Digital BW, The Print

Daniel,

First, it sounds like you aren't implementing your color profiles 
correctly.
Maybe double-profiling.
Have a look at the color profiling information on our website, which 
explains how to use printer profiles with PhotoShop and the Epson 
driver.

Second, a custom color profile for your printer will get you closer 
than the generic epson one.
I have profiles that print very neutral for the EEM/UC combination.
However, you'll need a custom profile for each combination you might 
use.

To have full control of both color and b&w on your 2200, I'd recommend 
a RIP.

John Toles
http://www.dragonflyprinting.com/
http://www.dragonflygallery.ca/

On Jun 9, 2004, at 11:57 AM, daniel wrote:

> i'm getting ugly bands of color -- greenish and magenta -- in my black 
> and white prints
> (epson 2200, enhanced matte, standard inks). i'd appreciate any advice 
> on how to fix this.
>
> i'm converting to B&W with fred miranda's BW Pro, then i'm quadtoning 
> with my own
> variant of some quadtone presets i've found. i'm using epson's 
> paper-specific profiles --
> the latest ones.
>
> the effect is only noticeable in areas of fairly even grey; the tone 
> changes seem to be
> accompanied by these ugly color changes. for example, in a portrait 
> the area in which the
> hair meets the face has a greenish halo around it. in many of my 
> photos, the effect isn't
> noticeable at all, presumably because the contrast is higher, and 
> because there aren't
> areas of fine gradations in grey.
>
> any idea what's going on?
>
> at first i thought it was my quadtones, but i get the same problem 
> (albeit to slightly lesser
> degree) even with a pure grayscale print.
>
> i'm considering buying custom profiles. would that solve my problem? 
> any experience out
> there with:
> 	cathy's profiles
> 	dry creek
> 	christophe metairie?
> 	
> and some other related questions:
>
> -- i'm adjusting levels AFTER conversion to B&W and toning, because 
> otherwise the toning 
> can mess it up. is that a bad thing to do? could it skew the colors? 
> i've tried doing it the
> other way (levels first), but i still get the color band problems.
>
> -- are the profiles for epson paper made by dry creek ($175) -- not 
> custom ones -- really 
> any better than epson's?
>
> -- i haven't managed to find any really good quadtone presets, 
> although i've made some 
> progress tweaking ones i've found on the web. what often is described 
> as a 'selenium
> toning' preset produces a print that's almost sepia -- makes me wonder 
> whether the
> people who create these have ever really seen a selenium print. any 
> idea where to find
> good presets?
>
> -- could my color space settings be affecting this? my understanding 
> is that if i use the 
> wrong color spaces in photoshop, i'll just get reduced gamut in the 
> worst case, not
> problems like these color bands.
>
> /daniel