Digital BW, The Print

Jacques,

What paper are you printing on?  I found that Paul's Mac curves work almost
perfectly for me on EAM. However, it took me quite a while to get a good
step wedge on Somerset enhanced.  First I tried the transfer function; I got
close, but the more I worked it, the worse it eventually got!  My conclusion
was that the TF was too coarse a tool for this.  Then I applied a second
curve on top of Paul's curves;  after _much_ trial and error, I was able to
get a wedge I was satisfied with.  One complication I found- the Somerset
Enhanced took several hours to settle down- they would start muddy or
mottled, with little separation at 60-80%, then by the next morning they
would be beautiful!

Be patient at this stage- I was in a big hurry to get prints the day after I
put my set-up together, but I only succeeded in wasting alot of time (and
paper!)  Get the step wedge right before you start printing full images.

Hope this helps-

Bill Morse
PhotoProspect
Cambridge, MA 02139

on 1/9/02 4:08 PM, jacques10040 wrote:

Todd,

Thanks for your reply. The answers to your questions are yup,
yup, yup, yup, and yup.
As I mentioned in my original post, I followed the Roark workflow
posted on the MIS website. The step wedge helps, but even a
21-step wedge does not clearly reveal the kind of subtle
compression I'm seeing. I'm now modifying the RGB composite
of Paul's neutral-cool curve, clipping black by 6 points and
applying a modest S-curve. It's helping. I'll report particulars
when I've finessed it some more.

Jacques



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]