Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
<cj@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Cynthia,
> 
> >I've been to the site and reviewed the materials.  But unless if 
I 
> >missed something, he suggests using Velvet Fine Art as the media 
> >type for all matte papers??  I tried that on the first print I 
did 
> >on Enhanced matte; set the media type to VFA then, ink density 
to -
> >5% and tone to light, but it came out terrible; very dark in the 
> >shadows.  So then I went with the Epson defaults with media set 
to 
> >enhanced matte, the ink to -5% and it came out much better.  Then 
> >tried same image with tone set to light, normal and dark and 
decied 
> >that at least for Enhanced matte, that the prints looked better 
when 
> >set to dark.
> 
> This is probably my fault for not explaining some things better.  
All
> of the driver settings are relative to something else.  There are 
many
> possible combinations of settings that will work, but whatever
> settings are used for output are dependent to some degree on the
> settings that were used to prepare the image. 
> 
> In the opening paragraphs the article mentions that the workflow 
is an
> extension of a previously developed one and contains links to 
previous
> articles.  What is not well explained is that the suggested 
settings
> are predicated on an image being worked up using the approach
> described in the earlier articles (image profile, printer gamma
> setting, etc).  It's quite possible that if an image was worked up
> using a different technique then different output settings might be
> required.  The material in article #9 is just one side of a two-
sided
> coin, so to speak.  
> 
> In my mind the articles on that page are part of a series, one
> building upon another.  But I think I should add something that
> explains this better.  Back to your situation, the concepts in the
> article will work but you will have to do some experiments and see
> what actual settings work best for you.  Those suggested settings
> aren't meant to be carved in stone, but are just to help people get
> started.  

Hi Clayton,
I was hoping you would add your two cents.  Actually, I think I may 
have made an error in what I spoke to above about how my first test 
print using Epson Enhanced with Velvet Fine Art as the media type 
resulted in very blocked up shadows.  It was the first B&W print I 
had done and I suspect that in the Print Preview panel, that I may 
have forgotten to changed it to no color management.  So I probably 
ended up adding whatever profile I used in addition to the ABW 
controls??  At any rate, I tried your suggestions again using VFA as 
the paper type with Moab Kayenta and Epson Watercolor Radiant and 
found that the results were much better; the blacks were clearly 
deeper than when using the same ABW controls but with the 
manufacturere's suggested paper type especially noticeable in larger 
expanses of black.  The only difference is that I found that setting 
the tone to light was washed out, but I suspect that this may vary 
from paper to paper.  I think the Watercolor Radiant behaves better 
if you give it more ink whereas I find that I back off with other 
papers. 

My workflow is to shoot raw, do whatever adjustments I would do in 
the raw converter as if it were a color image and then bring into 
Photoshop(CS2)where I use various actions (whichever one seems to 
work the best magic)which are based on channel mixer ( like using 
predetermined recipes; takes out a lot of the guess work) enhance 
tones with curves and if it helps the image, will use the eyedropper 
to set white, grey and black points.

>  
> >Tried using some of Clayton's color wheel corrections, but they 
> >didn't always seem to work so well.  Depending on the papers, 
there 
> >is often a slight color cast which you are supposed to use the 
color 
> >wheel to counteract?  So I thought if others found other settings 
> >that work for them, it would be helpful if they could post them.
> 
> A similar situation here.  The effect of the ABW settings can vary
> slightly with density (ABW isn't a perfect system).  If your images
> have been worked up with a different technique then it's quite 
likely
> that the ABW settings will also differ.  Again, the bottom line is 
we
> must do some experimenting to find what works best for us.  There 
are
> lots and lots of variables.  It's rare that any two people will do
> things exactly the same way.  I hope this is of some help.

Although I have not gotten this far in my  re-experimentation, I 
suspect now that I might be working closer to your workflow by using 
VFA as the paper type, (that is what you are suggesting for all 
matte paper, right?) using a lighter tone than the default of 
normal, that your suggested color wheel numbers may work better.  
It's at least a place to start.

Thanks for responding to my post.
 
Regards,
Cynthia

> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
>