Digital BW, The Print

Well. That's good to know that VFA works well with ABW (with ? printer using ? LUTs). My own samples tests on the paper with ABW look pretty good as well.

I guess my main thing is, if the BW process is limiting your paper choices why invest all of your time into it. I would never use an enlarger I could only print onto one or two kinds of silver paper with.

I would suggest (to all you who are using ABW but struggling with shifting under different light sources) setting up both ABW and QTR and seeing the differences between to the two on the same printer. This way you know for sure you're getting everything you can out of the machine. Both have differing characteristics. But it's those difference qualities that can really further the art.

Just my two cents,
Walker



On Apr 9, 2010, at 2:30 AM, ClaytonJ wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello Walker,
> 
> Interesting post, thanks. I enjoyed reading through the list of systems you've used - you certainly have a lot of perseverance. 
> 
> I have some comments about ABW metamerism. It's an important subject and wasn't mentioned in the other threads. I've used a 2400 approaching five years now (will be 5 in August), and during that time I've tested lots of different papers for my "Paper Chase" review page.  It was a unique opportunity to see how the inks react on a wide variety of papers.
> 
> I've found that some papers take K3 inks beautifully, where it's easy to find tone settings that look great and exhibit little or no metamerism (I test under 5 different light sources here: real daylight, full spectrum flourescents, pure incandescent, mixed incandescent + 5000k compact fluorescent, and a pure 6500k compact fluorescent).
> 
> There have been other papers with which I never could get a satisfactory result. The most notable example was HPR. It was a favorite when I used Eboni based inks - the best Dmax and beautiful tones. Naturally when I got the 2400 it was one of the first I tried. It was an exercise in frustration and I spent an ungodly amount of time, ink and paper trying unsuccessfully to make it work. I never could find a setting that didn't look colorized (some hint of green or pink) and metamerism up the wazoo. In addition, the Dmax wasn't near as good as with Eboni. For whatever reason, HPR and K3 are not a good match (I've often wondered if people who didn't like ABW were trying to use their favorite HPR with it and gave up on it).
> 
> At the other end, I discovered that VFA, which with Eboni had good but not great Dmax and just ok general appearance, became with K3 the highest Dmax paper of them all and has really beautiful tones and a wonderful glow. Just gorgeous prints. With my favorite nearly neutral, slightly warm tone it exhibits little or no metamerism. 
> 
> Other papers had various degrees of the above characteristics. Some worked easily and some were difficult. The point is that the ABW system is persnickity and different degrees of metamerism can appear among different papers. However, with some effort and careful paper selection really fine results can be produced. 
> 
> Your report is the first time I heard that one printer model may produce different metamerism than another. I'm just wondering if the paper and settings used may have been the difference, rather than the prnter model. What do you think?
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at 
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
> I-Trak 2.1 http://www.cjcom.net/itrak.htm
> 
> 

Walker Blackwell
802.821.4451
www.walkerblackwell.com
aim: greendirtblues
wblackwell@...



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