Digital BW, The Print

Joost-
 
 I'd add to Tyler's comments that the illusive "three dimensional quality" idea is closely related to the internal tonal structure of an image. This has always been true, from the earliest photographic printing processes to inkjet printing. Wet darkroom printers often refer to this as the "internal contrast" of a print; the local contrast rather than the overall contrast. Internal contrast helps separate close values and, in my experience, this is a major contributor to that dimensional quality.
 
 This actually easier to do in Photoshop than it ever was with wet darkroom practices. I'd caution, though, that achieving this quality with inkjet prints requires either luck or a very accurate print profile used with a calibrated machine.
 
 When you add hue, or subtle shifts in color, in a monochrome image you get an accumulative effect. The color is perceived as part of the internal contrast of the image. Lastly, this sense of internal contrast is affected by any number of issues: the grain structure of the image, sharpness (optical and printing), and the size of the print.
 
 Bill Kennedy
 K2 Press
 Author of "The Photographer's Guide to the Digital Darkroom"
    
 -----Original Message-----
 From: tyler@...
 To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:29 PM
 Subject: [Digital BW] Re: How to get this "3 dimensional quality"?
 
     Joost, first of all I should restate that, "one of the things" instead
 of "the one thing".
 There are no guidelines I can arrive at for this, you simply have to
 play. I've heard the "warm forward cool receding" thing before, and
 think it's valid sometimes, other times not so much. I see warm as
 more opaque than cool sometimes, not always. It's just a matter of
 what brings the image alive on paper, hopefully.
 I use these blends all kinds of ways, and despite using very similar
 settings more often than not, I wind up trying several for each image
 as I'm doing test prints anyway toward a final. I'm often suprised at
 the conclusion and would not have been able to predict without seeing
 it on paper, even with previews showing hue.
 To start with though, your idea is valid and well worth trying, it's
 similar to one I've used a lot.
 Tyler
 
 --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "horstenj"
 <j.h.j.h@...> wrote:
 >
 > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Tyler Boley" 
 > <tyler@> wrote:
 > 
 > > In my opinion the one thing that contributes to a 3 dimensional 
 > > quality in monochrome is to work with subtle hue shifts throughout 
 > the scale, Many 
 > > analogue methods have this as well, it has a long tradition. 
 > 
 > Hi Tyler,
 > 
 > I really appreciate your original post and all the valuable 
 > reactions it has evoked. What sticks out for me is the point you 
 > raise above. Can you elaborate on this? I'm phantasizing about 
 > cooler/bluer tones that tend to receed and warmer/redder tones that 
 > tend to come forward. I'm currently setting up a set of QTR curves 
 > for the UT3D inkset, including some split tone curves, and I'd love 
 > to experiment in this direction. Would a curve with cool shadows and 
 > carbon or selenium highlights do the "trick"? Or is it way more 
 > subtle than that?
 > 
 > Kind regards,
 > 
 > Joost
 >
 
      
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