Digital BW, The Print

Hello Neil;

Gives us some more info:

What does your histogram look like? Is it combed?

Do you shoot in raw and convert to 16 bit tiff, 8-bit tiff, JPEG;

When you do your density/contrast tweaks and uprezzing are you in 8-
bit or 16?

As for Genuine Fractals, I've never been too impressed with it, 
though some people love it. I especially detest proprietary file 
formats-you must have GF installed to use the files you create with 
it.  Do you have Qimage? It does an excellent job of upsampling and 
sharpenning, and a lot more besides. You can use it in conjunction 
with QTR with the 'print to file' technique, or with UT-7 it works 
just like Photoshop.

Seve Karafyllakis

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "neilsphoto" 
<neilsphoto@y...> wrote:
> Here's the deal.  I like good side light in my portraits from 
windows
> or softboxes. A nice modeling and tonal range into a nice shadow.  
I
> tend to bump the contrast to get a nice black, no always a darker
> black (they only get so black) but maybe more black if that makes 
sense.
> 
> Sometimes on the transition from flesh to black it gets jagged
> looking, ugly and sort of solarized.  It is very hard to describe 
and
> even if I could post the image here it wouldn't look like it does 
in
> print.
> 
> I've seen it with D2H and D70 files.  I upsize them in CS a little 
at
> a time to 12x18 ( I rarely see this in a 6x9). I had been set to
> Bicubic. It has been suggested I use Bicubic Smoother instead.  
> 
> I've had it much less so with scanned TX or XP2. I scan with a 
Minolta
> 5400 and my files are much larger than what I get out of camera so
> upsizing isn't needed.
> 
> I have been BO printing for over a year. 2200, Ebony and EEM or 
PR.  I
> thought that maybe I was asking alot of one ink to make a smooth
> transition so I got UT7.  Same, different, I don't know.  I get get
> either ink set to do the same thing.
> 
> So I get an image I like on screen, make a print and decide to 
give it
> a little more snap.  I might tweek the brightness/contrast a bit 
and
> make another print and then I may get this jagged look it I went 
too
> far.  I've most likely already done some levels adjustment before 
the
> first print already.
> 
> It clearly looks as if I've put down too much ink.  Is this a dot 
gain
> issue?  I'm at 20%.  
> 
> Would Genuine Fractels be better for up-sizing my D70 files than 
CS?
> 
> Or am I just asking for too much.  Again it is hard to describe 
what
> I'm getting.
> 
> I could e-mail a sample portrait and describe where the problems 
lie
> but you won't see it in a jpeg. Gotta be on paper.
> 
> Any ideas welcome.
> 
> Neil