Digital BW, The Print

Exactly,

That is what I did .  I printed four 4x5 variations on each 8x5"x11" sheet and 
did 5 of those - that's 20 variations.It is great to have these to refer to. With 
some of my more sophisticated clients I even give them a set to refer to. 
Sometimes these variations are so subtle that the only way to really evalute 
them is in comparison. Also I would find a fairly "neutral" silver print to 
compare them with. For me I quickly discoverd that there is no such thing as 
total neutrality though, with any medium. It's all relative and subjective.That is 
a perceptual and relative concept because even the paper base changes the 
hue in the higher values and developers, wash technique adds color to 
traditional prints.The one thing I did experience was that the really warm 
curves from UC and QTR looked much nicer on a natural or slightly warm 
paper than on a paper with optical brighteners, like H P Rag. I still want to 
figure out a process for split toning.

John


> > > Diane,
> > > So it's just trial & error until you find the combinations that you 
> > > like ? Seems an expensive route. No guidelines available to at least 
> > > get you 'in the park'?
> > > Frank
> > 
> > Expensive? Print a ring-around of six 2x3 images on one letter size
> paper all with differnet 
> > curves.