I think a few of my favorite m4/3s B&W photos are starting to display well on Flickr, etc. I've never been much of a printer, partly because I never could quite get the results I like. (very close, but never quite close enough).
From my past printing experiences both on the ink jet at home and with commercial printers for color, I feel that I need to over sharpen just a bit, to get the sharpness I see on screen. I also feel that sometimes, with the commercial printers especially, that the prints often lack the contrast that I think the originals had. I have sometimes wondered if that was a result of the over sharpening I did. I am aware that 'sharpening' in PP is really a form of selectively adding contrast to edges of objects and I wonder if the reduced contrast is some sort of correction applied by the commercial printer.
For a couple of my B&W photos, I would like the highest quality B&W prints possible. Any advice on how to properly prepare such a photo for commercial printing? I am currently using ACDSee Ultimate 8 and am comfortable with using its toolset to its fullest capabilities if that makes a difference. I also do not plan on ordering print sizes larger than would be appropriate for display on typical home walls. No murals, more like gift sized prints and smaller.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
