Digital BW, The Print

I've been using Roy Harrington's QTR for about a week and a half now
with reasonable success mostly experimenting with Epson Enhanced
paper.I think I have a good understanding of the basic operation
including the basic settings with the QTRgui,Ink limit adjustment,
gamma adjustment, etc. I've read the QTRgui "Help" info and it's
easy to understand and straightforward.

But earlier this evening I felt adventurous and started reading
Tom Moore's tutorial on 'Creating Custom Curves' and that was the
beginning of the end of my comprehension. It seems I'm having a real
problem grasping the concept and understanding of the technical
aspects (terminology like descriptor files, linearizations,
densitometers, quadprofiles, etc are confusing the heck out of me).

So now I have two questions:

1) Is the 'custom curves' application really necessary for optimal
results with the QTR? It seems that just about everybody on this
forum has adopted the practice so there must be something to it.

2) Does anyone know where I can find a more simplistic tutorial on
this topic....a Creating Custom Curves for Dummies explanation?

I want to continue to learn more about QTR and upgrade my skills for
producing better quality digital black and white.


Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Steve,

Do you "need" to do curve creation? No.  Not if you  are satisfied 
with your results.   The main reasons for using it is to create 
profiles customized to your printer, ink and paper combinations.  If 
you are using a setup for which profiles already exist, you may see 
only limited improvement making your own.  It will depend on your 
printer.  My printer prints very well with the "canned" profiles.  
This is basaed on densitometer readings compared to the "ideal" 
densities listed in Tom Moore's tutorial.  Where the curve creator 
may be most useful is for papers or inks that profiles don't exist 
for.

With that said, the process of creating curves reads worse than it 
is.  Instead of reading the tutorial, start doing it step by step.  
Follow the directions carefully.  Do be aware you need a scanner, or 
densitometer of spectro.  

Hope this helps.

Peter

I don't use a scanner, since I don't shoot film, only a digital 
camera.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "zonepeter" 
<zonepeter@a...> wrote:
> 
> Steve,
> 
> Do you "need" to do curve creation? No.  Not if you  are satisfied 
> with your results.   The main reasons for using it is to create 
> profiles customized to your printer, ink and paper combinations.  
If 
> you are using a setup for which profiles already exist, you may 
see 
> only limited improvement making your own.  It will depend on your 
> printer.  My printer prints very well with the "canned" profiles.  
> This is basaed on densitometer readings compared to the "ideal" 
> densities listed in Tom Moore's tutorial.  Where the curve creator 
> may be most useful is for papers or inks that profiles don't exist 
> for.
> 
> With that said, the process of creating curves reads worse than it 
> is.  Instead of reading the tutorial, start doing it step by 
step.  
> Follow the directions carefully.  Do be aware you need a scanner, 
or 

> densitometer of spectro.  
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Peter

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "SteveZ"
<blizzie12@y...> wrote:
> 
> I don't use a scanner, since I don't shoot film, only a digital 
> camera.

The "scanner" he referred to is actually just an ordinary,
garden-variety flatbed scanner, and nothing to do with whether or not
you "shoot film". A scanner is the minimum equipment (better yet would
be a densitometer) needed for creating custom curves.

Phil