I am a black and white photographer, looking for advice on constructing/editing BW printing profiles. I have tried standard profiling software, including Xrite PM5 (I can make great color profiles), and Quadtone Rip BW profile making tools (not their inks). My best results are by printing a 256 value stepwedge (Epson 3800 ABW mode, which already produces a very good BW print), measuring using an EYE-1 pro and Colorport, creating and linearising a target using a Photoshop curve (which I then re-use). This already produces a spectacular improvement in the impact and subtlety of my prints. But it is very fiddly, there are only 16 points on a photoshop curve, and there are severe constraints on placing points. My impression is that either a devicelink or colocast profile might be the way to go; or advice on profile editing software. Any advice would be VERY gratefully received. I note the previous post; I think the question is different. Peter
Hi Peter,
Device link profiles can be created by linking any number of profiles in a workflow into one DL profile. Theoretically, you could insert an abstract profile that makes the correction you need, and have that all tied into the DL. Whether you do it in a DL or a regular output (printer) profile, the problem here is that there are very few ways to edit profiles today. I dont know of any ways to make custom abstract profiles either. ColorCast will take the effect of one profile and embed it into another, but again, no way to make subtle changes. If you could get ahold of an older version of ProfileMaker or Monaco Profiler, they both had excellent profile editors, but that software is not available for purchase new today.
Heres an article from the ColorWiki on (now obsolete) profile editors.