George,
Interesting comments from you.
I bought a six of Killian's Red tonight and will
share one with you anytime.
O.K. Here is a rather simple observation for our
moderator...
The name of the list "DigitalBlackandWhiteThe
Print" takes up much too much space in the subject line on my email list.
There is only room for a word or two of what the real subject is on the
email. I suggest you truncate the list title or pick a shorter acronym or
name. ;
Good light to all,
Steadman
----- Original Message -----From: George DeWolfeSent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 10:00 PMSubject: [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] Re: Initial ThoughtsHi 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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