Digital BW, The Print

>After spending quite some time trying to print images with pronounced
>grain characteristics, I have to agree with Nick that
>the standard separation methods do not work well with them.
>He could print step wedges 'til we have a democrat in the White House to
>verify the workflow and still his prints would not
>convey the right feel, and in fact, look posterized in some parts of the
>scale with every standard workflow I've tried.

THANK YOU!

On that same subject:

Spent another weekend futzing around with inks and papers, including a
last-ditch effort to get good results out of the MIS VM quad set with the
Roark curves before the cartridge runs dry. The image I tried was very
different from the one on which I have been getting such unsatisfactory
results, and the results were also very different:

Image 1 (poor results):
Taken outdoors in bright sunlight, angled slightly downward on a man
wearing a short-sleeved shirt against a background of marsh vegetation; a
piece of timber boardwalk cuts across one corner. There are lots of areas
of fairly even tone: cap, shirt, pants, forearm, face in partial shadow,
boardwalk. All those areas look "posterized."

Image 2 ( excellent results):
Taken in Italy, standing in shadow and looking down a street through an
archway to a brighter area in the distance. Almost every surface is
rough-cut stone or brick, i.e. highly articulated textures. The results are
outstanding: lovely smooth tonality with just a hint of mottling in the few
small areas of even tone.

Every other parameter for these two images was the same: scanned at 2820
ppi, 16-bit; minimally manipulated in Photoshop (no combing on the
histograms); same inks, same paper (Epson HWM).

This suggests that many of you who could not believe I was having such
trouble with the VM quads are taking pictures much like Image 2, with lots
of articulation and texture. The VM system is no doubt working very nicely
for you, since any posterizing in such images appears to be negligible.
Unfortunately, I take lots of Image 1-type pictures, so on a regular basis,
the VM system is not the right one for me.

On the bright side, I am getting better and better results using only the K
cartridge filled with the MIS VM black ink. After considerable labor
involving an image that is half a gradient and half a 21-step wedge, I have
standardized my monitor settings and worked out a transfer function which
produces an image on paper that, to my eye, looks well within ballpark
range of what's on screen. Yes, there are dots in the highest of
highlights; yes, the deepest blacks get a bit gritty. But they're nice and
deep; and the tonal scale looks better than any RC print I was ever able to
make; and I'm finding some nice papers (see "Epson 1160 for adoption"
message). Another few weeks of this and I might have everything down to a
standard procedure again with some expectation of consistent results...

-- Nick

NICHOLAS HARTMANN                                +1 (414) 271-4890
611 N. Broadway, Suite 509                  fax: +1 (414) 271-4892
Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA                       polyglot@...

Technical and scientific translator:  German and French -> English