Digital BW, The Print

Norbert

>...landscape photographer ... I prefer many of my images
>in BW.

Welcome to the club.  My first one-person show was mostly color. However, in
the high-end markets the few B&W images were the ones that got the most
attention, including from professional printers and thieves who stole only
the B&Ws from the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

>...I am using MIS v inks on my Epson 880 with EAM and with Paul's
>1160 curves getting good results. But I think I can do better.

Definitely.  I'm surprised you're getting decent results at all with curves
for a different printer.

Is the 880 the smaller version of the 1280?

> If Paul's curves are printer/paper specific, how do I adjust them ?

If the 880 is the smaller version of the 1280, get the latest 1280 curves.
It also appears that with some printers, at least, whether a person is using
a Mac or PC matters.  So, for example, we're writing curves for the 1280 for
both Mac and PC.

Using a 21-step-wedge file makes it much easier to do adjustments.  You can
take a shot at either the curves themselves or try using a Transfer
function.  The TFs are not that accurate, however.  On the other hand,
adjusting the curves can be tricky.  For the later, I'll have to get around
to posting some of the things I've found.

Some basics are that I use a scanner to read color of a 24 bit scan -- just
the red-blue difference.  I read the luminance only from a B&W, 8-bit scan
after carefully setting the 0% and 100% points.

Be very careful in clicking on the point you want to move on the curve --
they easily move as you click on them.  You can check Edit to see if Undo is
black.  If it is grayed out, you have not moved the point.  Use the 256
scale -- you need that much accuracy.

Try movements of 6 points on the curve for a 1% move of the lightest ink --
3 units for a 1% midtone/cyan move.  As you get down toward the 100% corner,
the black turns on.  So, in the second quadrant a 2 unit move will be about
a 1% change, and in the bottom/darkest quadrant you'll often get up to a 1%
move from only 1 unit movement of the curve point.

Save the new curve under a new name that includes a version number.  You'll
want to keep track of your versions because there will be a dozen before you
get it right.  You'll sometimes want to go back to an older version to see
the results of a change.

Because the toner and lightest gray are about the same density (by design),
you can move them in opposite directions to change color without much change
in the luminance.

Needless-to-say, keep the cyan (red curve) ink out of the highlights.  If
you see dots around 30%, pour in more yellow (blue ink) and back off the
cyan.  The yellow is light enough that you can go into a negative curve in
the midtones.  You'll see on the curves what I've done.  You often need the
blue curve to have a reasonable slope in the last quadrant to help control
the black ink.

With the 1280 we've been using the Photo Quality Ink Jet paper for matte
papers.  Ideally, I'd like to be able to use the HW Matte setting for matte
paper, so that the other paper settings would, hopefully, give correct
profiles.  However, because we are not using Epson dyes, the built-in
profiles are probably wrong anyway.  The 6-ink printer owners have generally
chosen to use a paper choice that limits the ink flow somewhat.

The plan is to use Transfer Functions as the way to profile different
papers.  I hope users will share the profiles they come up with.  This
should be a user-group effort.

> Since I will be shooting more black and white, should I use
>B/W negatives film, or color print film or should I stick to my
>reversal Provia ?

I've switched back and forth between color negative and B&W film.  I'm back
to B&W film.  I think I get better images with Tmax 100 than the best color
negative film.  However, there are some who think the advantages of the
color information is very useful.  For 35 mm I'd give Tech Pan a try. It's
slow, but the grain is super fine.  Xtol gives even finer grain than
Technidol, but it's also slower.

Good luck.  I think you'll find lots of answers from this group.  Of course,
we all have our own unique styles of work, so you'll probably get varying
opinions.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com