Re: Fade to green in grayscale prints with color inks

[Richard Wohlfeiler <rawohlfe@cats.ucsc.edu>]

Jerry,

I first noticed the greenish (sometimes bluish) cast when printing on
off-white printmaking papers (Rives Heavyweight, Archival Poster, and
Basingwerk). In these cases the color of the paper in effect reduced the
saturation and skewed the overall color toward the green. This isn't to say
that everything looked really GREEN, which might be what you're
experiencing. It was more a cooler overall tonal range than what I wanted.
Augmenting the magenta by +5 to +10 in the epson dialog box would usually
give the image the overall warmth I expected. It seems to me that the
middle tones carry much of the greenish tint in overall image, so the
amount of compensation tends to be affected by the balance of middle tone
areas to darks and lights, according to my subjective perception. I didn't
want the image to look RED, which would sometimes happen if I tried to
compensate in Photoshop. I'm happy enough if the epson driver adjustments
do the job. I seem to be able to trust my monitor, even though it's
calibrated only with Adobe Gamma, when I print on Epson paper, which seems
like a reasonable standard. So what I need to factor in is the varying
effects of the different papers. I also print the same image on different
papers in order to get different results; the paper contributes
significantly to the quality and feel of the image, it's not just a neutral
substrate. When I print on printmaking papers, I don't expect the same
brilliancy and saturation that I can get on the photo glossy papers. In one
case the image evokes associations with photography, in the other with
traditional printmaking and gravure effects. This gives another element to
work with that I find interesting.

I think the exact amount of compensation will be determined by the nature
of each image. The range +5 to +10 magenta in the epson dialog box
generally seems to work for me, although one image only required +2. I
would hesitate to remove the subjective dimension entirely. In addition,
I've found that a very slight greenish cast overall (but not GREEN) works
well for subjects outdoors in certain lighting conditions, expecially
half-shadows with lots of reflected light. For other kinds of light I want
to see everything warmer. These kinds of judgments will affect the amount
of compensation.

Richard Wohlfeiler


>Richard, how much compensation do you make for the shift in color when
>printing a black and white image? DO you do it in photoshop or in the
>epson dialogue box? The green shift is extremely unattractive.
>
>Jerry


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