Digital BW, The Print

John ­ I have found that for critical purposes, I need to often have two
sets of prints.  One is made for portfolio use where I will be showing the
prints bare (no glass/frame) and another for when the prints will be hung
under glass.  This is for the same reason you mentioned; the dark values
lose some clarity when they are viewed under lower light than I¹ve used for
printing/correcting.

Unfortunately, there is no standard lux level or lighting arrangement used
from space to space.  Museums these days typically use lower light levels
than they used to for issues of conservation.   Unless you were able to go
into a space in which your prints will be shown and compare a couple of
prints under glass to see which look best, you will probably just be
guessing at the adjustment you¹ll need to make to compensate for the lower
light,

If you are going to make an adjustment, you could do it in a number of ways.
You could make a PSD copy of the file that prints correctly, and create an
adjustment layer for levels (you could bump up the output level slider below
the histogram to open up the dark end), for curves, etc., and make prints at
a few different settings for comparison.  Be sure to mark each print as you
make it so that you don¹t lose track of the changes you¹ve made.

Stephen 


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