B&W in Lightroom

[jdyke]

I like the b&w features of lightroom but question how much use the split tonning feature will actually be to professional B&W printers?  

Most serious B&W folk to print either using a RIP (such as Imageprint or QTR) or if using one of the newer Epson or Canon printers using the printers built in b&W feature to avoid the dreaded metanerism and bronzing.

The problem is that all of these methods will strip out any toning added in Lightroom.  I had a similar issue when adding a quadtone in Photoshop and then printing using imageprint.  Unless you use a colour profile your changes will be stripped out.

Imageprint has its own toning feature and will neutralize the print  (unless you use the split one features of ver 6.1) whist QTR just allows one tone as far as I know.

The only benefit of the split tone feature in Lightroom as far as I can see is if you print using a custom or canned ICC profile using the standard printer driver.

The rest of Lightrooms features are pretty cool though (appart from the inevitable snail like speed of the Beta version)

JD

[jeffball]

Hello JD,
I agree with your assessment.  I use the split-tone to create a web-version of an image and to assist in visualization of what is possible and most likely to meet my vision of the final output.  I do print the grayscale file through IP with the spit-tone capabilities inherent in that software.  I have found that the LR spit-tone is not always clean as it can have some unusual tints in transitional tonal areas.  I have seen some greenish tints in such areas.  I have mainly used the Mac beta to date.  Like you, I am not sure that the split-tone is fully ready for my BW printing workflow, but I will continue to investigate and will probably do some head-to-head experiments with printing directly from LR to printing through IP.  Good luck and take care.