Digital BW, The Print

On Feb 2, 2010, at 9:20 PM, pr_roark wrote:

> Do you have the Lab A and B values for a 50% midtone of your ideal warm tone?

As you probably have guessed, I am a bit out of my element here. Are you referring to Lab A and B as in convert the image in Photoshop and measure there?

> What I suspect is that the brown you are looking for is both warmer than the carbons we have and has a Lab A that is closer to the Lab B value than what carbon has. Carbon tends to be more of a yellowish warm as opposed to a "chocolate" warm.
> 
> Jon Cone's carbon sepia is probably the best warm 100% carbon inkset. There are members of this forum who can probably give you some Lab coordinates for some papers with that inkset.

That might be helpful. I don't insist on an exact duplicate of what I have gotten with the HP inks, but a definite, unmistakable from across the room, brown is desirable. Longevity is more important to me than exact color, hence my quest in the first place. Maybe the general photographic community is excited about Epson's inks. I am less than impressed, but unfortunately HP seems bent on ignoring what the majority of the world's photographers need and want. They think we all want roll paper printers and bed-sheet size prints. So as I see it, the only option for serious B&W prints is a Epson 17" printer with someone else's inks.

> Finding a good, solid, true sepia or way to get to one easily is an interesting issue. My guess is that a single LK density red or orange toner might be enough, but I have not done those experiments.

My background is analog B&W photography and I know that sepia tones in silver prints had more to do with grain size than composition, though both played a role. Is it possible to alter the size of the carbon particles in suspension and if so, do you think that might change the color? I wonder also if 7 or 8 ink cartridge printers could be equipped with two sets of inks (3-4 cartridges each) one black and one yellow (or red or orange as you suggest), the mixture of which might alter the degree of brown tone so that photographers would have a range of options with one inkset.

David Kachel



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