Digital BW, The Print

Attended the Epson Print Academy last weekend. It was a several hour 
presentation validating inkjet printing (especially using Epson 
equipment)that was peppered with valuable tidbits. I found the 
seminar was a bit basic and if you're really into this forum then you 
would probably find it a bit basic too. The question and answer 
period at the end was most valuable and the speaker stayed as long as 
necessary to answer any and all questions -- this ran an additional 
two hours since there were maybe two hundred people there (in 
Phoenix). Worth the money in my opinion. Really nice, knowledgeable 
and helpful folks. 

Here's the big one I learned about the 2200: print all your B&W stuff 
in the RGB mode -- don't, I repeat, don't convert to greyscale in 
Photoshop before printing. It has to do with the way the 2200 driver 
uses inks in RGB vs. Greyscale.

So, I immediately sped home and fired up the computer and the 2200. I 
converted a color image to monochrome using the channel mixer 
technique (staying in RGB) and printed the photo on Epson Premium 
Semigloss paper--I know, I know, its not photo rag--and by golly, no 
metamerism. And I mean NO metamerism. I then tried another one, but 
this time after the channel mixer I switched over to the Duotone mode 
and tinted the image, converted back to RGB, then printed. Again, no 
metamerism and a beautiful warm tinted photo. Yes!

I don't like the way pigment based Ultrachrome inks affect the 
surface sheen on resin paper. When the ink is laid down it takes on a 
glossier sheen than the paper, making the image kind of look like a 
decal when the light hits it just right. But I found a solution to 
that. I sprayed the photo with two very light coats of Lumijet 
ImageShield waiting a few minutes between coats. This acts as a 
sealer for what is to follow, or you could just stop right there 
since the ImageShield by itself gets rid of about 90 percent of the 
sheen difference problem. I let that dry about an hour then 
airbrushed on one wet coat of Hydrocote Satin thinned with distilled 
water and amended with a bit of Hydrocote FloAyd. If anyone wants me 
to go into detail on techniques for doing this let me know and I'll 
make another post. The end result is a photo that looks exactly as 
if it were printed with dye inks, that is, there is a consistant 
sheen across the surface, and did I mention, NO metamerism. A bonus 
here is that ImageShield contains a UV inhibitor so the photo should 
be very longlasting. Gonna try the RGB thing on EEM next. Hope it 
works, but I'm doubtful.