Digital BW, The Print

Clayton,

Thanks for the response - it definatley helps!  My parents were 
visiting over the weekend so I didn't have much time to catch up!  

Regarding the curve - it is somewhat difficult to visualize changes 
in the print when you don't really see them on screen, especially in 
such extreme examples (+25/-25)...as you said, if it is possible at 
all.  It takes a break of an association I'm used to making 
(screen=print) in order to think about it correctly.   

In the ramp you posted for -25C,0M it looks like there is kind of 
the "break" I was talking about in my ramps in the middle of the 
100% step (looking the smooth part not the stepped part).  Is that 
what you were talking about as not being possible to correct well?  
If you were going to try, because it's all "bunched" at that end, 
what would you do?  I don't know if my terminology, break and 
bunched, is appropriate, but I try :)

I have not printed much on different papers yet but I can see how it 
makes a difference - your breakdown in the paper chase article helps 
as well.  I  really wanted to do most of the experimenting on the 
cheap stuff (EEM) ;) 

Thanks again!

Brian 
http://www.brianchapmanphotography.com - last updated June 12, 2006

> 
> >If I set (this is an extreme example, I know) the cyan slider to 
> >-25 and the magenta to +25 the tones in the 70-90 range are about 
> >equal and there's a clear break to pure black around 95%. 
> 
> I printed an entire set of symmetrical CM +/- and -/+  ramps at
> increments of 5, on Dourian (like PR, medium warm at 0/0), and it's
> easy to see what happens.  The practical limit seems to be about 
15 in
> either direction.  Up to there it holds a fairly normal ramp.  
After
> that the ramp gets pretty messed up. 
> 
> 
> >I know there's a curve that would correct for this (to get back 
to 
> >a normal step wedge) but I can't seem to wrap my mind around what 
> >it should look like. 
> 
> Even at 0/0/0, R2 tends to lower contrast and density a bit, so I
> always expect to add an adjustment curve.  In your example the 
curve
> would need to restore contrast (steeper slope) in that 70-90 
zone.  
> However, it may not be practically possible without getting
> posturization or other weird effects.  But if you stay within the 
15
> limit, I've found so far that it's easily controlled.
> 
> 
> >...I was basically trying to find out what the warmest print I 
> >could get from the set was.  
> 
> In the above set of ramps on Dourian, with CM +15/-15 being the
> coolest and -15/+15 the warmest, it's quite a nice range between 
the
> extremes.  There is a greater difference between 0/0 and the warm 
one
> than the cool one, something like this, just to give an idea:
> 
>  Cool +15/-15 ------- 0/0 ------------ -15/+15 warm
> 
> The same settings printed on Kayenta, a cold paper, are relatively 
the
> same result, but much cooler.  The Kayenta 0/0 print is cooler than
> the cool PR print, and the warm Kayenta is a close match to the PR
> 0/0.  Sort of like this (sorry for the dots, it's because of the 
html):
> 
> .....................C------- PR ------------W
> .......C------- KY ------------W
> 
> and I assume a super warm paper like Wm. Turner would do something
> similar on the warm end (I don't have any on hand to test).
> 
> So I still see the paper choice as the main determiner of the 
general
> tone, and R2 as a way to nudge it warmer or cooler from there.  
> 
> Hope this helps...I think I'll go add this to the article.
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
>