| Author | Message | ||
     Graham Telfer Unregistered guest |
Hi A lot of time and probably money is spent trying to get rid of annoying color casts in black and wite printing. Every type of change in viewing light, a change in paper or ink seems to tweak your perfect settings into producing a color cast. I find that this method works reasonably well in getting a good grey balance. Make sure the black and white image is a `color image' so far as PWP is concerned. After doing whatever editing you need save and make a print on your target paper. Print using all the colors at the best settings you can manage. Let the print dry for half an hour before the next step. Now scan the print back into PWP as a color image. Save it of course! Next go to the Filter Transform and using the print as the input image select a solid color for a filter. Tick the `complement' box. Use the probe to sample areas of the image that you really want to be properly printed. I often go for faces or the things I know should be white. PWP will apply the filter and you can see the effect on the Preview. At 100% there should be a considerable color cast of the complement filter, and so move the slider down to 50%. Now increase the exposure factor to about 1.5 and press `Apply'. Save the resulting image as Test 1. Repeat the procedure for 12%, 25%, and 75%. You can keep the exposure setting at 1.5. You should now have four images + the original. Using the Layout transform set up a grid layout for the test prints. Put them on the layout and label each one. Now print the layout using the same paper and prionter settings. After the print has dried evaluate the test under the usual lighting conditions you use. One of the test prints will be fairly nuetral. After that it's a matter of tweaking the filter settings and repeating the test until you have a perfect print. Good grey hunting! |
