Digital BW, The Print

Greetings, especially to those just starting out in the digital 
darkroom trying to get good B&W results.  It is obvious that many 
contributors to this list are very, very far beyond me in all of this 
(and perhaps very far beyond Epson).  I am most grateful for the 
sharing of knowledge that this list so freely offers. 
 
For what it's worth (I am very new at this), I am getting B&W prints 
on the Epson 2200 that please me very much.  My first efforts with 
the printer produced a very pronounced magenta cast in all my 
prints.  But now the magenta is all but unnoticeable.
 
I scan my B&W negatives on a Nikon 8000.  Settings are monochrome and 
grayscale in 8-bit.   
 
Then in Photoshop 7, I follow Fred Scholz's workflow ("An Image 
Processing Workflow" as presented on www.luminous-landscape.com), 
starting with changing the mode to RGB.  Then, in addition to 
checking the monochrome box in Channel Mixer (and not manipulating 
the channels themselves), I also use the Desaturate command 
immediately after the monochrome setting. I set the white point and 
black point in Levels, and then through however many masks are 
appropriate, I adjust the mid-points with a Curve layer for each 
mask. 
 
When I print, I use Carl Schofield's process as described in his 
article entitled "B&W" Printing With The Epson 2200/2100" that also 
appears in the Luminous Landscape website.  In short, in "Print With 
Preview" I check "Show More Options" and select "Color Management."  
The "Document" button in "Source Space" is selected, and the 
indicated model is "Adobe RGB (1998)", the same as in the work space 
in "Color Settings" (Edit drop down menu). In "Print Space" I 
select "Printer Color Management," not a specific paper profile. 
 
The I hit "Print" and go into the Properties menu on the 2200.  There 
I select Enhanced Matte Paper as the media type, "Color" for 
the "Ink" selection, and "Custom" for "Mode."  I enter the "Advanced" 
menu and under "Color Management" I select "Color Controls."  I set 
Gamma at 1.8 (even though I am not using a Mac).  I do not 
have "EPSON Natural Color" checked, I select "Photo-realistic" as the 
mode, and I have all sliders set to zero.  "High Speed" and "Flip 
Horizontal" are unchecked, and print quality is either 1440 or 2880, 
depending on what one believes about the difference.  I "O.K" my way 
back to the printer and wait for the print. 
 
I am printing on both Epson Enhanced Matte, and Epson Matte-
Heavyweight.  I am still using the stock Epson cartridges. 
 
I've only been at this for a little while, but so far I am very 
excited about the results the Epson is giving me using the above-
described process.  
 
Steve Leonard