Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: "Truman Prevatt" <tprevatt@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 1:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: Epson 2200 Has anyone used one yet?


> If I take - which I have done - a print for a collection of prints I
> have by Howard Bond, a fairly reasonable photographer and a good
> printer, and view them in strong sunlight, then tungsten light, then
> warm florescent light, then cold florescent light, then open shade
> "skylight," I am going to have a different color cast on the prints
> since the light that is being reflected off of them is different. No
> passive reflective medium can reflect neutral gray independent of the
> light source. The "color shift" (which it is not really shifting any
> colors - it's only reflecting what is incident on it ) may be subtle but
> it will be there. Even Ansal Adams notes this in "The Print" where he
> states, "I consider the best gallery illumination a mixture of daylight
> and tungsten lighting. Prints that are displayed under tungsten light
> will appear warmer in tone than under daylight illumination, say a north
> skylight. Daylight alone is often too "cold" for optimum display
> effects."  The "shift" may or may not be more pronounced in the 2200,
> but it's there in all black and white media.

Truman,

You are absolutely correct but what we generally mean when talking about
metamerism is that the hue of the print shifts in a direction or amount not
in keeping with the color of the light source. Such as a print that looks
warmer in daylight and cooler in tungsten light or becomes excessively cool
in daylight or turns purple under tungsten light.
>
> My viewing area is a mixture of open skylight with reflections off
> cypress walls and halogen track lighting. Cypress wood imparts a warm
> tone to the light in the house as it does to any reflected light off the
> track lighting.  I personally prefer prints on the cool side - I do not
> like the to coin a term from Ansal Adams "olive green" cast of warm tone
> photographs. That's why all my silver prints are toned pretty heavily in
> selenium toner. My question is can the 2200 be used to produce what ever
> type as far as warmth or coolness of  B and W prints I would like or do
> I need to go the 1280 route with an MIS hextone setup?
>
> Any thoughts on this. I don't want to make a 600 dollar mistake which is
> about what either path will cost.

From what you have said you might be happiest with the Selenium PiezoTone
inks in a 1280. I also tone silver prints heavily and prefer Oriental paper
over the Ilford which has an olive cast to my eye. Like you my prints hang
on a wood (knotty pine) wall under halogen and tungsten spots with minimal
daylight. The Selenium PT on Photo Rag doesn't match any of my silver prints
but it falls within the range nicely and does not look out of place on the
same wall. You can get a lot of variation in hue depending upon the paper
you use.

Martin Wesley

(snip)