Digital BW, The Print

I really appreciate that link AND let me do some research on my 
histograms, you may be pointing me in the right direction.  Many 
many thanks, Richard!

Treadwinkle

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Richard Sintchak 
<richard@c...> wrote:
> Saturday, August 31, 2002, 10:56:38 PM, treadwinkle wrote:
> 
> t> As far as my workflow, well... thusfar all I do is convert to 
> t> greyscale and export to Piezo where I select the paper and 
dpi.  I'm 
> t> already feeling stupid because I'm guessing that is the most 
> t> elementary way of doing this and there are a ton of other 
options... 
> t> I suppose.  I just did what Piezo sofware suggested I do with 
some 
> t> really excellent color files.  In fact, they are extremely well 
lit 
> t> and frankly, really excellent files.
> 
> t> But to give you an example, one shot literally looks like a guy 
has 
> t> stubble on his face because of the soft shadow on the actor's 
jaw 
> t> line.  There is little to no skin tones.  In fact, where in the 
> t> color file you see pores, in piezo print, it's just "white".
> 
> t> I'm very green at this, I admit.  And maybe my biggest problem 
is, I 
> t> underestimate how much work this is going to take.  Where do I 
go 
> t> from here?
> 
> t> Treadwinkle 
> 
> 
> Like I said, I've only just got started in this myself (digital B&W
> printing), though I am fairly proficient in PS. Others may have 
more
> experienced and direct suggestions but here's a few of mine. Are 
you
> satisfied with the transition to greyscale and the look you're
> achieving? If you're starting with color RGB files I recommend 
taking
> a look at this little tutorial in converting to greyscale and being
> able to tweak the settings in such a way as to vary the tonal 
range in
> a variety of areas in the image:
> 
> <http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html>
> 
> Click on the tutorial PDF called "Seeing in Black & White"
> 
> Next, how does your Levels histogram look? Is it smooth or is it
> jagged with a "combing" look? I find that even files that might 
look
> fairly nice on screen can have very poor histograms with "jaggies" 
or
> "comb lines" which will cause poor tonal transitions and 
posterization
> in areas.
> 
> Are your original files 16-bit? I scan all my files in 16-bit, do
> general Levels adjustment, then convert to 8-bit. This preserves a
> smooth histogram and keeps tonal ranges steady and smooth.
> 
> Best regards,
>  Richard  
> 
> mailto:richard@c...