Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 11/7/06 2:15:12 PM, e.neilsen2@... writes:


> David, And these are today's ( as of Saturday) Dmax. Will all of the black
> have an equal fade? (shhhhh _ just a wee bit) .
> 
They are all latest generation pigment inksets, Henry Wilhelm has had most of 
them in his torture chamber...

>  Perhaps, life in Taos, NM
> and the southwest altered my view on this subject matter, but I saw many of
> these prints as OVER the top in contrast.
> 
Contrast isn't really a function of black density, more of gray ramp 
linearity. It should ideally be a function of how the image is shot (or in the case of 
high bit, processed) to be printed, with the print system left out of the 
equation, but as we saw the current systems don't really allow for that. Burned 
out highlights with no detail don't show linearity, clogged shadows don't show 
linearity, and a midtones that are too dark or light don't either. Contrast, 
as I define it, consists of pushing the dark tones towards black and the light 
tones towards white. Low contast tends to mean the opposite. Meaning clogging 
and clipping. What my daughter (a real contrast freak) calls "really gray, 
Dad." So yes, there were prints with clogged shadows, and others with blown or 
nearly blown highlights. Maybe both in the same print, I don't recall. And yours 
certainly didn't have those attributes. But there were also prints (all of 
them, as I recall) with a longer tonal range than the Piezo Sepia (due to a 
significantly deeper black) and and a couple with pretty good zoning throughout 
the range. Thats what I would call a correct result, for a properly tuned 
product. Yours was pleasingly tuned, but for a shorter range, and a significant 
tint. Carbon is close enough to neutral to do side by side comparisons. With sepia 
its difficult, like comparing a watercolor to an oil painting.

>  It is sand after all with a soft
> light spilling all over the front of it.
> 
Making it a great choice for Sepia.

>  Heavy Color tint?
> 
Thats the definition of sepia. Most non-photographers see carbon and subtle 
tints as simply being black and white. They see sepia as being sepia. Its a 
more distinct tint. This isn't a bad thing, in fact sepia is such a nice tone 
that "really gray, Dad" turns into "really sepia" which is quite pleasing, 
encouraging lower contrast choices.

>  Weak?
> 
Again by definition; the d-max is lower, and sepia encourages lower contrast 
as well, see above. Weak is not meant as a value judgement, its a description 
of dynamic range. Pencil has a weaker dynamic range than pen, but can be much 
more descriptive, and is charming in a similar way to sepia. In fact, sepia 
pastel sticks are an even better analogy...

>  These would
> not be the words that I'd use to describe the differences; Appropriately
> colored and Open.
> 
Again, good reasons for using sepia. I personally like to have it both ways, 
and lots of others as well, which is why I focused on developing a tintable, 
tunable system, This allows starting with a wide dynamic range, deep black,   
dead neutral tonality, creamy smooth gradients, and very precise linearity. 
Once I have all that, I can print neutral, high dynamic range prints by default. 
But I can also produce any tint and feel I want. I could emulate the low 
contrast, soft, silky sepia of your prints (and after seeing them I am certainly 
tempted to), or I could do other, unique things. I've taken shots of mine from 
the Taos/Santa Fe area and cross tinted them in reverse of the usual 
Platinum/Paladium tint. That is to say cool highlights, and sepia shadow tones. Thats 
because those images had light skys that deserved cool tones, and all the mid 
and dark tones were adobe earth forms, begging for sepia. Without a system that 
is both very flexible, and very previewable, I would never have come up with 
such a counterintuitive choice. It makes those images very unique.

So please, take part in the grayramp exercise, so that I can figure out what 
your tonalities are... I'm looking forward to trying them!

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com



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