Digital BW, The Print

Stan, I'm only looking to upgrade my low-end Canon 2720 film scanner, not a
flat-bed.

As to calibration, though I have not generated/purchased profiles, I have
fine-tuned a work flow that gives me on paper what I see on the screen.  Not
very scientific but works for me.

best

Rick



Message: 14
   Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 14:41:19 -0400
   From: "Shire,Stanley" <sshire@...>
Subject: RE: Re: Is anyone really thrilled? Honest

Rick:
In no particular order:
Is your monitor calibrated and have you generated or purchased a profile
for your ink/paper combination?

Given a choice, I'd rather have a scan that's too sharp. You can always
soften in PS. I don't know how you feel about this stylistically, but
there are some very nice methods (and plugs) for softening a portrait
(some similar to diffusion filters on-camera)

A film scanner (Nikon, Minolta, etc) will give superior results
(especially when teamed with good software: either Vuescan or
Silverfast)

Finally, re: black and white film. Most of my images are grayscale
prints but I shoot only color neg. This gives me superior tonal control
in the conversion to grayscale rather than being locked into the
tonalities of a particular black and white film.

Rambling over.


Stan Shire
Associate Professor/Department Chair
Photographic Imaging
Community College of Philadelphia
Adobe Photoshop 6 A.C.E.

215 751-8320
sshire@...
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Schiller [mailto:rschiller@...]
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 2:11 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Is anyone really thrilled? Honest

Much of my photo business is shooting Headshots also (see
www.rickschiller.com  )    I've  switched to printing digitally,
scanning
from film ( TMY pulled a stop, TMX, FP4, Pan-F )   First big problem is
giving people glossy prints, no way my clients will accept matte
finished
prints so that limits your ink choice.  On an Epson 860 (4-color)  I
went
with the Lyson Quad blacks and was very disappointed with the strong
mid-tone magenta cast.  I switched to Lyson Small Gamut and am getting
better tones.  I use the Lyson paper.   But the big problems are as
follows:

1. Gradation is not as smooth, especially in the highlights.  I have a
low
end scanner ( Canon 2720 ) and really need to upgrade.  I posted here 2
days
ago and don't know whether to go with a Nikon ls4000/ls40 or
Microtek/Polaroid.   And if I need to spend more money on the higher end
4000 dpi models.
2. My digital prints are good and when duped to lithos, ordinarily look
better then many dupes I've seen from darkroom prints, sharper.  But
gradation is still lacking.
3. I have some test scans from Nikon scanners, they are sharper then the
Canon 2720.  But the sharpness has a downside in that every minute mark
on
the negs, which would not be picked up in the darkroom, the scanner
picks up
and has to be spotted out in Photoshop.
4. There are other issues, I'm tired of writing right now but open to
all
ideas . . . .

Yes, until I get it all resolved I'm considering going back to darkroom
printing or sending all printing work out depending on my level of
bookings
in any given week.

Rick