Digital BW, The Print

Bernhard,

I share your frustration with respect to variables.  The papers, inks, and
printers all contribute to the issue.  One thing I think might be helping me
is to leave the printer on over night.  The warming up of the printer during
the day seems to be, in part, related to how long it has been on.  (Room
temperature, humidity, and sometimes I think phase of the moon also probably
contribute to the problem.)

The shadow compression you describe makes me think the 2100 might be like
the 1290, which prints darker than the US version (1280).  

The bottom line for me is that I rely on hard copy proof prints before
making critical prints.  This, of course, is no different than the darkroom
was -- unfortunately.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

_________________

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernie Ess [mailto:albatros-@...] 
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 3:18 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] How reliable/ precise is your b&w print workflow?



When I started b&w printing on an Epson, I thought one of the
advantages over the darkroom was that once its well set up, there
would be no trying and experimenting and that I would have 100%
predictable results.

Now, a few hundreds or probably thousands of prints later I find that
this is
not exactly the case. On my 2100/UT7 workflow I find the following
issues:

1. My output from the file + Roark curves is roughly, but never
exactly what I see on my monitor. When I look at the grayscale on my
flat panel the 100% to 0%
steps are quite well separated, but in the uncorrected print the deep
shadows (around 95%
black) are not well resolved, 95% comes out totally
black: So I had to make a curve that boosts the deep shadows.

2. I often find myself having to do several prints of the same photo,
because the general "look" of the print is not like on the screen, see
also my other message about the foliage and trees. 

3. The most mysterious thing is that my output seems to vary from time
to time. Sometimes I find the prints too dark compared to the screen,
sometimes they are slightly too light.

Finally its not that different from the darkroom, I would say
gradually more predictable (maybe even by a large margin, but that is
probably because my traditional darkroom skills are so poor).

So, do you have a 100% WYSIWYG workflow?

Thanks for your input,

Bernhard






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