Digital BW, The Print

Hi,
I have just noticed that with QTR I am seeing a strange appearance in prints with abrubt tone transitions. It looks like QTR is trying to sharpen the image and is losing the smoothness of the transition, resulting in a double image. It's not happening with Advanced Black and White.

I'm using Ordered Dither algorithm, 1440 Super, Unidirectional.

I've uploaded the images, a crop of the original, and 1600ppi scans, to this page:
http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Richard


____________
Richard Smallfield Photography: www.richardsmallfield.com
Exhibition now online: www.v-erge.co.nz
Auckland Festival of Photography: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/

Hi Richard,

That's an interesting artifact.  If you print a smooth ramp, do you see a vertical line or other abrupt change or bump in the ramp?  A linearization problem might cause the problem, but it's a bit surprising it shows up only at that post edge.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

> I have just noticed that with QTR I am seeing a strange appearance in prints with abrubt tone transitions. It looks like QTR is trying to sharpen the image and is losing the smoothness of the transition, resulting in a double image. It's not happening with Advanced Black and White.
> 
> I'm using Ordered Dither algorithm, 1440 Super, Unidirectional.
> 
> I've uploaded the images, a crop of the original, and 1600ppi scans, to this page:
> http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> thanks,
> Richard
> 
> 
> ____________
> Richard Smallfield Photography: www.richardsmallfield.com
> Exhibition now online: www.v-erge.co.nz
> Auckland Festival of Photography: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/
>

Hello Paul,
thanks for that - I've not printed a smooth ramp: this problem has only occurred in photos that have a transition from very dark to very light, over a very short distance - as in out of focus features in my night shots. It's not a transition that happens very often in my other work.

I'll have to check earlier prints to see if I can find evidence of it when those prints were made last year (though it's hard to track suitable prints down as the night series is framed and on display elsewhere).

I installed the latest version of QTR, with no change.

thanks again,
Richard

At 03:05 a.m. Thursday 1/07/2010, you wrote:
>Hi Richard,
>
>That's an interesting artifact. If you print a smooth ramp, do you see a vertical line or other abrupt change or bump in the ramp? A linearization problem might cause the problem, but it's a bit surprising it shows up only at that post edge.
>
>Paul
>www.PaulRoark.com 
>
>> I have just noticed that with QTR I am seeing a strange appearance in prints with abrubt tone transitions. It looks like QTR is trying to sharpen the image and is losing the smoothness of the transition, resulting in a double image. It's not happening with Advanced Black and White.
>> 
>> I'm using Ordered Dither algorithm, 1440 Super, Unidirectional.
>> 
>> I've uploaded the images, a crop of the original, and 1600ppi scans, to this page:
>> <http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html>http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html
>> 
>> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> thanks,
>> Richard


____________
Richard Smallfield Photography: www.richardsmallfield.com
Exhibition now online: www.v-erge.co.nz
Auckland Festival of Photography: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Richard,
I had a similar problem once when a cartridge of UTPKN went bad somehow. I still don't know exactly what happened to it but replacing it solved the issue. It was almost like the dark/light mixes weren't miscible and were driven apart on the paper.You might want to check out the dark inks.

Regards,
Duane


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Richard Smallfield <rich_s@...> wrote:

>
> Hello Paul,
> thanks for that - I've not printed a smooth ramp: this problem has only occurred in photos that have a transition from very dark to very light, over a very short distance - as in out of focus features in my night shots. It's not a transition that happens very often in my other work.
> 
> I'll have to check earlier prints to see if I can find evidence of it when those prints were made last year (though it's hard to track suitable prints down as the night series is framed and on display elsewhere).
> 
> I installed the latest version of QTR, with no change.
> 
> thanks again,
> Richard
> 
> At 03:05 a.m. Thursday 1/07/2010, you wrote:
> >Hi Richard,
> >
> >That's an interesting artifact. If you print a smooth ramp, do you see a vertical line or other abrupt change or bump in the ramp? A linearization problem might cause the problem, but it's a bit surprising it shows up only at that post edge.
> >
> >Paul
> >www.PaulRoark.com 
> >
> >> I have just noticed that with QTR I am seeing a strange appearance in prints with abrubt tone transitions. It looks like QTR is trying to sharpen the image and is losing the smoothness of the transition, resulting in a double image. It's not happening with Advanced Black and White.
> >> 
> >> I'm using Ordered Dither algorithm, 1440 Super, Unidirectional.
> >> 
> >> I've uploaded the images, a crop of the original, and 1600ppi scans, to this page:
> >> <http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html>http://www.richardsmallfield.com/archives/test/index.html
> >> 
> >> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> >> 
> >> thanks,
> >> Richard
> 
> 
> ____________
> Richard Smallfield Photography: www.richardsmallfield.com
> Exhibition now online: www.v-erge.co.nz
> Auckland Festival of Photography: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hi Duane,
thanks very much for that - very interesting.

I've checked a print I made last year and the inks have changed since then and I can see that the problem was in existence then, too -  but I didn't notice it until recently - so I assume that it's unlikely in this case, sadly.

thanks,
Richard

At 08:35 a.m. Friday 2/07/2010, you wrote:
> Hi Richard,
>I had a similar problem once when a cartridge of UTPKN went bad somehow. I still don't know exactly what happened to it but replacing it solved the issue. It was almost like the dark/light mixes weren't miscible and were driven apart on the paper.You might want to check out the dark inks.
>
>Regards,
>Duane


____________
Richard Smallfield Photography: www.richardsmallfield.com
Exhibition now online: www.v-erge.co.nz
Auckland Festival of Photography: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/