Digital BW, The Print

hello,
new to the group and curious if anybody of the members has experience
with fm software [http://www.fredmiranda.com] their photoshop
automation tools, especially these two:

- digital b&w pro
- b&w film emulation

since it's just a bunch o presets - are they worth the money?
how advanced are they? the descriptions and sample images don't really
say much to me.

thanks,
Marzenna.

Marzenna,

I have been using the Fred Miranda PS actions (digital B&W Pro) and 
find them useful when using the full inkset in my 2200.  I 
particularly like the gold/burgundy tritone action.  Unfortunately, 
there is still the metamerism problem with the 2200 inkset.  I think 
his sepia actions and custom tweaks are probably a little less 
problematic regarding the metamerism.  I think these actions are a 
good beginning point for someone getting into B&W (I still consider 
myself a beginner by the way).  I occasionally use some of his Canon 
10D actions, although now that I pretty much shoot only RAW, I'm not 
using them as often.  Fred's prices for his actions are a bargain in 
my opinion.  By the way, I've recently switched my focus with B&W to 
the "black only" (BO) workflow as described on Clayton Jones' site.  
I'm finding that the conversion of RGB to B&W using FM's actions can 
still be useful, even with the BO workflow.

Tony Bonanno

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mgolczewska" 
<mgolczewska@y...> wrote:
> hello,
> new to the group and curious if anybody of the members has 
experience
> with fm software [http://www.fredmiranda.com] their photoshop
> automation tools, especially these two:
> 
> - digital b&w pro
> - b&w film emulation
> 
> since it's just a bunch o presets - are they worth the money?
> how advanced are they? the descriptions and sample images don't 
really

> say much to me.
> 
> thanks,
> Marzenna.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "tbonanno2004" 
<tony@y...> wrote:
> Marzenna,
> 
> I have been using the Fred Miranda PS actions (digital B&W Pro) 
and 
> find them useful when using the full inkset in my 2200.  I 
> particularly like the gold/burgundy tritone action.  
Unfortunately, 
> there is still the metamerism problem with the 2200 inkset.  I 
think 
> his sepia actions and custom tweaks are probably a little less 
> problematic regarding the metamerism.

I'll respectfully submit this is probably wishful thinking, rather 
than something inherent about Fred's B&W action. 

The metamerism results from the wildly nonlinear nature of the 
Ultrachrome inks and the combination of CcMmYKk the Epson driver 
selects.

ImagePrint RIP virtually eliminates metamerism with B&W images by 
avoiding combinations of CcMmYKk that are likely to metamerize. With 
color images, it uses different profiles for daylight, tungsten, and 
fluorescent because there just is no way to eliminate the metamerism 
entirely.

You'd need something more sophisticated than an action to pull off 
what ImagePrint accomplishes, since it's the choices by the Epson 
driver that are a large part of the problem, and you're still using 
the Epson driver with Fred's action.

You probably notice less metamerism with duotones and tritones 
because those specific combinations of ink may be less likely to 
metamerize.

Metamerism is not a constant for every image. Its effects can easily 
vary from one image to the next, because the combinations of ink 
selected by the driver to represent various colors and grayscale 
shades vary considrably.

Cheers,

Mitch

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Glenn 
Mitchell" <gmitchel850@y...> wrote:

HI Mitch,

I'm new to this group and learning a lot.  Thanks for the feedback 
on my post regarding the FM actions and my frustration with the 
metamerism.  I didn't mean to imply that Fred's actions addressed 
the problem, only that some of his toned pre-sets appear to mask it 
to a degree and it appeared less problematic to me.  Anyway, it was 
the metamerism problem that caused me to go to BO printing for 
now... at least until I can afford a RIP or something else comes 
along to minimize it.

Regards,

Tony Bonanno
Santa Fe, NM

> I'll respectfully submit this is probably wishful thinking, rather 
> than something inherent about Fred's B&W action. 
> 
> The metamerism results from the wildly nonlinear nature of the 
> Ultrachrome inks and the combination of CcMmYKk the Epson driver 
> selects.
> 
> ImagePrint RIP virtually eliminates metamerism with B&W images by 
> avoiding combinations of CcMmYKk that are likely to metamerize. 
With 
> color images, it uses different profiles for daylight, tungsten, 
and 
> fluorescent because there just is no way to eliminate the 
metamerism 
> entirely.
> 
> You'd need something more sophisticated than an action to pull off 
> what ImagePrint accomplishes, since it's the choices by the Epson 
> driver that are a large part of the problem, and you're still 
using 
> the Epson driver with Fred's action.
> 
> You probably notice less metamerism with duotones and tritones 
> because those specific combinations of ink may be less likely to 
> metamerize.
> 
> Metamerism is not a constant for every image. Its effects can 
easily 

> vary from one image to the next, because the combinations of ink 
> selected by the driver to represent various colors and grayscale 
> shades vary considrably.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mitch

i just got the new UT2 (easy) for 1280, and it is giving really good 
prints, i had some trouble with UT applying curves etc. didnt like it 
so much...  but UT2 is great, gives very beautiful prints - and really 
is easy!

although, I also like the BO prints that i've been doing with ebony...

just a word of thanx to those who developed these great products...