Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" 
<dazedgonebye@...> wrote:
>
> I jumped on the generations so quickly, because I did not want to 
> calibarate my digital negative process to epson inks, then switch 
to 
> aftermarket inks later 

Sorry, I didn't mean my remark as a criticism, it's just that very 
few people on this list use the Generations inks, so we have no real 
help to offer.

>  I need to 
> get that working with the stock color inks and then I'll worry 
about 
> a dedicated black and white system in the future.

I don't know how much of this you've done so far, and what processes 
you use the negs for, but I feel I must comnplicate your life a bit 
more: many processes, if not all, are sensetive to the color of light 
you're exposing with. Ergo, if you make a neg with color inks, each 
set of dot colors will register differently on the paper. This can 
often produce a much 'grainier' print than you would expect looking 
at the negative. My take after repeatedly trying to produce silver-
gel quality negs, is that the best solution is to use QTR to mix two 
curves: one 3K curve composed of PK, LK, and LLK, and a second curve
composed of magenta, yellow and LLK, or magenta, red and yellow. The 
primary work would be done by the gray curve, with the color curve 
adding density or in the case of VC papers, contrast, where and when 
needed. But again, everything depends on your process and its 
spectral response.

At any rate, best of luck, and keep us posted on your progress. One 
of these days I'll take another whack at it myself, seeing as how I 
have a fair quantity of (free!) Sihl film I need to test.

Regards,

Steve Karafyllakis