Digital BW, The Print

I'm not sure why ya'll would think that all the unaltered output
should look the same. Those of you who were using Studio Print
benefited in the unaltered state by using a Studio Print tagged grey
workspace designed for quad PiezoTone output. I was using K6 Piezo out
of QTR designed for specific custom curves and matte qtr profile, and
my unaltered version (I didn't cheat and apply my curve) was
noticeably darker, though of full scale tonally. 

Fact is any "workspace" that Amadou had tagged the file with was going
to show variation on many of the different machines,inks, and rips.
Personally I was amazed that they were as close as they were. 

My observations were that the K6/K7 prints produced pretty much the
same tonality, resolution, dmax, regardless of the type of Epson
printer used. I didn't know that would be the case. If one was output
on a 9600 with 2880 and the other was output on a 2200 or a 7000 with
1440x720 it didn't matter on Photo Rag.You couldn't tell.

When it came to the "edited" prints, the ones we were free to dodge an
d burn, do selective work on, etc. then you saw some difference but we
were all pretty conservative about interpretation. But the difficulty
was saying which was best - the lighter ones, the smoother ones, the
more contrasy ones, etc.. it's all subjective.

For me my K6 looked a lot like the other K6 and K7 prints. The two
guys who stood out to me, the ones that I would want to pick up and
take home would be Tyler Boley from Seattle (all three of his
iterations) and Walter Blackwell from Chicago. They were both Cone
quad prints run out of Studio Print. But the difference was in the
printer's skill, not the technology itself.

Thanks so much Amadou. It was great and the restaurant was great. I
wish I could have talked to everyone. Next time we need a whole day,
with people giving slide shows of what they do personally and
professionally with photography.

Fact is, the technology is so good now (Finally!) that we can
concentrate on being expressive and not so hung up on the materials.
They're all good. It's all good.

Thanks for dinner David. After spending money all over NY we
appreciated it! I'm sore from all the walking and I still missed the
Walker Evans show.

John





 I naturally assumed that all 
> these prints would end up looking pretty similar.
>