Anyone try Kodak's Digital B&W paper

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Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

No biggie - I'm actually looking to replace my existing wet darkroom
with a digital process. I plan on scanning my B&W 6x7 negs using a film
scanner and then do all the usual darkroom machinations with photoshop
- I needed a way to get 8x10 up to 20x24 B&W output that I am happy
with. I' am wondering though, how I am going to calibrate my system to
their printer so the grey's I see are the greys I will get. I will
probably have color orders, but right now my local lab with their
really nice Noritsu printer already scans my 35mm film and prints them
- I can always shuttle files over to them.

Thanks
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On 5 Jan 2005 12:48:27 -0800, "Josh" <jayelwin@gmail.com> wrote:

>Supposed to be a real silver based B&W paper exposed in a digital
>printer that uses regular C paper. Anyone have any opinions?
>
>-Josh
>
>http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/papers/digitalBW/digitalIIIBWPaper.jhtml

Set up an www.mpix.com account and order their free media sample pack,
one of the sample prints is on this paper. I wasn't blown away
compared to the other two pro papers that mpix use (both color), but
this way you can make your own opinion.

--
Owamanga!
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On 5 Jan 2005 13:45:09 -0800, "Josh" <jayelwin@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thanks! Did they give you any B&W examples on their pro color paper?
>-Josh

No, their point wasn't to compare black and white prints on various
media, they are just demonstrating the media as it is normally used,
color prints on the color paper, B&W print on the B&W paper.

The metallic paper is amazing for certain shots (lush vegetation and
blue-sky landscapes for example). And I've done some B&W on that stuff
too, looks cool (different, but cool).

Downside with MPIX is that your entire order has to be on the same
media, and each order has a shipping charge associated with it. If you
wanted to do a single-shot 8x10 B&W comparison between the three
papers it'd cost you about $22. $15 of which is shipping because there
would have to be 3 orders.

--
Owamanga!
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On 5 Jan 2005 14:19:07 -0800, "Josh" <jayelwin@gmail.com> wrote:

>No biggie - I'm actually looking to replace my existing wet darkroom
>with a digital process. I plan on scanning my B&W 6x7 negs using a film
>scanner and then do all the usual darkroom machinations with photoshop
>- I needed a way to get 8x10 up to 20x24 B&W output that I am happy
>with. I' am wondering though, how I am going to calibrate my system to
>their printer so the grey's I see are the greys I will get. I will
>probably have color orders, but right now my local lab with their
>really nice Noritsu printer already scans my 35mm film and prints them
>- I can always shuttle files over to them.
>
>Thanks

I would have thought B&W calibration would be an order of magnitude
simpler than color calibration. Do similar tests you would in your wet
darkroom - strip tests and comparison prints, send off for printing,
wait a few days and keep these for reference. Comparing the on screen
image with the print (when it arrives) will give you a good start to
get your gamma, brightness etc set up to match. I guess the right way
would be to create (somehow) a profile that can be used in Photoshop's
proof setup, so you can get PS to simulate how it would look on that
paper. It's not something I've messed about with too much though.

I always send a couple of strip-test prints to any new 3rd-party
printer to see what works best on their setup. One for unsharp mask
strength and one for color saturation.

I may not have been clear in my earlier posts, but the mpix media
sample prints are the same image printed on 3 different papers, one of
them being the digital B&W.

--
Owamanga!
 
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