Digital BW, The Print

Todd wrote:
> I dupe my background layer and sharpen my duped layer to the largest extent
> I'd need , then just decrease the opacity of the sharpened layer to be
> appropriate for smaller sizes. It works well for me as I don't resample my
> file for smaller print sizes, I just send it all along to the print driver,
> which has no problem processing it. Thus scan once, manipulate once, sharpen
> once, print many sizes...

Todd, interesting idea... I do a similiar thing to a duplicate layer in
order to sharpen selected areas of the underlying image layer by masking the
sharpened layer where required and then playing with the opacity.

You are sending the same file size to the printer at different print
sizes... what is the dpi of your smaller print file sizes? Do you ever find
anything unfavorable in your smaller images?  I've always thought that if
you send to much info to the print driver it does not handle the
downsampling as well as photoshop would.

> PS, I'm getting good sharpening results using some of Johnny Deadman's
> "smart sharpener" actions. They're free and very effective. I don't have a
> link handy but I'd check his site (pinkheadedbug.com) or do a web search.
> Most of these sharpeners (he offers a few, are based upon sharpening edges
> to a greater extent than flat tones, much like Bruce Fraser's two pass
> approach, or UltraSharpen.

Deke McClelland also has an edge mask technique that I find works well with
some images.  

I also really like the highpass sharpening technique only I use soft light
as the blend mode as it is much more subtle. John Brownlow's (Deadman) Smart
Sharpening is also great... each image warrants it's own technique. Both of
the above are available on the Luminous-Landscape site.

Carolyn