Digital BW, The Print

Boris: At the risk of insulting your intelligence, I must ask about
your competence in Photoshop. I can duplicate your poor results by
using my straight scanned files (XP2 negatives) but a pass through
Photoshop and a few levels and contrast adjustments make them look
altogether different. I would say the results are very good and quite
easy using 1280 with either MIS VM (Roark workflow & curves) or FSN-E
inks (Woolf workflow & curves)

Try Black Only printing to help diagnose your problems. Actually quite
good results and easy. See Clayton Jones article at
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

Bob Michaels

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "borisw8"
<borisw8@y...> wrote:
> Hi group.  New member here.
> 
> I have been struggling for over a year now, trying to get results 
> from a 1280 with the MIS variable hex-tone system.  The results are 
> still completely unacceptable to me.  I don't know what I could be 
> doing wrong.  I convert to RGB, apply the correct curve, use Archival 
> Matte paper. The correct settings on the printer driver, etc...
> 
> The results are usually very "flat" looking.  Looks like there are 
> only about a dozen or so shades of grey, therefore missing most of 
> the detail.  I tried about a dozen different sets of cartridges but 
> always the same results.  It's not the computer either, because I get 
> the same results on two different machines.
> 
> When I print a 21 step greyscale, I think I can see at least part of 
> the problem.  Between 60% to 80%, everything looks to be about the 
> same kind of dark grey - the curve is not very smooth.
> 
> On the other hand, when I put color cartridges in, it prints like a 
> charm.  Too bad that most of my work is B&W :(
> 
> If there is someone here who thinks they are getting really good 
> results from this combination of Epson 1280 and MIS VM hex-tone, I'd 
> love it if I could send you a file and print-out and you could tell 
> me if your results look any better.
> 
> Since I have about given up on that whole thing, here is my second 
> question:  I'm tempted to dump the 1280 and buy a 2200 and use it 
> with the stock cartridges to print my b&w photos.  Any results, good 
> or bad?
> 
> My most sincere thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
> 
> Boris