Digital BW, The Print

Hello Chris,

> I'm currently using an 1160 

Is that a 4 or 6 ink printer?


> printing with the MIS VM inkset using Paul's curves. For the most 
> part I've experienced few problems -- mostly tweaking here and
there 

Are you experiencing the warm chocolate color shifting that I found? 
I've also been using the VM set.



> - and the serious problems I have had have been a result of poor
> negs or scans.  

I'm using an Epson 1640SU flatbed with transparency adapter to scan
35mm, 6x7 and 4x5 negs, and getting pretty good results, but I don't
print anything larger than 8x10 (the 870 takes 8.5x11 max).


>I may give BO a try once I get my printer set up again. 
>Perhaps it offers a better approach for printing negatives 
>with a fair amount of grain.

I've heard people equate BO with grainy pics before, but somehow I
can't connect the two.  With my scanner and Tri-X/HC-110 negs, when I
enlarge enough to see grain I'm also beginning to be aware of pixel
effects, so I can't really make a grainy print in the same sense as
we're used to with enlargers.  The only way I could make a traditional
grainy print would be to scan an already grainy enlarger print. 
Perhaps with a super scanner...

As for BO, these prints don't look grainy in the traditional sense at
all.  If you look closely in the highlights you can see individual
dots, but these dots don't enlarge as the print gets bigger.  They are
always the same size and same distance apart for a given tonal
density, regardless of print size.  In practical terms the opposite
happens - as the print gets bigger the viewing distance increases and
the ability to see the dots decreases. So we have to recalibrate our
instincts about enlarging vs grain/dots.  It's really different and
I'm not sure if BO printing would help or hurt grainy enlargements.

I think you'd be amazed to see the results I'm getting with BO.  I'd
be happy to send you a print if you'd like to have a look.  I'd also
be interested in see what you get with the 1160 if you give it a try.

Regards, - cj