Building profile with excellent shadow separation?

[narikin]

I have some fine art images to print which are basically nothing but quarter tones - shadows upon shadows upon black!

Is there a way to build a profile that might help with clearly defining these dark tones?  I use x-rite profiler and iSis XL, and have used optimization routines before, but any tips for gaining shadow clarity, even if its at the cost of other tones, would be most welcome. 

Paper would be something like Harman FB Gloss, but feel free to recommend another type, if there is an exceptional material that you feel might change things.

Thanks!

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I have some fine art images to print which are basically nothing but quarter tones - shadows upon shadows upon black!

Is there a way to build a profile that might help with clearly defining these dark tones?  I use x-rite profiler and iSis XL, and have used optimization routines before, but any tips for gaining shadow clarity, even if its at the cost of other tones, would be most welcome.

Hi,

If your profiling software does not offer an option to specifically adjust rendering of dark tones, you can always output your patches to a TIFF and adjust its shadow rendering in the opposite direction of what you want to achieve, and print that. The profiling software will try to compensate for the more compressed shadows and build a profile that opens them up.

Cheers,
Bart

[EricV]

Why would you want to handle this with a profile, rather than your standard image editing software?  Enhancing shadows in the profile breaks the "what you see is what you get" paradigm.  Altering the profile seems like the wrong solution, unless the image looks fine on the monitor but prints with muddy shadows.  Even in that case, the problem would just as likely be monitor calibration as printer calibration.

[Scott Martin]

Why would you want to handle this with a profile, rather than your standard image editing software? 

Exactly. This is a color correction issue - not a profiling one.

[Scott Martin]

I'd like to add one more thing here. Print profiles should all have excellent shadow separation, but the lighting plays a huge role in our ability to perceive that shadow detail. Having deep rich blacks without detail is important, but throw a ton of high CRI light on a print and you should be able to discern 97% detail (or better) if you have a good eye for it. People often come to false conclusions because they are evaluating prints under inadequate light.

[narikin]

thanks all for the suggestions.  I'll review my options, and see where it takes me.

I also feel that the paper used to print on its very important, as clearly some has better ink loads and d-max, so will have to try a good few of those to see which turns out for the best.

[AaronPhotog]

Narikin,
Much of the work has been done for you: http://www.dygartphotography.com/papertestmethod.html

Aloha,
Aaron