Digital BW, The Print

Hi wwodets,

'never posted before, just been a lurker, but love reading the uber-tech
exchanges.  I confess I'm a bit technically-challenged, so just bought an R2400
because it started sounding good enough + easy.  Would you be willing to share
your hard earned fine adjustment settings for EEM and VFA?

Lauri





> Message: 6
>    Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:41:17 -0000
>    From: "wwodets" <odets@...>
> Subject: Re: Epson R2400 B&W Review
>
> 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.
>
>
>
>
>
>