Digital BW, The Print

Bob,

When I look over your hardware and software, the only thing we share 
in common is 35 mm film and Photoshop CS.  So I will limit my 
discussion to general workflow topics instead of specifics.

The first thing I suggest is to start an electronic document and 
start documenting your capture-to-print workflow.  Also, if you work 
in color, make sure your capture-to-print color management tools and 
settings are in place.  One of the best books on color management for 
photographers is Color Confidence by Tim Grey.  When working in 
color, I keep the color profile the same throughout the entire 
process.  I personally think B&W photographers should calibrate their 
workflow because part of calibration is setting the black and white 
points.

Make sure your slides or negatives are as clean as they can be when 
scanning. I scan actual size to the maximum resolution (ppi) and bit 
depth I think appropriate.  If scanning B&W negatives, I would 
recommend you scan the image as a RGB image and not a grayscale 
image.  Because RGB has three channels of information, it can store 
finer gradations of tone than a single channel color model.

I do not do any sharpening while scanning.  I do all sharpening in 
Photoshop.  I use a plug-in called PhotoKit Sharpener by 
PixelGenius.  This product provides capture, 'creative' and output 
sharpening using a non-destructive technique, which is a good thing.  
It also does its sharpening on layers which allows me to add a layer 
mask to `deselect' any areas, such as the sky, from the sharpening 
affects.  However, be aware that the image sharpening technique it 
uses adds pixel-containing layers to the image file and will increase 
the size of the file.

You already mentioned using Levels to set tonal range and fixing 
defects.  Since you are a CS user, have you tried the 
Shadow/Highlight feature to bring out detail in the shadow areas of 
an image?

When converting to B&W, there are so many ways of doing it that it 
boggles the mind.  Most I don't like for a number of reasons so I 
devised my own, which you can read about at 
zuberphotographics.com/page_TMSIntro.htm if you care to.  The 
advantage of this method (if you use color film) is that even after 
the conversion to B&W, the photographer still has full control of 
tone globally, locally (using selections and/or layer masks), by 
color range, by color channel or by targeting tone itself.  Another 
color to B&W method that supports the visualization process of 
creating images is one by John Paul Caponigro that is in Adobe's tips 
and tutorials section.

When I am ready to print is when I resize the image to the desired 
dimensions.  I personally also change the resolution to the `native' 
resolution of the printer when I resize.  For example, I have an 
Epson 2200 and when I resize the image, I change the file resolution 
to 360 ppi because the 2200 will resample the file if it gets 
something other than 360 ppi.  However, I still print at 1440 dpi.  
Keep in mind that the ppi of the file you send to the printer does 
not have to match the dpi you are printing at.

Hope some of this helps.