Digital BW, The Print

Martin-

I think there are some misconceptions or unclarities in this review.

Mr. Tobie does not state clearly, but I gather than he is using an ICM 
workflow and not the ABW mode.  With the latter, there is a wide range 
of adjustability with the "fine adjustment" sliders, so I would hardly 
call them "canned."  Having arrived at a set of fine adjustment 
settings for EEM and VFA (considerably different settings for two), I 
have very good control over the prints, including the shadow areas.  
These settings are also used to match the prints to the screen while 
viewing a Soft Proof, which is simply 30% Dot Gain, Preserve Numbers.  
This does not simulate paper white, which I can now visualize fairly 
well for the two papers I use.  I am then, of course, printing to the 
ABW driver with No Color Management in CS2.  

If his point is that Epson has not provided Soft Proof profiles for the 
four standard ABW settings (Neutral, warm, etc.), I agree and it also 
occurred to me that Epson might just like a trial-and-error method.  
But having gone to the (considerable) trouble to set up the EEM and VFA 
profiles, the workflow is surprisingly robust, simple and clean and is 
producing very reliable, controlled results from screen to print.  A 
slight tweak of the main curves layer in the file tweaks the print just 
right.

As for the prints themselves, I am finding them spectacular.  Printed 
full-frame at 14 x 9 inches, I'm not sure I've ever seen 35mm 
photography look this good.  The experienced eyes I've shown these 
prints to are generally stunned.  I am looking right now at an ABW 
print of a photograph taken in 1968 that has been printed, shown, and 
reproduced a number of times over many years and I am astonished at 
this print.  It has a tonal scale, smoothness and openess in the 
shadows that I wouldn't have thought possible from that negative.  The 
blacks on the matte papers, by the way, seem visually excellent to me 
and I am comparing them to gloosy-matte-dried gelatin prints of the 
same negatives.




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mxgo95747" 
<mxgo95747@y...> wrote:
> Here is a review that I saw on the epson printer forum that may be of 
interest:
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EPSON_Printers/message/34038
> 
> Martin G.