Digital BW, The Print

Does anyone besides Clayton Jones have websites devoted to "black only"
printing.  Mr. Jones' materials are very helpful, but I'd like to see if
there are other ideas.  Thanks.

Norm

There are a couple of articles on the Luminous Landscape site 
about photographer Nick Hartmann's approach to black-only 
printing. Part one of a two-part series is at 

www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-06-16.shtml

Part two is linked at the bottom of part one. Hartmann tried 
conventional quadtone and rejected it because black-only gave 
him results he liked better. 

He also has some unconventional thoughts about choosing a 
scanner. Worth reading because it's all based on first-hand 
experience. 

Allan Connery 



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, 
"normsams" <normsams@w...> wrote:
> Does anyone besides Clayton Jones have websites devoted to 
"black only"
> printing.  Mr. Jones' materials are very helpful, but I'd like to see 
if

> there are other ideas.  Thanks.
> 
> Norm

> There are a couple of articles on the Luminous Landscape site 
> about photographer Nick Hartmann's approach to black-only 
> printing. Part one of a two-part series is at 
> 
> www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-06-16.shtml

This is an interview by Mike Johnston, who was a regular poster to a
group I belonged to for a few years.  He's quite a nice guy, and very
personal.  I read this article and it was his typical style, easy to
read and informative.

FWIW, I'm fairly new to B&W digital printing and I've been evaluating a
bunch of prints lately using all types of printing methods, and I've
been very impressed by the Black Only prints I've seen.  They
consistently seem to have the neutrality and tonality I prefer, under a
wide variety of lighting conditions.  I can see the dots, but at normal
viewing distances they don't bother me at all.  However, this technique
is not working so well on my old 740, producing some pretty big dot
patterns, lower contrast, and reduced sharpness even at 1440 DPI.  I
blame most of this on the fact that this is an older printer with a
primitive driver.  So since my plans were from the start to buy a 1280
(to get the reduced cost of Photoshop), I went ahead and ordered one and
should have it in a couple days.  Without doubt, the first thing I try
with it will be Black Only printing.  I've not ruled out hextones or
anything at this point, but if I can get what I've seen from a few
others using this technique, it will be more than worth the price of the
printer.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com

At 02:41 PM 2/8/2003 +0000, DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>I can see the dots, but at normal
>viewing distances they don't bother me at all.


I've tried it with both an 870 and a 2200 and they bother
the hell out of me - especially in the highlights.    Maybe
your "normal viewing distance" is a lot farther than most
people's.

On the other hand quadtone/hextone inks are a hassle and
if you do 13"-wide-format printing like I do it means you
have to maintain two separate big printers and deal with all
the hassles of third-party ink suppliers, and various clogging,
warranty, chipset, driver, and other issues that come
with that territory.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peter nelson [mailto:peter@...]
> At 02:41 PM 2/8/2003 +0000, 
> DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> >I can see the dots, but at normal
> >viewing distances they don't bother me at all.
> 
> 
> I've tried it with both an 870 and a 2200 and they bother
> the hell out of me - especially in the highlights.    Maybe
> your "normal viewing distance" is a lot farther than most
> people's.

Well, I've got 20/20 (corrected) vision, and I view most prints closely
at about 6" from my eye to the paper.  As I said, I said I can see the
dots just fine, but they just don't bother me that much.  On some
photos, it actually adds a textured appearance that appears to enhance
the image like printing on a fine textured paper.  Maybe it's also
possible you haven't seen the same Black only images that I have, and
maybe they can be better than the ones you have  seen.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com

Ed, 

I'm also in Peter's position of finding the best way to print B&W on 
a 2200.  WOuld you mind sharing your technique of BIO printing?  
I've tried it, but my prints looked horribly posterized and lacked 
smoothness in transition zones; like the printer driver subtracted 
the other colors, but didn't compensate with the Black Ink.

If you could give details like Output Printer Profile, and Epson 
Custom settings that would be great.

Best,

David Cheung

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Ed Mathews" 
<ed@l...> wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: peter nelson [mailto:peter@s...]
> > At 02:41 PM 2/8/2003 +0000, 
> > DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> > >I can see the dots, but at normal
> > >viewing distances they don't bother me at all.
> > 
> > 
> > I've tried it with both an 870 and a 2200 and they bother
> > the hell out of me - especially in the highlights.    Maybe
> > your "normal viewing distance" is a lot farther than most
> > people's.
>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: hassymandsc <david@...> 
> I'm also in Peter's position of finding the best way to print B&W on 
> a 2200.  WOuld you mind sharing your technique of BIO printing?  
> I've tried it, but my prints looked horribly posterized and lacked 
> smoothness in transition zones; like the printer driver subtracted 
> the other colors, but didn't compensate with the Black Ink.

Hi David,
     I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression - I'm getting similar
results as you.  What I'm talking about liking are BO prints I've seen
and been sent.  Notably, one very nice example that Clayton Jones was
kind enough to send me.  He details his technique here:

http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

I've also seen some nice examples from Tom O'Connell and Ross Mullins,
so I know it's possible to get much better results.  That's why I
ordered a 1280 and I'm going to try it.  If I can get it looking good,
then great.  If not, it's off to MIS for some hextones.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com