Digital BW, The Print

Personally I stay away from Photorag and other rag media that contain optical 
brighteners because they add blue to the highlights.  I use QTR with 
Ultrachrome on a 9600 and the two papers that I think come very close to 
Platinum/Palladium are Concorde Rag ( warm Platinum / Palladium) and 
Premier Art Hot Press ( Epson Ultrasmooth). I am using the curve percentages  
Sepia 75% and Cool 25%.  The PIezzotone Carbon Sepia is outstanding on 
Concorde Rag for a very warm lush tonality ( better than Platinum?). Now 
there is no one Platinum color. The hue you achieve on Platinum is 
dependdent on the amount of Palladium you add to it. Most " Platinum" prints 
you see out there are about 75% Palladium, which is quite warm brownish in 
composition.  Pure Platinum is rather cold and has a tendency to posterize in 
the shadows, thus the Palladium.  The more pure Platinum you use the more 
you go toward a cool neutral color. And, like inkjet output, the color of the 
paper influences it a lot. I do platinum in a class I teach and it is remarkable 
how close you can come with inkjet output on papers like William Turner if 
you like texture. The paper choice is  significant. I even go as far as to actually 
scan Platinum prints and finesse them in Photoshop and output on Concorde 
Rag, William Turner, etc.  That is even more realistic because part of the aura 
of Platinum is the way the image clusters into clumps of metalic image on the 
uncoated paper. I've gone up to 24"x 40" like  that.

John


> > I am trying to find different ways to achieve the platinum 
> > and palladium look with my black and white images using the 
> > Epson 9600 printer.  Some of the ways I have tried thus far 
> > include creating curves, color balance and gradiant map 
> > adjustment layers.  Does anyone in the group have another 
> > suggestion, I want to try many options to see which works 
> > best.  Thanks.