Digital BW, The Print

I have been using Tyler's curves with success for about a year 
after experiencing your same issues.

Then, after reading the posts over the last couple of days, I tried 
Paul's 1290 curves for photo rag on my 1280. The  results were 
very nice. The neutral and cool curves give my test file a slight 
bump in contrast over the Tyler curve applied to the same file 
and a bit better separation in some troubling low gray value 
areas I've been trying to work out. It's worth a try. Paul has 
included a PDF with machine settings. BTW: I'm on a Mac

Thanks to both,

Jeff





--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Ed 
Mathews" <ed@l...> wrote:
> Hi All,
>      After I posted I was getting poor results with the Paul Roark
> curves, Paul very kindly sent me Tyler's curves.  The difference 
is like
> night and day.  I've tried all 5 of Tyler's curves and they all 
provide
> the same overall density with just subtle differences in toning.  
It's
> great.  No weird posturization effects or variations in shadow or
> highlight density.  The differences in tone from normal to 
medium warm
> or normal to platinum are subtle, but definitely effective and 
easy to
> see when you compare results that are a couple shades apart.  
I still
> find I need to increase the contrast of the image about 20%, 
which is
> way beyond what looks good on my screen, but making that 
adjustment
> become part of my normal workfflow is definitely not a problem.
>      Last night I actually printed four 5x7s in a row without a clog 
or
> ink starvation effect becoming apparent.  Part of Tyler's settings 
were
> to uncheck the "hi speed" box in the driver, which I don't 
remember
> reading before, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it.  
But
> I'm finally starting to see there might at least be potential for 
me to
> obtain decent B&W digitally.  I've got another 8 weeks before 
my house
> if done and I need to move, so I'll spend that time concentrating 
on
> shooting with my D100, reading this list, learning Photoshop, 
and fine
> tuning the print results to see if I need to build and set up the
> darkroom in the new house.
>      Thanks to all for the help so far.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ed
> http://lightandsilver.com