Digital BW, The Print

With a full resolution fine Jepeg file from my Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 8+  
megapixel camera and a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens, I think I have made one of  
the smoothest, detailed, grainless looking fine prints  of a landscape I have 
ever made on any format, including 4x5. the image was  handheld at a fast 
shutter speed at a "sweetspot" aperture on the lens. I have  not shot film in almost 
6 years since I got the original Foveon. 
 
I gave it a bit of a "Tri-X curve midtone sag" and  printed with just a 
"kiss" of USM in Photoshop CS (0.6 pixels, 250%,  threshold of 3) and upsampled to 
a 10x15" size at 360 PPI. Subject,  vertical view (land left, water right, 
beach in the middle, people far away on  beach.........Rockaway beach in Pacifica 
CA. Everyone that has seen it has been  blown away by the quality.
 
It has a fine arial perspective (haze and fog building towards infinity),  
sidelit by sun, and rocks/land in shadows with edges casto on sand. It has micro 
 fine detail and is totally dotless and grainless, with a natural warm tone 
of  Epson Photo Black only. Pixel values range from 1 to 99%K right out of the  
camera. It is a perfect exposure of a perfect scene, although not a 
spectacular  landscape image, with respect to the work of Paul Roark, Jerry Olson, 
etc.it  does have all the qualities that my chemically dependent peers try to ac
hieve in  darkness, including the look and feel of fiber/RC hybrid paper (if 
there were  such a thing) after 2 light coats of McDonald Lustre Lacquer to get 
rid of the  slight bronzing.
 
It's nice to have so many choices and I will still pursue the latest  
MIS/Roark/UT-FSN solution for a more neutral look with other printers on matte  
papers, but so far, this is an amazingly EASY process for anyone with a brand  new 
4000 and Semi Matte paper to play with.
 
Claude Jodoin


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Sounds great.  Can we see it?

Richard