Making "sepia" prints - problems

[tim atherton]

I've been try to make some sepia(ish) enlargements of some old prints for a museum exhibit but am having a bit of difficulty.

The originals vary in colour somewhat (prints of various different types - albumen etc) - but an exact match isn't necessary.

I've tried several different ways (including Ken Lee's excellent options) to try and do this in Photoshop, but non of them look that good.

I'm finding it really hard to get a print that doesn't tend too much towards and nastyish underlying green or pinkish magenta, and also one that isn't so over the top in terms of colour, but still appears tinted.

(I'd say the colour of a number of the original prints tends towards a warm Khaki-ish colour - which I'm finding quite hard to get close to without either of the above happening - among other things)

Also, different ways of getting a file to look toned overall rather than just tinted.

Any good ideas or tips...?

[Kuzano]

As odd and cheap as this may sound, download the free pic editing/organizer program Picasa from Google. The edit functions are truly "dumbed down" for easy use. However, the sharpening function and some of the effects functions are truly useful, not to mention quick.

I no longer turn up my nose at lesser software.

[bob carnie]

Tim

It sounds like you are making a sepia look on colour paper.

If so are you working in RGB.
If so go to the colour balance tool, highlights add yellow/red

shadows - add slight blue magenta.

This will give a split sepia / selenium look that I find very easy to produce.

[domenico Foschi]

Good Luck, TIm.
I have grown frustrated with the problem.
I think part of the problem is also metamerism, as you might recall from a thread that I started sometime ago.
Somebody answered that "Sepia" is the most difficult color for inkjet to reproduce.
I will be reading the answers with interest.

[bob carnie]

Tim
If you are printing inkjet, you can also do a double exposure on the paper.
Lay down a very light yellow brown Kackish colour, make a slightly larger canvas than the image canvas.
then reload the paper into the same position and make your black and white image.

this works really well in lowering the contrast of images and or flesh tones and or mimicking a sepia look.

[adrian tyler]

i've been getting some lovley warm prints (don't know if it'll be sepia enough for you) but just using greyscale images, 1.8 gamma inbeded profile, brought up to the "punto" with curves and printed with the 2.2 gama profile B&W settings, all canned with the epson 4800 printer. i've been really impressed.

[Greg Lockrey]

Tim
If you are printing inkjet, you can also do a double exposure on the paper.
Lay down a very light yellow brown Kackish colour, make a slightly larger canvas than the image canvas.
then reload the paper into the same position and make your black and white image.

this works really well in lowering the contrast of images and or flesh tones and or mimicking a sepia look.

This is a really good tip. o!

[bob carnie]

Thanks Greg
Use to do this with cross processed negatives on ra4 paper, was great way to add in a complimentary colour to the over all image and lower the contrast as well.

I have contemplated putting register pins on the inkjet printer and doing multiple hits with skelatin black masks to increase black detail or colour enhancements.
I thing that if you used a workflow that allowed you to put down the softer colours first and then lay down the detail hit for last pass through the printer, the problem of the paper swelling and stretching with multiple layers of ink would be minimized.

This is a really good tip. o!

[Greg Lockrey]

Are you doing this with roll feed printers? Laying down a tone with extra canvas size would be simple enough but getting exact index on a pinned overlay would be a bear. I would think that with sheet feed printers would be less of a problem though.

[bob carnie]

**getting exact index on a pinned layer**
this is exactly the issue that stumps me so far.
putting strosser high pins on the printer would be no issue, but putting in the sheet of paper on the pins and then having the printer recognize this position as a starting point is where my plan is not clear. I would imagine some of the computer geek/wizards on this site or others could easily come up with a solution.
I want to do this method primaraly with arches platine ,, uncoated.
We are sizing this paper in advance of printing and then printing and I have seen gelatin coating put on top to protect the surface.. I really is a beautiful look and I think that with good registration multiple hits would be no problem , as long as the last hit is the detail black mask or layer.

We are sheet feeding on our 9600epsons all the time, and the new Cannon looks like it can handle sheets as well..
we primaraly print from rolls but are always cutting down sheets for tests.

Are you doing this with roll feed printers? Laying down a tone with extra canvas size would be simple enough but getting exact index on a pinned overlay would be a bear. I would think that with sheet feed printers would be less of a problem though.