following the standard printing menus through Photoshop. I tried a lot of different combinations of profiles etc.

When printing to any good quality paper, it is always best to go to the support website of that paper, download (and use) their profiles, and follow the paper manufacturer's instructions for printing with your specific paper/printer combination.

http://www.hahnemuehle​.com/site/us/468/icc-profiles.html

Also, I hate to mention the obvious, but did you clean and test the nozzles?

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #11621037
When printing to any good quality paper, it is always best to go to the support website of that paper, download (and use) their profiles, and follow the paper manufacturer's instructions for printing with your specific paper/printer combination.

http://www.hahnemuehle​.com/site/us/468/icc-profiles.html

Also, I hate to mention the obvious, but did you clean and test the nozzles?

Thanks Dan, Yes I did to a nozzle check and all was OK. As mentioned just using a different profile (or Printer manages colors) resolved the banding problem. It seems like a problem with the Hahnemuhle R2400 (downloaded from their site) profile to me.