Digital BW, The Print

Hi All

There are some real issues to be tackled. One is the reluctance 
of Adobe to support 16 bit fully in Photoshop. This filters down 
into the plug-ins, like Silverfast, where all you can scan in is 16 
bit RAW. I did find a way to overcome this slightly - by changing 
the default gamma from 2.00 to the maximum of 3.00 - and you 
get a better looking image, but the companies just shuffle their 
feet. Let's do some real workflows around this problem.

Scanning protocols are also problematical. Silverfast is the only 
third pary scanning software that allows you to make your own 
LUT's. I've fooled around and come up with N+1, N-1 and N+2 
LUT's, and they work well - in 8 bit, of course. Both Mike Kravit 
and I scan in 16, drop down into 8 bit Silverfast HDR and 
optimize the image before it even gets into Photoshop. What do 
you guys do at the scanning stage? What works consistenly?

Does anyone have a solid technique for combining shadow and 
highlight exposures into one seamless image without resorting 
to hair-pulling in and after the Apply Command? Seeing as we 
are trying to get out of the darkroom into the lightroom, we need 
to explore "closed loop" solutions like Polaroid films, where we 
don't have much development control, but it doesn't go to the lab 
and get scrunched either. And if we don't have development 
control, what can we do with split exposures that takes care of 
the contrast problem well with little fuss and bother? What, for 
instance, defines a good highlight exposure and a good shadow 
exposure for this kind of process?

Can we arrive at a general workflow through Photoshop that a 
beginner could take and make a good print? This would be sort 
of like the Develop/Stop/Fix/Wash routine of the old darkroom.

How do we teach beginners about Black and White tonal 
values? I find in teaching workshops that the hardest part of this 
is for people to actually see that something is wrong and needs 
to be corrected tonally. But this is what probably separates great 
printers from simply mediocre ones.

As far as I can see, having tried all the Quadtone types available 
to date(and in spades, I might add),  Piezography is hard to beat, 
and for several reasons: 1) It has a 2100dpi RIP, 2) It has 
proprietary profiles for the inks and papers 3) It was designed by 
a photographer and a printmaker, not a businessman, 4) If you 
have a 7000, it prints in 16 bit, and 5) uses grayscale files.  The 
others suffer from the fact that they are CMYK or RGB files, do not 
have profiles, and cannot get over the hump of the 720 Epson 
driver - in reality, they sell inks, not a total process.

I also applaud Steadman's desire to talk about other important 
issues surrounding Black and White printmaking - Picasso once 
said that whenever artists get together all they want to talk about 
is where to buy good turpentine, and I suppose we're no 
different.

I, too, would like to have this be a serious discussion and not the 
typical "my brother stepped on a frog" list that the others tend to 
be.

We are the pioneers.

Somebody open a six-pack.

George

 







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