Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" <mwesley250@e...> 
wrote:
None of the
> current grayscale ink sets will give you the tone you are seeing on Mark's
> site, which I assume is the result of tinting the files and not from
> scanning prints that tone (Mark correct me here if I am wrong.)


I got a kick out of the Subject Line for this thread. Of course you can print like 
this digitally -- you're looking at images on a digital website! Those images are 
not scans of Epson prints; they're scanned film that's been toned/altered in 
Photoshop, so it goes direct to digital immediately.

Look -- let's get one thing clear upfront. I'm a Photoshop Heathen. Cro-Magnon 
level. I make Photoshop behave as much as I can to be similar to the old wet 
darkroom. (I'm still looking for the Kodak Potassium Ferracyanide filter; I guess 
that's the Dodge/Highlight tool).

I'm not doing anything special at all. It should be super-easy for anyone to get to 
the level where I am. I'm so stubborn I won't even use Adjustment Layers -- I 
work right on the image, and do Save-As's along the way, instead of Adjustment 
Layers. So I'm a simpleton, compared to the advanced guys. But it works for me.

About the most complex thing I've done is an art piece that we shot last 
Thursday night. A big set, and an assemblage of eight different scans:

http://marktucker.com/temp/baddream.html

That's my huge overstuffed carcas on the big table -- it was from a bad vision of 
myself after having not only a giant bowl of gumbo, but then also a grilled cheese 
sandwich and a bunch of potato chips. This is my only big Photoshop production.

But for everyday printing, I always tone and print in RGB. That's why I never 
really read this list very much any more, because being limited to pure BW is just 
far too limiting for me. I'm sure many people see in neutral BW, but I don't. The 
downside is that it makes me have to be pretty anal about my profiles, so that I 
don't get color crossover when making BW prints with 7 color inks of  the 9600. 

Here's how I work, to show you how simple:

* Scan PortraBW120 on Imacon in Greyscale.
* Burn/dodge/correct in Greyscale.
* Convert to RGB and start toning.
* Usually I work in Levels and not HSB/Colorize, because Colorize seems to 
introduce this harsh banding in the tones. Harsh gradations between values.
* Levels>RedChannel: Increase Red.
* Levels>BlueChannel: Increase Yellow.
* Then Curves>BlueChannel: Pull down highlight to add yellow to highlights.
* Look at Image. At this point, probably do overall Curves>Increase Contrast to 
add punch. (Obviously you MUST work from calibrated monitor).
* Go in with highlight dodge tool and open up highlights locally back to almost pure 
white. (If major things are done at this point, I convert from RGB to LAB, and 
view in all three channels, but work ONLY in the Lightness channel, otherwise 
when you dodge or burn, you'll dodge/burn in a different "color" than what you've 
already toned). 
* Do that, and convert back to RGB.
* Make test print, using custom ICC profile on 9600.
* SaveAs file, with ".epson" suffix, and then tweak that file based on what I'm 
seeing in the print. (Print is usually VERY close to monitor, but sometimes you 
still wanna take it further or different).

--

Reading all this, it looks kinda complicated, but once you do it once or twice, you 
do it without even thinking. Also, I usually toned every image slightly differently, 
that's another reason I would not want to be limited to quad inks or bw inks. Too 
little freedom.

I would think for most people on this list, a 2200 with PhotoRag, properly 
profiled, and a calibrated monitor, would be a rockin combination. But hey, it's 
America, Land of Choice. I just don't have enough patience to maintain TWO 
printers, one for color and another for BW. I choose to get a good solid 
relationship with one printer, and work it for all it's worth.

Just one guy's approach. 

Mark Tucker, http://marktucker.com/

PS. David, that Wolfson image is sweet, even on my Powerbook screen.