Digital BW, The Print

Wecome, fellow S1 user.  You'll get great results from S1 images 
converted to B&W.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised how much more you can get 
out of your printer if you do not use the plain vanilla Epson 
driver.  Paul's curves or Piezography should both give much better 
results (particularly in shadow detail).

Paper is such a personal choice.  My faves are Hahnnemuhle Photo Rag 
(comes in two weights) and Lyson Fine Art (aka German Etching).  
Photo Rag is smooth and quite bright, Lyson FA is has a more textured 
surface, but still quite smooth.

I assume that you convert to B&W in Photoshop.  I convert the S1 8 
bit output to 16bits in Photoshop and then do the curves / levels / 
B&W conversion.  I am currently using Convert to B&W Pro, the lazy 
man's way to B&W riches :-)  I think it is an excellent plugin, and 
works on 16 bit data.  Some don't like it, however.

Good luck with your adventures.
--
Quentin



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "dpr94025" <donr@r...> 
wrote:
> Hi
> I have been lurking around this site for awhile and am most 
impressed 
> with the level of knowledge and the over all effort to help each 
> other out.
> 
> About me
> My name is Don Rooney
> Live in Northern California (between San Francisco and San Jose)
> Shoot with Fuji S1
> Am currently using an Epson 880 4 color (8.5" x 11") printer (was 
> free with computer and does not use the "chip" on the cartridges)
> I'm using the MIS variable mix quadtone inks after going to Paul 
> Roark's site and reading what he thinks.
> I'm using Red River paper 47# but I see that everyone is using 
> something else. 
> After making a bunch of regular B&W prints I'm now ready to move on 
> to the "real" stuff. But just a note ---- with the Epson default 
> driver my prints look pretty good.
> So some questions
> 1. when you actually output are the files RGB or B&W / grayscale to 
> start with ?
> 2. I'm sure I'll get various answers but what is the most used / 
> preferred paper
> 3. Paul -- do you think the 1280 curves you have would be close on 
> the 880 ????
> 4. Is anyone using a reflective densitometer (xrite / gretag) to 
read 
> the black values ????
> 5. The print exchange sounds great  -- how can I find out more 
about 
> it ???
> Thanks in advance for your help and answers.
> Don Rooney