Digital BW, The Print

> Todd, you are using Paul Roark's inks and workflows. Do you have to
> do much adjustment when you switch from EAM to an art paper?
> 
> Martin


Well, it depends. I haven't tried as many as I'd like. I think they all have
different dot gains, but some more than others. The Hawk Mountain papers all
(I gave up trying after 3) printed dark and muddy and weak. There would be
no cure. Somerset Enhanced was 10-20% darker, Epson Watercolor was close,
and the Hahnamuhle papers were perhaps a tad darker, but mostly just felt
richer, Museo very close to EAM, as was Concord Rag. Hey that's not so few!
Unfortunately all were from skimpy sample packs, so I can't say I've really
gotten to know any of them. But I'd say short of the Hawk Mountain papers,
all were a simple adjustment layer curve tweak away. Usually just raising
the middle point of the master curve (er, remember with Roark's curves you
need to work in RGB, at least in the end when you add his curve sets, as
they are what affects hue.)

Paul's hope is with his open system, and possibly through the auspices of
MIS's site, users can trade curves, or transfer functions, for different
papers. I've messed with split tone prints, as it was an effect I worked
with in the darkroom too. On silver paper, I'd put a strong dose of
benzatroizle (sp?) in a neutral/cold tone developer, which on Mitsubishi
paper had the highlights be a tad cool (much like Oriental Seagull in finish
and appearance - both Japanese). Then I'd selenium tone the blacks to a warm
eggplant. The net effect was a subtle split along a cyan (highlights)/red
(shadows) axis. With Paul's setup the axis is more yellow/blue. But you can
use either color for the shadow or highlight, and can better place the
crossover points of the hue shifts. I worked out my methodology (well, a
couple) but I think I'm just preferring neutral right now.

Did I have a point?  Oh, it's flexible.

If you are switching profiles and tweaking, I'd say it's about the same
amount of work I'm doing. I just eyeball the gamma on the print, and pull a
curve, but I bet Paul or some others might compare step wedges, and device
more precise curves or transfer functions. Once these are developed they can
be emailed among users and loaded into Photoshop.

Sorry, for the ramble. Let me take another hack at the question.

A little.

Todd