Digital BW, The Print

I can't say I'm all that enamored with either one.   So I probably ought
to think about it some more.

BTW, I've always used just the 21step for softproofing.

Roy

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale <stevekale@b...> 
wrote:
> Agreed.  Although I am surprised you prefer the look of the second curve.
> The slope of the curve (gamma) has been dramatically flattened and an image
> will look washed out and lack contrast.  Put another way, the whole image
> has been brightened so that the image detail at the margin can be restored.
> In  the former, the tonal relationships are preserved as much as possible
> but yes there is loss of shadow and highlight detail because it is beyond
> the scope of the ink-media combination.   I am also not sure how the
> mid-point is affected in the second scenario.  That is, is the curve
> straight or curved around a stable 50-50 midpoint?  I will bet that most
> people when confronted with the second scenario when soft-proofing end up
> applying an s-curve that deepens the dark areas of the print and lightens
> the lighter areas in effect making the resultant combined affect of the
> image much closer to the former scenario (test this by doing the second and
> then altering this curve until you are happy with the look of the image
> again.)  Personally, I would find it an easier workflow to have the former
> happen....highlight and shadow detail gets clipped to reflect the minimum
> dmax of the paper and maximum dmax of 100% black.  I could then decide how
> much I was prepared to lighten the image and lower contrast to restore some
> of the detail at the margin.  Anyway, food for thought.....
> 
> From: "Roy Harrington" <roy@h...>
> 
> You can get an idea of the differences with a few small PS experiments.
> Take a nice full range B&W image.  Go into adjust curves.
> Drag the 0,0 point to 10,10 and drag 100,100 to 80, 80
> You ought to have a horizontal lines from 10,10 to the edge and
> 80,80 to the edge.  This is the change you are proposing.  Click Preview on
> and off to see the changes.  Shadows and Highlights
> are clipped but the mid range stays the same.  Now move the points out to
> the edge along the horizontal lines.  The
> Input values will now be 0 and 100.  This shows the other way.  It
> lightens the picture but there is no clipping.  Its a personal choice which
> you like, but my tendency is to go with the
> readjustment to avoid clipping.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]