Digital BW, The Print

People,

I am not fooled by Mark Tucker's "gee golly, heathen" stuff.  I have 
seen one print of his, in Scott Hendershot's exchange.  It was simply 
superb. It is one of a few prints I take out to show others of the 
inkjet possibilities.  True, Mark does not seem particlularly anal 
about color neutrality. But his print showed no evidence of spurious 
color either. The key is a well profiled color set up, as he 
testifies.

I for one would like to see more of his prints in person. His work is 
very, very good!

Best wishes.

Shilesh

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Mark Tucker" 
<mtucker508@y...> wrote:
> --- 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.