Digital BW, The Print

--------
[I posted this message on the Piezography list a few days ago; as I have ot had any responses there, I am reposting this message here]
-------

On the Imaconusers forum someone posted an interesting message stating that for Piezography printing he scans with his Imacon 848 the following way in order to get the longest possible tonal range:

-scan into into 16-bit grayscale rather than RGB
-set the the histogram to -2 black and -2 white and manually adjust the curves
-gamma set at 1.8

Of course this does result in a long-tone scan but needs substantial adjustment work in Photoshop. Also, the Preview does not match the Final Scan because the Imacon scanning software does not provide for inclusion of profiles in grayscale scans. But this obviously does not matter in this type of scanning workflow when one is going for the longest tonal range possible. He states that scanning at 1.8, rather than the 2.2 most people use, gives the best reproduction and the greatest control over seperating different tones.

My own scanning workflow with my Imacon PII is to scan into 16-bit RGB at gamma 2.2 and then to use Channel Mixer in Photoshop when converting to grayscale.. In addition, I make curve adjustments and use the gray eyedropper tool to set neutral tones in the Imacon software. Then I make final adjustments in Photoshop. Perhaps the grayscale scanning workflow outlined above is better for Piezography workflow than my RGB workflow because the Preview image in the Imacon software is not as accurate as that of Photoshop.

If you have experience with Imacon scanning or similar exoperience with other scanning software, please let me have your reaction.

--Mitch/Bangkok

on 8/30/02 11:25 AM, Mitch Alland at malland@... wrote:

--------
[I posted this message on the Piezography list a few days ago; as I have ot
had any responses there, I am reposting this message here]
-------

On the Imaconusers forum someone posted an interesting message stating that
for Piezography printing he scans with his Imacon 848 the following way in
order to get the longest possible tonal range:

-scan into into 16-bit grayscale rather than RGB
-set the the histogram to -2 black and -2 white and manually adjust the
curves
-gamma set at 1.8

Of course this does result in a long-tone scan but needs substantial
adjustment work in Photoshop. Also, the Preview does not match the Final
Scan because the Imacon scanning software does not provide for inclusion of
profiles in grayscale scans. But this obviously does not matter in this type
of scanning workflow when one is going for the longest tonal range possible.
He states that scanning at 1.8, rather than the 2.2 most people use, gives
the best reproduction and the greatest control over seperating different
tones.

My own scanning workflow with my Imacon PII is to scan into 16-bit RGB at
gamma 2.2 and then to use Channel Mixer in Photoshop when converting to
grayscale.. In addition, I make curve adjustments and use the gray
eyedropper tool to set neutral tones in the Imacon software. Then I make
final adjustments in Photoshop. Perhaps the grayscale scanning workflow
outlined above is better for Piezography workflow than my RGB workflow
because the Preview image in the Imacon software is not as accurate as that
of Photoshop.

If you have experience with Imacon scanning or similar exoperience with
other scanning software, please let me have your reaction.

--Mitch/Bangkok


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Hi 

I have an imacon 848.  What do you mean by setting the Histogram at -2 black
and -2 white?

Are you doing this in the File-Setup section under the contrast tab? or
somewhere else.

Thanks

Greg
--

Gregory James Phelps
Gregory James Phelps Photography
2334 Boca Chica #600
Brownsville, TX 78521

Web: http://www.gjphelps.com
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email: greg@...

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

I'm scanning on an 848 - 16bit RGB , gamma 2.2 and checking the black
and white points in the levels dialog to make sure that I'm not clipping
anything at the ends.
I've been recently doing my grayscale conversions with the imaging
factory plugin "Convert to BW Pro" 
www.theimagingfactory.com <http://www.theimagingfactory.com/> 
The plug gives me much more control than I ever had with channel mixer,
calc, Russell Brown's dual huesat layers, etc.
 
 
 
Stan Shire
Associate Professor/Department Chair
Photographic Imaging
Community College of Philadelphia
Adobe Photoshop 6 A.C.E.
 
215 751-8320
 <mailto:sshire@...> sshire@...

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitch Alland [mailto:malland@...] 
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 12:25 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Imacon Scanning for Piezography
 
--------
[I posted this message on the Piezography list a few days ago; as I have
ot had any responses there, I am reposting this message here]
-------

On the Imaconusers forum someone posted an interesting message stating
that for Piezography printing he scans with his Imacon 848 the following
way in order to get the longest possible tonal range:

-scan into into 16-bit grayscale rather than RGB
-set the the histogram to -2 black and -2 white and manually adjust the
curves
-gamma set at 1.8

Of course this does result in a long-tone scan but needs substantial
adjustment work in Photoshop. Also, the Preview does not match the Final
Scan because the Imacon scanning software does not provide for inclusion
of profiles in grayscale scans. But this obviously does not matter in
this type of scanning workflow when one is going for the longest tonal
range possible. He states that scanning at 1.8, rather than the 2.2 most
people use, gives the best reproduction and the greatest control over
seperating different tones.

My own scanning workflow with my Imacon PII is to scan into 16-bit RGB
at gamma 2.2 and then to use Channel Mixer in Photoshop when converting
to grayscale.. In addition, I make curve adjustments and use the gray
eyedropper tool to set neutral tones in the Imacon software. Then I make
final adjustments in Photoshop. Perhaps the grayscale scanning workflow
outlined above is better for Piezography workflow than my RGB workflow
because the Preview image in the Imacon software is not as accurate as
that of Photoshop.

If you have experience with Imacon scanning or similar exoperience with
other scanning software, please let me have your reaction.

--Mitch/Bangkok





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unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this
same page.

Please follow these basic guidelines:
- Include your full name with your message.
- Include the address of your website, if you have one.
- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to
keep them short.
- As the topic of a thread changes remember to change the subject
header.
- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

To: Greg Phelps <greg@...>

>I have an imacon 848.  What do you mean by setting the Histogram at -2 black
>and -2 white?
>Are you doing this in the File-Setup section under the contrast
>tab? or somewhere else.

No. Select "Histogram" in the "Window" menu do display the Histogram window; then, move the Highlight and Shadow slider triangles to the -2 values.

--Mitch/Bangkok

For: C. David Tobie

>Gamma 1.8 allows for about 20% more dotgain than 2.2, if the screen view is 
>not adjusted for the difference. Profiles typically account for dotgain these 
>days, but if this is an unprofiled system, then that could be a
>factor.

Thanks, but I am not sure that I understand. On the Imacon, scanning into Grayscale does not permit attaching a profile, so, in fact, a Grayscale scan is in effect without a profile and could benefit from scanning at gamma 1.8: is that what you mean?

However, in my case, I have a monitor profile and a printer profiles; moreover, when scanning B&W into RGB, my Preview image in the Imacon scanning software matches exactly my final scan in Photoshop. In this case, could there still be a benefit in scanning at a gamma of 1.8 rather than 2.2?

--Mitch/Bangkok