Digital BW, The Print

Peter,

Thank you so much!  I knew something was off.  
I found a new curve for the printer I'm using, so I bet my contrast
will be a lot better now.  It says "Note: Use all six inks (don't
colorize)" 

Also, any advice on how to keep the negatives as clean as possible?  

~Katie~

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Peter Gorwin
<pshelleyg@c...> wrote:
> Hello Katherine:
> 
> Unless you intend to send your digital negative out to a service 
> bureau, image-setter negs, it is unnecessary
> for you to convert your image to a bitmap.  Your image was much to big, 
> and in the wrong
> mode, bitmap, for Dan's inkjet method; that's why your computer choked 
> on such a huge file.
> You confused two different processes as delineated by Dan, designed for 
> two separate output
> methods for creating digital internegs.
> 
> The reason that they look grainy: you converted from bitmap back to 
> RGB.  For the inkjet
> process, You really never need to be out of RGB unless you brought the 
> file in as a Greyscale first,
> or you wanted to do some adjustments to the file in LAB mode.  If you 
> used either of these methods, you must
> first return to RGB mode before you print out the negative.
> 
> I would recommend that you visit Dan's website www.danburkholder.com.
> There he now has an updated CD for printing with more recent inkjet 
> printers than he covered in
> his book. There you will also find updated templates with updated 
> curves that will help you simplify
> printing negatives using the inkjet process.
> 
> Regards,
> Peter
> 
> 
> On Jun 14, 2005, at 12:35 PM, Katherine wrote:
> 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Katherine"
> > <october_air@h...> wrote:
> >> Hello, I'm new here.  My name is Katie.
> >> I chose to explore digital negatives as my independent study in
> >> undergrad school.  None of my professors have used the process, so as
> >> you might imagine, I'm going to have a million questions!
> >>
> >> I'm following Dan Burkholder's book for printing with inkjet onto
> >> transparency film, contact printing onto silver gelatin (fiber
based).
> >>  It sounded like the 1200 bitmap dither method worked best for this,
> >> so I formatted my image using that process.  But then I got confused
> >> when it came time to either colorize or make a color table (using
> >> orange ink instead of black).
> >>
> >> I used the color table method by switching back over to RGB mode.
> >> Then I could not get my image to print because the computer would
just
> >> freeze up.  I contact a friend who informed me that 1200 dpi is way
> >> too much for any printer to handle.  Then I noticed the page where
> >> Burkholder says that 480 is a good resolution for silver
printing.  So
> >> I converted my image back to 480dpi, and had no trouble printing
then.
> >>
> >> Here's my results from the darkroom (although horrible scans):
> >>
> >> Straight Print
> >> http://www.katiegregory.com/straightprintsm.jpg
> >>
> >> With a #5 Filter
> >> http://www.katiegregory.com/5filtersm.jpg
> >>
> >> They look awfully grainy to me.  Which leads me to ask; did I follow
> >> those steps right?  I get lost in that book easily.  Any other
> >> suggestions are greatly appreciated!
> >