Digital BW, The Print

Having now scanned the net for some overwhelmingly beautiful florals, I
think that what I am after is to be achieved with a focal range that allows
sharp focus of everything within a six to nine inch depth of field as
opposed to macro, with the lens stop set for minimal grain and maximum
clarity, and the ISO set to as low as possible on my EOS 1DS in a TIFF mode
of the largest possible file size while using spot metering and exposing for
the highlights.

 I have studied over several approaches to selenium and other toning methods
obtainable through Photoshop, but would appreciate hearing from those who
have actually successfully done this sort of work to use digital processing
and digital printing to achieve as close to the old style selenium and/or
silver toning as possible both in terms of "best practice" Photoshop
techniques as well as best paper selections.

 My goal is to achieve as full and rich a palette of whites, grays, and
blacks as possible, virtually zero grain, and the soft yet incredibly rich
gradations of shades possible where the light and contrasts combined with
composition create a natural still life effect. How does one describe such,
almost a dreamlike mood of natural beauty without all the "WOW" that
Photoshop books push.

Clarence W. Walker,   
Creative Expression Photography
http://www.creativeexpressiononline.com
Commercial, fine-art, and stock 
FineArtPhoto/Yahoo

"Clarence Walker"  wrote:
> ... the ISO set to as low as possible on my EOS 1DS in a TIFF mode
> of the largest possible file size while using spot metering and exposing for
> the highlights.

Tiff? You are shooting Raw for better resolution and highlight rendering....correct?

Check the archives, this is what this group talks about all the time.  
Too much info to repeat.
Mark

On Feb 5, 2006, at 2:52 PM, Clarence Walker wrote:

> I have studied over several approaches to selenium and other toning  
> methods
> obtainable through Photoshop, but would appreciate hearing from  
> those who
> have actually successfully done this sort of work to use digital  
> processing
> and digital printing to achieve as close to the old style selenium  
> and/or
> silver toning as possible both in terms of "best practice" Photoshop
> techniques as well as best paper selections.

The color of selenium toned prints is somewhat easier to achieve with
digital printing than is the density. I think this is particularly the
case with prints on the cotton rag papers because those papers, as
yet, are not able to reflect a really deep black.Although they are
certainly getting better.  With the new line of  Epson printers (2400,
4800, etc) using the K3 inks, including Photo Black, you can achieve
greater density on the semi-matte papers (like the satin or pearl
finish of darkroom prints). I have not experimented much with papers
other than Epson Premium Semi Matte, which is capable of producing
prints that have the tone a density of my darkroom prints on Agfa
Classic, a fiber paper with a warmish tone.

In a message dated 2/5/06 3:05:36 PM, creative-expression@... 
writes:


> Having now scanned the net for some overwhelmingly beautiful florals, I
> think that what I am after is to be achieved with a focal range that allows
> sharp focus of everything within a six to nine inch depth of field as
> opposed to macro, with the lens stop set for minimal grain and maximum
> clarity, and the ISO set to as low as possible on my EOS 1DS in a TIFF mode
> of the largest possible file size while using spot metering and exposing for
> the highlights.
> 

That all sounds good, but you should be shooting in RAW mode... though you'll 
still need to avoid blown highlights.

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision, Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

If you want the density of selenium-toned FB paper (2.2 to 2.3, maybe
2.4 according to some reports), and a little bit more, you could use
glossy paper or the soon-to-be-released Crane Museo Silver Rag (2.4 to
2.5) and the K3 inks or similar.

Best,
Helen 

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "rgoldman2"
<rgoldman@...> wrote:

>
>  The color of selenium toned prints is somewhat easier to achieve with
> digital printing than is the density. I think this is particularly the
> case with prints on the cotton rag papers because those papers, as
> yet, are not able to reflect a really deep black.
>...

There is the set of actions at 
http://www.mountphotography.com/actions.htm that offer a range of 
toned 
BW effects.