Digital BW, The Print

HI!

What's the best way to brighten up a print with the MIS VM-inks and 
the roark-curves? I've scanned loads of pictures without having 
properly calibrated my monitor and they all print out a bit too 
dark. So I want to brighten them up without changing the file. The 
two possible ways I can think of are 1) raising the curve in PS 
after applying the roark-curves, 2) changing something in the 
printer settings, so that only the final print is affected, not the 
file itself. So, what do you think? Which method is best? Are there 
any others (perhaps with Qimage, which I also use)?
Thanks,

Peter

Peter,

This may be an overly simple answer to your question, but if your 
prints are consistently dark, why not just cut the brightness of your 
monitor using your video card control?  I have separate monitor 
settings for B&W and color prints (my video card software allows 
reasonably fine steps up and down) and even without a lot of fine 
tuning, my prints generally come close to what I see on the screen. 
When I want to adjust the brightness of the print, I add an 
adjustment layer just before applying the Roark curves.  

Steve

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "flabes23" 
<peter.bongard@t...> wrote:

> HI!
> 
> What's the best way to brighten up a print with the MIS VM-inks and 
> the roark-curves? I've scanned loads of pictures without having 
> properly calibrated my monitor and they all print out a bit too 
> dark. So I want to brighten them up without changing the file. The 
> two possible ways I can think of are 1) raising the curve in PS 
> after applying the roark-curves, 2) changing something in the 
> printer settings, so that only the final print is affected, not the 
> file itself. So, what do you think? Which method is best? Are there 
> any others (perhaps with Qimage, which I also use)?
> Thanks,
> 
> Peter

>What's the best way to brighten up a print with the MIS VM-inks and
>the roark-curves? I've scanned loads of pictures without having
>properly calibrated my monitor and they all print out a bit too
>dark. So I want to brighten them up without changing the file. The
>two possible ways I can think of are 1) raising the curve in PS
>after applying the roark-curves, 2) changing something in the
>printer settings, so that only the final print is affected, not the
>file itself. So, what do you think? Which method is best? Are there
>any others (perhaps with Qimage, which I also use)?

If your printer driver allows them (which I believe most Epson drivers do),
you could try applying a Transfer Function, which does not affect the image
file but does influence how the printer interprets that file. The Transfer
Function is simply an adjustment curve; look for the selection field in the
Page Setup dialog box. You can create and adjust as many curves as you
like, then save them and Load them for individual images.

-- Nick

NICHOLAS HARTMANN
Technical and scientific translator
(414) 271-4890
nh@...
http://www.nhartmann.com

A couple other alternatives: If you have converted to 8-bit, a 
curves adjustment layer works just fine. I forget if you're better 
of putting it on top of the RGB partitioning curves or under- one 
way affects the function of the RGB curves, the other way does not. 
Another alternative that has some repeatability if you're working in 
16-bit and can't use layers (yet-I can't wait for PS 8.0) is the 
following: open the curves dialogue box, make your adjustment & save 
the curve, but DON'T save the file with the adjustment applied, just 
use it to print, & closed with out saving. When you want to reprint, 
open the curves box again, & load the saved curve. 

Regards,

Steve Karafyllakis

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Nicholas 
Hartmann <POLYGLOT@E...> wrote:
> >What's the best way to brighten up a print with the MIS VM-inks 
and
> >the roark-curves? I've scanned loads of pictures without having
> >properly calibrated my monitor and they all print out a bit too
> >dark. So I want to brighten them up without changing the file. The
> >two possible ways I can think of are 1) raising the curve in PS
> >after applying the roark-curves, 2) changing something in the
> >printer settings, so that only the final print is affected, not 
the
> >file itself. So, what do you think? Which method is best? Are 
there
> >any others (perhaps with Qimage, which I also use)?
> 
> If your printer driver allows them (which I believe most Epson 
drivers do),
> you could try applying a Transfer Function, which does not affect 
the image
> file but does influence how the printer interprets that file. The 
Transfer
> Function is simply an adjustment curve; look for the selection 
field in the
> Page Setup dialog box. You can create and adjust as many curves as 
you

> like, then save them and Load them for individual images.
> 
> -- Nick
> 
> NICHOLAS HARTMANN
> Technical and scientific translator
> (414) 271-4890
> nh@n...
> http://www.nhartmann.com