Digital BW, The Print

My first time printing on Hahnemuhle White Velvet tonight and I was
very impressed. Until now I looked at my collection of samples of
"fine art" papers and thought what is all that ridiculous texture
going to do to my image. I've been printing on EEM, Kirkland, and
Ilford Pearl up till now. EEM has been looking kind of off with dark
images (my test print's subject is black wet rocks). I can't put my
finger on it but it might just be a contrast problem.

Comparing HWV (with Roark's Eboni Hahnemuhle curve) to EEM (again,
with Roark's EEM Eboni curve) the HWV has deeper blacks and warmer
(almost cream colored), less bright whites. I will probably be sad
tomorrow morning when I see the Dmax shift. The texture of the paper
is still a turn-off for me, though it only is visible in bright white
areas.

On the first two tries I accidentally printed on the wrong side of the
paper; the printable side is slightly sticky feeling.

And finally a few questions:

1. When should I spray this paper with PrintShield? Immediately? After
12 hours? I know it won't do anything for the image but these papers
are notoriously sensitive without protection.

2. What can I do to preserve Dmax or is that a function of the paper
still being wet?

3. What papers have this great Dmax HWV without this crazy texture?

-Pieris

My digital darkroom blog: www.pmb.net/darkroom