Digital BW, The Print

Use the QTR Grey Lab and QTR Matte/Photo paper ICC profile workflow that has
been descibed many times here.  You should, if your monitor is correctly
profiled, get accurate softproofing and prints.


> From: ap0izner <ap0izner@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 02:42:18 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Contrast / brightness settings problem w Epson 2200
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I have been a silent reader of this group for couple of week, so let
> me introduce myself before asking the question. I am form Toronto,
> Canada (although originally from Russia) and have been doing
> photography for the last five years and with strong accent on b&w
> photography for the last two years. I still have to learn many
> things, so all criticism is welcomed.
> 
> Up until a month ago, I was doing all my printing in the lab and now
> I finally got my first printer ­ Epson 2200. Overall, I am very
> happy with it and have no complaints, except some of the aspects of
> printing bw pictures is still a mystery. Couple of days ago, I tried
> Quadtone RIP, which solved some of my problems (thank you Roy!), I
> am still playing, but there is one thing that has me worried.
> 
> It seems, that although my monitor is properly calibrated (no
> problem during color printing) bw prints, come out much darker than
> on the screen and with significantly less contrast. It also seems
> that some of black shifts into dark grey. Because of that my
> workflow currently looks like this:
> 1. After output sharpening I bring up contrast +15 and
> brightness +10
> 2. Then, using curves, I do a two points cut out of black (to
> preserve black)
> 3. After that I do the print using QRIP. I review the print,
> compare it to the screen and mark areas that I have to dodge or burn
> to make the image look like the original screen image.
> 4. I proceed with dodging and burning and do another test
> print. Once finished testing, I do the enlargement and finally
> proceed with large print.
> 
> It seems to work, but I wonder if there is a good way to simplify
> this by adjusting printer or RIP settings to proper brightness /
> contrast levels.
> For additional info, I print on Epson Enhanced Matte paper with UC
> inks. In QRIP I found that Ilford Heavy Paper / UC-EEnchMatte
> combination works best for me.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Alexander Poizner
> http://thingsdream.com
>