Digital BW, The Print

on 8/21/01 9:07 AM, Nicholas Hartmann at POLYGLOT@... wrote:

> Are there any other 35mm photographers out there who feel as I do? or is
> everyone else happy with, and striving to achieve, that smooth big-negative
> look? Am I alone in my deplorable practice of just using the black
> cartridge?

a lot of my street shooting results in gritty grainy images which need
punchy blacks and sharp grain for their impact. It is perfectly possible to
get this look using quadtone inks without resorting to the fake grain the
epson dither introduces when you use black ink.

1.  Scan at 4000 dpi so you cature 400 asa grain (and shoot a combo like APX
in Xtol 1:2 which will give you nice sharp grain but not golfballs).

2.  Sharpen slightly more than you would normally. Try 100% at 0.7 or 1
pixels for a 35mm neg scanned at 4000 dpi.

3.  Make sure you crush the blacks slightly. If you are looking for an
intense image you want a strong assertive black in the picture. Push the
black slider up into the shadow peak (there's usually a peak in the
histogram in the dark shadows, which usually is a good point to set your
blacks for this kind of image)

4.  Print on a paper which gives you maximum detail and maximum blacks. This
means a smooth, coated paper like Epson Archival Matte or Legion Photo
Matte.

5.  Print big enough that you can see the grain. That means 8x12 or so.

Using these techniques I can get piezo prints that look as shitty as Robert
Frank's pix in THE AMERICANS, which is saying something!
-- 
John Brownlow

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com

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