Digital BW, The Print

on 11/1/01 11:13 AM, Carolyn  Frayn wrote:

> 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.
 
Right - Me too - Gotta love them layer masks! The other thing one can do
when they have the duped layer is use the blending sliders for the layer in
the layers options dialog box. I'm not as comfortable working with them as
I'd like to be, but that's handy way to "mask" by luminosity. I just don't
feel I can see what I'm doing as well with that approach. How 'bout you?

Plus, I just like leaving my background layer unscathed incase I change my
mind about things later. I'm very fickle you know - Hate to commit. ;-)

> 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.

I'm generally working med format negs (6x6) scanned at 2540 dpi, so my pixel
dimensions are around 5700x5700. What I'll sometimes do while working an
image is test print it at 5x5" so I can put get two tests on an 8.5x11 page.
At that size the file is around 1150 DPI. My largest print size
(unfortunately) is 12" square, which is at about 480 DPI. All I can say is
to me they both look good. The size differential makes it hard to do any
qualitative comparison, I'm just pleased with both. I'm looking forward to
the day I can print 24x24" at 240 DPI. ;-)

Anyway, I've never really downsized in PS to compare with sending it all to
the driver. I should, but really the small sizes are primarily for proofing
purposes anyway.
 
> Deke McClelland also has an edge mask technique that I find works well with
> some images.  

I couldn't find Deke's technique on Luminous-Landscape. I like Deke, I've
learned a lot from his Total Training video series. Is this masking
technique the one where he uses HighPass to accentuate the edges? Does he
then run USM through the mask?

Thanks
Todd