Keith Cooper wrote:
One approach would be to use a normal profile (say from i1Profiler, since I have a copy) with or without BPC as looked best for the paper and RI
Doing this can make for some good looking prints, but is where I notice the tendency to crunch shadows, which led to my initial query.
This is where I noticed your mention of: "a correctly gamut mapped output profile using perceptual intent".
Could my 'shadow crunching' be a result of this not happening with my i1Profiler profile, for a B&W source image? I know the 'limited nature' of the adjustment sliders in i1Profiler has been a matter of concern in some previous discussions here ;-)
I don't know, since it's not something I've played with seriously, but it could simply be that Adobe's BPC isn't performing a "nice" black point mapping. (But I'd like you to describe what difference if any there is in that workflow with BPC off vs. on, to confirm that BPC at least improves the situation.)
Any other suggestions for printing a B&W photo from Photoshop with the normal OEM driver would be welcome.
If it is a matter of the BPC doing a not ideal type of black mapping, then (of course) my approach would be to use my tools to create an output profile perceptual table with a (hopefully) better black point mapping. I've not really exposed controls that allow that aspect to be directly tweaked though, so it may not satisfy your aims. It can be indirectly tweaked by playing with viewing conditions, but it's not intended to provide fine artistic control. Cheers, Graeme Gill.