Digital BW, The Print

Steve,

There are so many things here that could be wrong.

Here's my suggestion as to how you figure things out a bit more.

VFA + ABW is a great combo so I would start with that. You won't get a
better matte dmax than this combo.
If you have your image in Adobe RGB or Grey Gamma 2.2 and print with ABW set
to "normal" you will get a somewhat lighter image than you want but its
guaranteed not to bury your blacks. If it does then you have something wrong
with your printing settings.

If "normal" works I would now try, ABW set to "Dark" which should be about
right for an image in gamma 2.2

Beyond this you can get more sophisticated using a spectro and QTR Create
ICC
Also if you want to dive in deeper, Eric has a ton of info on this site
http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/

Good luck.

Mike


On 06/08/07, SteveZ <blizzie12@...> wrote:
>
>   I need some advise on printing images with dark skies and/or skies that
> have a distinct transition gradient from dark to lighter tones
>
> Unlike most of you, I'm relatively new to digital b&W printing
> and, as such, technically challenged when it comes to measuring dmax,
> creating profiles, etc.
>
> I'm using a 3800 with k3 inks with matte papers that include VFA, HPR
> and MPR. For b&w I normally use the the ABW driver but even when using
> the RGB driver/media profiles the results invariably are the same.
>
> I've also made test prints with all of the above papers with similar
> outcomes: solid black skies with no detail.
>
> Without getting too technical,
> can anybody shed some light?
>
> 
>


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