LTR4 and QTR

<p>Hello,<br>

what are the proper step to print in B&W from Lightroom 4 using QTR. Is it thru using printer manages and then in the printer dialog choosing the proper profile or by choosing QTR_RGB... and then the profile of the paper.<br>

I have also try using Epson ABW on my 3800 which is good but i'm looking for the best way of printing B&W.<br>

I tried printing with Eric Chan's profiles earlier but since i upgraded to snow leopard on my iMac, i cannot use its profiles anymore... Is it easier with PS5?<br>

Regards!</p>

<p>the best way?.. you have all you got when you take the epson 3800 out of the box!</p>

<p>1_in Lr4, make sure you let the printer determine color (yes no profile)</p>

<p>2_in the epson driver, select Advanced BW</p>

<p>3_in the setting (where you see neutral, cold, warm...) select custom or similar.. or maybe advanced? i dont have my mac in front of me.. and let it at DARKER, and beside the color wheel put 3 and 3 in the empty box. That make the BW more neutral (for me) as i find the epson one being a bit too cold for my taste at least.</p>

<p>Any kind of inkjet paper should work, i have made numerous test.</p>

<p>I use to also remove a bit of density on the overall print, in the quick develop panel, beside brigtness, click once the double arrow.. in Lr 4 you can now adjust this setting directly in the print menu but i didtn try it yet.</p>

<p>What that does is open a bit the shadow and the midtone, making the print a little more detailed.</p>

<p>Sure you can use QTR, but i seriously dont see any point of doing it if you use epson paper or any major paper brand that are make for inkjet. Amazing result with 1-2-3 or amazing result with teat and a extra software that you dont need.</p>

<p>I have choose long time ago the way of simplicity, and the way that produce amazing museum / gallery / print that sale.. life is too short for never ending test, that in the end produce similar result than the simple way ; )</p>

<p>Thanks Patrick!</p>

<p>I'm aware of your method and point of view and i'll try your brightness step. Unfortunately, i don't print in B&W often and the last time i was using Eric Chan's profiles but since i updated to 10.6 to be able to use LR4, i had some bugs and i decide to try others alternatives so i can use the same process and stick with it.<br>

As i've read, i can't use his profiles anymore since something has change in the last update but do you know if i will still be able if i install the previous Epson driver? What was the main advantage to use them?<br>

So far, i'm happy with ABW compare to QTR but i'll like to understand why my QTR prints lack contrast compare to ABW and i have tried different way. Do you know what is the difference between printing a file straight from LR and one going thru Silver Efx Pro, does it have the same gamma?</p>

<p>just to make sure.. are you doing your own BW first, then print it.. or you send a color image thru your ABW and get a BW print?</p>

<p>Hopefully you are doing the first thing, meaning that you do your own BW with dodge and burn, and then you send this result BW image to be print in BW thru whatever method you want..</p>

<p>from what you say it seem you let the driver do your BW rendition.</p>

<p><em>Do you know what is the difference between printing a file straight from LR and one going thru Silver Efx Pro, does it have the same gamma?</em><br>

<em><br /></em><br>

whatever method you use to do your bw conversion, i always get the same good result, from CS5 or Lr4 using ABW<em><br /></em></p>

<p>><br>

Sure you can use QTR, but i seriously dont see any point of doing it if you use epson paper or any major paper brand that are make for inkjet.<br>

><br>

Sorry Patrick I have to disagree. Making BW prints with ABW is pretty easy but not at all superior in everyway as compared to the final output of QTR. You should learn to use QTR to understand the difference.<br>

<br /></p>

i have use it for years with my 2200 and it was the only way to get amazing neutral print... then the 2400 came out and

didtn see the use of it anymore. a friend of mine still use it to produce is print and when whe compare print they are very

similar.. so again, visually if thing look the same and 1 method is definatly more simple i have other thing to do vs trying to

make it look the same with a more comlex tool.

for years this discusion remain, all i say is you can produce stunning print with only the ABW if you know how to properly

work your file first in Ps or Lr... the rest is and should be a easy exercise.

what do you find superior Don about using QTRvs ABW? more open shadow? better transition? deeper black?

<p>Patrick,<br>

i'm making my own B&W thru LR4 or LR w/Silver Efx then i print but but since i can choose the profile in Silver Efx, it is better to use AdobeRGB instaed of sRGB that is preset in SIlver Efx when i open it from LR? What is the profile use by the B&W, is it still proPhoto which is linear or Adobe RGB, sRGB?<br>

Bryant,<br>

if you are using QTr what is your worflow?</p>

<p>><br>

what do you find superior Don about using QTRvs ABW? more open shadow? better transition? deeper black?<br>

><br>

In a nutshell Patrick ink control. <br>

The ability to produce split tone prints and use an abundance of different papers, all of which have been custom profiled. Generally speaking, I prefer non-Epson papers and QTR provides the flexibility to create custom curves and custom ICC profiles.<br>

<br /><br>

I use QTRGui which is a superior interface to Epson's ABW black box.<br>

<br /><br>

I would encourage to participate in the QTR Yahoo group to learn about QTR.<br>

> Leclerc<br>

I use LR to convert to B&W and I also use Silver Efx Pro, as well as print tif files scanned from film but most of my work these days is digitally based. But if you are starting with a color image make the image look as good as possible in color before converting to B&W. I edit in LR first, converting to B&W there. Then I may edit in PS as the need arises. After the round trip back to LR I will save the image file to TIF and then start QTRGui (I'm Windows based) to print the file. I do all print sharpening in LR and or PS. <br>

I do as much editing as possible in LR but PS has some niffty features and tools which can come in handy such as the Sharpen Tool and Context Aware Fill and so forth, along with layer masking, etc.</p>