Digital BW, The Print

Bob,

For great B&W digital prints, use the "quad" inksets and a system that is
being used by others with success, so that you'll have some support from
successful users.  On this forum most use either the Piezo driver (Photoshop
plug-in) with Piezo or MIS FS inks, or the MIS VM (variable-tone/mix) inks.
Only certain printer models are supported by these systems, so be sure you
have a printer that is supported.

I always recommend people start with Epson Archival Matte for a paper.  It's
cheap and very good.  There are many other papers that print similarly, with
no need for other profiles.  Somerset Enhanced does require a different
profile, however.

One advantage of the Piezo system is its paper profiles.  The big advantage
of the MIS VM system is control of print tone.

I think once you learn how to use either of the approaches noted above, the
prints will be every bit as good as the wet darkroom prints, with the
surface differences (flat for pigmented inkjet v. more of a luster for
air-dried, glossy, fiber-based silver prints) being the most obvious visual
differences.  Even these disappear if the print is framed under glass.  Of
course, the inkjet papers give you lots of choice with respect to texture
that are not available in the wet darkroom.

I frankly think the inkjet prints are often (if not usually) superior to
silver prints due to the shoulder-less highlights that inkjets have.  This
gives a brilliance to highlights that only bleaching can achieve with the
silver prints.

Good luck.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com

_____________________________________


I've recently scrapped my wet darkroom since my Photoshop skills are
lightyears ahead of my darkroom skills, but my prints so far have
been far from pleasing. Up till now the only things I've printed
digitally have been "digital art" images, which have (or so I always
thought) been fine. Trying to get a print of a "photograph" seems to
be much more difficult than I thought it would be. I use an Epson
Stylus Photo 1200 w/MIS archival color CFS. My paper of choice is
Epson Heavyweight Matte. With Epson inks my b&w prints came out
somewhat posterized, and deep shadow areas were splotchy and ugly.
Now that I've switched over to the MIS ink the results have gone from
bad to worse. One particular image, hard side lighting and contrasty,
prints horribly posterized. I bought a pack of Somerset Photo
Enhanced Velvet to try out and the tests have been ugly as sin.

I've seen posts by various people in various places about getting
wonderful results with their 1200's and even EX's, which tells me
that I must be doing something dreadfully wrong somewhere. I had
limited success, with Epson inks, with bumping the black point about
25% in each color channel with curves...less splotching in the
shadows but the prints were flat. It doesn't seem to work quite as
well with the MIS inks. My photos are mainly portraits and nudes shot
in a studio.

Can anyone help a guy out and give me some advice, or even just a
starting point? All I really want is a smooth tonal range in my
photos. I thought I knew what I was doing but I see now that isn't
the case.

Bob