Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., SKID Photography 
<skid@b...> wrote:
To my eye, it appears
> over sharpened in some areas.  I know that you said that you 
do not sharpen, but in the areas of the image
> like the lighter bags or the face there is a very tight granular 
pattern that I do not think is grain.


Harvey/Michael,

Interesting that you say that, because I thought the same thing. 
Michael's image changed so much, depending on the viewing 
distance. At arm's length, the radiance just leapt out at me. The 
coat, the bags, etc.

But the thing that I noticed, that to me seemed oversharpened, or 
grainy, or whatever, was the blacks of the eyes. I couldn't really 
put my finger on it, but when I looked close, it kinda bothered me 
a bit.

Again, like Harvey, I'm saying that the print was pretty killer. So 
take this as just a bunch of guys sitting around, talking honest, 
and respectful of each other's work. OK?

For me, I"m still dumbfounded to know how Paul Roark got such 
amazing sharpness, and smoothness, and detail, and lack of 
dot, out of 3000, with the Epson driver. That print of the driftwood 
has been passed around the office several times today. I wrote 
Paul offlist and he says it was printed with Epson driver; (I 
thought maybe Piezo driver, to reduce dots). Whatever he did, 
that is my new standard to aim for. True, I'm never stepping near 
that workflow of VM inks, but I'm going to start experimenting with 
better sharpening techniques, and might start testing some 
tighter-grain films.

So you guys are having a ripple effect all the way to Nashville. 
Good job...

-Mark Tucker