While I know reflected light prints will never have the pop a transmitted light image on a monitor will have, I have seen prints that seem to have a lot more punch that I have been able to get out of prints. I've been playing with various adjustments to try get more punch in my prints, but before wasting more ink and paper I thought I'd seek the advice of the experienced printers on this forum to maybe give me some ideas I may have never even thought of. I print on an Epson 3880. Any advice much appreciated.
Some Midtone contrast (what Adobe calls Clarity) can help. Something master printer Mac Holbert came up with long before Clarity. You can do it in Photoshop with his action or of course, try Clarity which is a tad bit different.
Midtone Contrast
1. Highlight your top layer in your Layers Palette then:
2a. In CS I: Select Layer->New->Layer to create a new, blank layer at the top of your Layer Stack. Then, holding down
your Opt Key (Mac) / Alt Key (PC), select Merge Visible from the fly-down menu on the right side of your Layers Palette.
Be sure to keep the Opt/Alt depressed until you see the blank layer update. You should now have an additional layer at the
top of your layer stack. It represents how the image would appear if you had flattened your layers. Rename this layer
“Midtone Contrast”
-OR-
2b. In CS II: Holding down your Opt Key (Mac) / Alt Key (PC), select Merge Visible from the fly-down menu on the right
side of your Layers Palette. Be sure to keep the Opt / Alt depressed until you see the blank layer update. You should now
have an additional layer at the top of your layer stack. It represents how the image would appear if you had flattened your
layers. Rename this layer “Midtone Contrast”
3. Next double-click on the Midtone Contrast layer icon to bring up the Layer Style Palette. Change the Blend Mode to
Overlay and lower the Blend Mode Opacity to 20%. Now move the left “This Layer” slider to 70. Now Split away the left
side of that slider by holding down the Opt / Alt key and move it to 50. Repeat the same process on the right “This Layer”
slider, moving the sliders to 185 and 205 respectively. Then select “OK”.
4. Now select Filter->Other->High Pass. In the High Pass Palette set the radius to 50 and select “OK”. Now select Image-
>Adjustments->Desaturate. The Midtone Contrast layer is now complete. At 20% opacity it should be very subtle, but
noticable. The effect can be decreased or increased by raising or lowering the Midtone Contrast Layer opacity. I’ve found
that the proper setting can usually be found between 20% and 40% opacity. Above 40% one risks creating “halo” artifacts
that are visually distracting.
Of course, whenever you can do this kind of work at the rendering stage instead of at the pixel stage in Photoshop, the better. But this works well (make an action) for use in Photoshop for all those existing pixel based images that need the contrast boost.