Digital BW, The Print

Hello Jon,
Since we all are after the perfect B&W print Pls could
you inform us 
about your workflow in getting pefect B&W prints in
using particular 
the 2200 in with the full inkset? I only can succeed
with BO. With FI 
I get lots off metarism.

Henk


Hello Henk -

  I am yet to find any two people who work in the same
manner or use the same gear etc. I have gleamed from
the brief periods of time that I get to read the
threads from this list (which I enjoy and learn a
great deal) that even if one "goes by the book" you
are at least going to suffer from a magenta cast,
other foibles not withstanding. I can not stress
enough that what works for Jon or Henk may not work
for the other guy. As photography and printing is an
"art" and therefore subjective.

   I too am yet to reap the "perfect" print. But the
journey is half the fun. Here is what I am most
successful with:

I set my cameras to Adobe color space, and normal or
low tone compensation because to get consistant
results you're going to go with Adobe color space all
the way through as much as possible as it has the
widest gamut. Sticking to the same profiles as much as
possible throughout your workflow is what seems to
maintain the consistancy.

   Personally I have had rotten luck with custom
profiles. Having said that, once I open an image (in
color) and resize it to how I want to print it I
adjust the levels and then I...
(1) convert to grey scale
(2) convert to duotone [totally neutral is boring]
(3) for warm tone I select a yellow to go with the
black and a light shade of cyan for a cool tone
print*.

*Epson's Premium Luster Photo Paper is where I have
encountered the magenta cast demon which printing as a
cool toned duotone seems to negate in a very
satisfactory manner.

Fuzzy science: I tweak the curves based on "what I see
is what I get" on my monitor. Shoot me dead now
because with 5 computers in my office, it's the cheap
laptop that has the monitor that gives me the spittin'
image of what my prints look like.

(4) convert to RGB
(5) sharpen 
   
(6)   ---in PRINT OPTIONS---
Source space: Document check Adobe RGB (1998)
profile: Adobe RGB (1998)
intent: Perceptual

(7) use the appropriate black ink for the paper
surface you choose and... there is a table in the
Epson manual which recommends the appropriate dpi (set
in the Print Quality pull-down) for each of their
papers. Hey that can't hurt right?

A quick work about paper: I have experimented with a
number of sample packs and there are some truely
exquisite products out there. The Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
308 really impressed me. But since it is an Epson
printer...I've stuck to standardizing on the Epson
papers except for Konica's glossy, which I use for
color printing. I get my best results with the Velvet
Fine Art paper. It has great tactile qualities too.
I've used the Premium Luster for both color and B&W.
Quite often when I get a print that looks different
than what I expected (let's say too yellowish) it is
because I did not examine my monitor critically
enough. and when I go back and re-examine my monitor,
I can see the blunder.

   As I have been a working pro for nearly 30 years
and have over 40 years of darkroom experience I have
to suggest that making a test print is always
advisable and is SOP for me. And as I stated earlier,
what works for me may not necessarily be right for
you.

   A few brief final notes: I have to work fast and so
I try to keep the workflow as simple as possible. From
what I read on this list, most of the other
subscribers are much more sophisticated about this
than I am. I have read about printing glitches that I
could never solve alone. Fortunately I have been lucky
enough not to have some of those problems.

Last: Here is a site worth mentioning although it has
nothing at all to do with what we are talking about.
However, there are some sage Photoshop tips and some
truely outstanding photographs made by a fantasitc
photojournalist, www.astropix.com

Henk, I hope this helps and best of luck,

Jon Adams
www.hi5photos.com

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