Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
I'm not such a "decent ink jet printing" expert as to start that kind of thread... Maybe you could... 
Perhaps Bill's interest is just that, or perhaps higher quality printing: I don't know... I recommended him to start with Photoshop and get a basic and quick level to start playing with it... Anyway, as Ben said, analog printing was mature decades ago, and tonal results are better generally: most people doing analog printing get superb results, and most people using digital processing get tonal results below those of film and wet printing. That's why Ben nailed it and that's why people use analog: quality. People use digital for economy of time and money, not for quality.
Cheers,
Juan
Perhaps Bill's interest is just that, or perhaps higher quality printing: I don't know... I recommended him to start with Photoshop and get a basic and quick level to start playing with it... Anyway, as Ben said, analog printing was mature decades ago, and tonal results are better generally: most people doing analog printing get superb results, and most people using digital processing get tonal results below those of film and wet printing. That's why Ben nailed it and that's why people use analog: quality. People use digital for economy of time and money, not for quality.Cheers,
Juan
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
You learn as you go IMO. I used to be convinced that a slightly underdeveloped negative was the answer to a good scan and final image ... partly because of what I'd read here and it also seemed to produce a pleasing scan visually. I don't approach it that way at all now and although my initial scans can seem over developed or over exposed I have more information to use in post processing and the end result is a better final image.
benlees
Well-known
With photoshop you can spend a lot of time chasing your tail. Do you have to reinvent the wheel for every photo you take? I would guess not...but it depends on what you are after.
I just do the basics and when I learn something new I tend to forget because I don't dabble enough. I prefer photos on screen or in books (for the most part) so having a fancy smancy print is often not my goal but I do think people tend over think these things. When I get colour prints at Costco they look exactly like they did on my screen. All I do is click the 'make no changes' icon. No calibration or anything like that.
B&W from scanned negs. is still a work in progress...
I just do the basics and when I learn something new I tend to forget because I don't dabble enough. I prefer photos on screen or in books (for the most part) so having a fancy smancy print is often not my goal but I do think people tend over think these things. When I get colour prints at Costco they look exactly like they did on my screen. All I do is click the 'make no changes' icon. No calibration or anything like that.
B&W from scanned negs. is still a work in progress...