Ilford Gold Fibre Silk + B&W + Epson 2400

[robert_ades1]

<p>Simple question here: I use Lightroom 2.0 (Windows) and I've downloaded and installed Ilford's profile for this printer/paper combination. Color prints work fine. Monitor is calibrated.<br>

For B&W work, do I forgo Epson's ABM (Advanced Black and While Management) and let Lightroom do the color management, or do I switch it off, and use ABM?<br>

Which yields to most consistent, accurate results?<br>

Thank you,<br>

Robert ADes</p>

 

[jimsimmons]

<p>For most papers, Robert, I use custom profiles I have made for that paper. Occassioally one of the profiles available online will suffice for colour, but for dead-neutral B&W, I prefer a custom profile. (I use the R2400 with MIS inks, and I get the same colour from the MIS inks that I do from the Epson inks.) Usually for matte papers, I can use a profile I've had made for another matte paper. For the Epson Traditional/Exhibition Fibre, there's a great profile availabe on the web (pixelgenius.com). The semi-gloss profile I'd have made for Innova semi-matte did not work on the Ilford Gold Fibre (image had a very green tint), so I had a custom profile made, and now prints are excellent. I spent a bit of time using the ABW mode when I first got my 2400, but a custom profile gives me a much more accurate match to what's on my monitor. My ABW prints tended to block up in the shadows, and I had no patience with the trial and error of making all those adjustments in the ABW dialogue window, hoping I'd find a setting that would match my screen. Waste of time, paper, and ink. My profiles cost me NZ$90 (about US$50), and I figure I easy save that much in wasted resources.<br>

All that discourse aside, I'd simply make a B&W print using the Ilford colour profile, and if the print matches your monitor, you're home free. If it does not, then a better profile would be in order. Or lots of playing around wiht ABM.</p>

[tonysvision]

<p>Jim, what is the source of your custom profiles?</p>

[jimsimmons]

<p>I live in Wellington New Zealand, where a woman with many years experience in the printing industry, Linda Holman, has a company called Colour Managment Limited. She services photographers, labs, and print shops throughout the country and really knows her stuff, also offering the kind of friendly personal service that kiwis are famous for. Shipping from other countries to NZ has gotten pretty expensive lately, but the only mail fee would be sending Linda the printouts of the profile target.<br>

Linda's website is http://web.me.com/thecolourlady/CM_Site/Welcome.html<br>

I've actually met Linda, only worked with her via her website and email.<br>

cheers,<br>

Jim</p>

 

[robert_ades1]

<p>Jim, I already know about custom profiles and have used them with great success when necessary.<br>

My question pertains to ABM, and whether it will render better results when printing on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, than using the profile provided by Ilford.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>turn it off and use ABW instead.</p>

[robert_ades1]

<p>Patrick, would you elaborate on your experience using this method? </p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>theres not much to elaborate;</p>

<p>from Lr, you let the printer managed the color, then select Avanced BW mode later in the epson driver..the only thing i would say is to put 3 and 3 in the little white box beside the color wheel in the advanced bw mode..thats it.</p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>I use Gold Fibre a lot for both B&W and color. I've found the profile Ilford provides on their website to be excellent for color. I use the ABW mode for B&W and found that it works very well (Epson 2880). I've tested the linearity using a 21 grey step target and it's quite good. If you want to get a profile for the ABW driver, <a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/">Eric Chan </a>offers a very reasonably priced service to do one for you. He has a lot of free ABW profiles on his site for the 3800 printer. I have found that the ABW gives you a black with a greater density than does the traditional driver and that it's linearity is better.</p>

[robert_ades1]

<p>Alan, I checked out Eric's website. Do you think a profile written for the 3800 will work on a 2400? </p>

[howard_m]

<p>probably not as well as you'd want.</p>

<p>He also can custom make a profile for you and your printer. email him and inquire.</p>

[michael_bradtke]

<p>I have to agree with Patrick<br>

I use the Gold Fiber Silk almost exclusively. I do all of my adjustments in Photoshop. When I print I go into the ABW and add 3 and 3 in the little boxes</p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>Robert, the profiles are specific to the 3800. I already tried to see if they would work on my 2880 and the linearity is way off. I'm having Eric make some profiles for the six papers that I commonly use. Eric also confirmed what I found through my experimentation, that the ABW gives you a much deeper black than the regular driver. For Gold Fibre Silk, I get a Dmax of about 2.3 with the ABW driver versus about 2.13 for the regular driver. I also found that the ABW driver works quite well and I'm trying to tweak it a little more with Eric's profile.</p>