Digital BW, The Print

On Friday, February 14, 2003, at 09:18  AM, Doug I. wrote:

> Hi Carolyn,
> I'm just getting into the duo-/tri-/quadtone thing, both as a way to 
> avoid
> some of the frustrations of getting "neutral" B&W with Epson CcMmYKk, 
> and
> because I like some of the effects I've seen. The possibilities are of
> course infinite. Curious to know what printer/ink combo you are using 
> to do
> yours, and what "looks" you tend to go for (e.g., a more subtle 
> platinum
> effect vs. a more colorful sepia, etc.)

Hi Doug, I did duotone work with my EX, 1200, and then 2000P, all using 
OEM inks.  I am just starting to experiment with my 2200. It's been a 
while since I played with them, waste of time on the 2000P for anything 
remotely sepia as it was always too green (my inability to do so I'm 
sure). Tastes ranged from golden sepia, copper, to cyanotype emulation 
to chocolate brown... Some heavy dark red's as well.  They were not 
subtle hues.

For the subtle warm toned quads I prefer, I actually just changed the 
presets in PS a little, using the quadtone presets, exchanging cool 
gray for warm etc.  Then play with the curves for each image usually 
only in the mids to highlights, to decompress some steps so to speak 
due to the change in inks I made. I find them very image dependant 
myself.
One thing I prefer is to start with the pantone duo/tri/quads... over 
the process presets

  I know the settings can get
> complex,

as you know, the great thing about it is that you can watch each step 
effect your image real time, color swatch change, curve point changes, 
and also watch the effect on the stepwedge within the duotone palette...

but would it be possible to share some favorite recipes as a
> starting point in my explorations?

I can send what I'm playing with over the weekend if you'd like. Here 
are two tones I'm messing with for the 2200. 
http://www.carolyn.cc/temp/Hands.html   -- but with no guarantee they 
will work! ;)  Not sure my old stuff would interest you, but I'll dig 
some up and take a look at what's there. Exploration is a good word... 
;)
Carolyn