Digital BW, The Print

I'm hoping someone can give me tips on how to go forward.

Using: Epson C86, UT EZW, and Somerset Enhanced Velvet (supposed to be
optimized for inkjet).

I wanted to try Somerset Enhanced Velvet. It's 100% cotton rag and costs
half as much as Hahnemühle Photo Rag (188 grams) from my supplier.

I bought 2 boxes I was so sure it would work out.

It feels like I'm printing on a sponge (yes, I'm printing on the coated,
"enhanced", side).

The shadows block up to no end.

With 1.8 gamma +/- 0 contrast it still blocks up. If I hold the print up
to a light, creating backlight, I can see the detail I want there. But not
under normal view conditions.

Should I start moving the brightness slider or should I start lowering the
contrast.

This probably insn't a paper specific question but more a question of how
others go forward when trying to nail down a new paper.

It might be cheaper than Hahnemühle, but it's not peanuts (about 1 USD a
sheet). So I'd appreciate hearing about others' methods for arriving at
workable settings.

Thanks in advance,

Daniel Ridings
http://www.dlridings.com/paw2005/1.html (yes, soon to be 2.html)

I'll answer myself (partly):

To match my monitor view the following works:

Media: Matte paper heavyweight
High speed printing: on
Gamma: 1.8
Brightness: +5
Contrast: -10

But I would still be interested in knowing what the various adjustments
really do. Kind of like learning darkroom techniques.

Daniel Ridings

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005, Daniel Ridings wrote:

> I'm hoping someone can give me tips on how to go forward.
>
> Using: Epson C86, UT EZW, and Somerset Enhanced Velvet (supposed to be
> optimized for inkjet).
>
> I wanted to try Somerset Enhanced Velvet. It's 100% cotton rag and costs
> half as much as Hahnemühle Photo Rag (188 grams) from my supplier.
>
> I bought 2 boxes I was so sure it would work out.
>
> It feels like I'm printing on a sponge (yes, I'm printing on the coated,
> "enhanced", side).
>
> The shadows block up to no end.
>
> With 1.8 gamma +/- 0 contrast it still blocks up. If I hold the print up
> to a light, creating backlight, I can see the detail I want there. But not
> under normal view conditions.
>
> Should I start moving the brightness slider or should I start lowering the
> contrast.
>
> This probably insn't a paper specific question but more a question of how
> others go forward when trying to nail down a new paper.
>
> It might be cheaper than Hahnemühle, but it's not peanuts (about 1 USD a
> sheet). So I'd appreciate hearing about others' methods for arriving at
> workable settings.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Daniel Ridings
> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2005/1.html (yes, soon to be 2.html)

I played with Somerset a long time ago, but to my taste, all the
following produce superior results for my quadtone printing with MIS
FS and FSN:
Hawk Mountain Osprey Velvet
Hawk Mountain Osprey Smooth
Arches Infinity
Crane's Museo
Moab Entrada bright white and natural

I highly recommend the Moab papers -- the prints are exceptional and
the paper is quite inexpensive in the States. When you use up the
Somerset, give some of these a try.


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Ridings
<daniel.ridings@e...> wrote:
> I'm hoping someone can give me tips on how to go forward.
> 
> Using: Epson C86, UT EZW, and Somerset Enhanced Velvet (supposed to be
> optimized for inkjet).
> 
> I wanted to try Somerset Enhanced Velvet. It's 100% cotton rag and costs
> half as much as Hahnemühle Photo Rag (188 grams) from my supplier.
> 
> I bought 2 boxes I was so sure it would work out.
> 
> It feels like I'm printing on a sponge (yes, I'm printing on the coated,
> "enhanced", side).
> 
> The shadows block up to no end.
> 
> With 1.8 gamma +/- 0 contrast it still blocks up. If I hold the print up
> to a light, creating backlight, I can see the detail I want there.
But not
> under normal view conditions.
> 
> Should I start moving the brightness slider or should I start
lowering the
> contrast.
> 
> This probably insn't a paper specific question but more a question
of how

> others go forward when trying to nail down a new paper.
> 
> It might be cheaper than Hahnemühle, but it's not peanuts (about 1 USD a
> sheet). So I'd appreciate hearing about others' methods for arriving at
> workable settings.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Daniel Ridings
> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2005/1.html (yes, soon to be 2.html)

> I highly recommend the Moab papers -- the prints are exceptional and
> the paper is quite inexpensive in the States. When you use up the
> Somerset, give some of these a try.

Thanks Phillipe.

For the record ... I printed out 17 prints for a print exchange group I'm
involved with.

Somerset Enhanced Velvet does NOT want to load in a C86. I had to do it
all manually (the loading) and it involved about 5 or 6 unsuccessful tries
for every print. That was something of a pain.

The blacks are not as nice as Permajet Classic Museum, but otherwise, it's
a fair paper. I doubt that I'll be using it much though. The loading
problems with the C86 was just too time consuming and nerve-wracking.

Daniel