Grayscale-how many colors maximum . vs. minimum

[Rockers]

This would go on white tees.
As usual the client ask for the cheapest option but still wants a good result.
I would love to give him a choice of cheapest, a compromise price and the top drawer option.

Cheers.

[tonypep]

My usual formula is highlight/shadow/midtone but that is a tough image. Way too much contrast.

[mk162]

yeah, the dark areas are going to turn to junk real fast.  I can barely see the one guy's face to begin with.

I agree with tony, we usually do 3 colors.

[Sbrem]

I'd be 2 grays and black, but if I had to, a single black. The image is pretty tough to work with though, it requires some judicious Photoshop work, if there is anything under all the black to work with...

Steve

[Prince Art]

I doubt I'd agree to print the image as-is. I'd pull it into Photoshop & see how it could be tweaked. My first stop is Image>Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights to see how much range/underlying data I've really got to work with. I'd aim to get rid of the "mud" in the dark range, and see how crisp we could get it. For limited color b&w, my approach is always to bring out as much clarity & definition as possible, at the expense of more natural gradients. It ends up a little more stylized, but I think it prints & "reads" better that way.

Disclaimer: I am not widely experienced with high-end photo-realistic printing, and my approach has been tailored to customers who rarely pay for more than 2 inks for such things! I'd fully expect my typical customers to want this done in all black, and to consent to black + 1 grey after I pushed them. I try to give them as clear of an idea as possible of what outcome they'll get based on what they're willing to pay for.

[blue moon]

there are many ways to skin this cat.
You could do one color and adjust the image so you can stroke twice. This would give you the deeper blacks you need.
Next one would be to print the shadow (black), midtone (gray) and use the shirt for highlights (2 colors total). If the customer is willing to pay for it, this is probably what we would do. It is still a cheap solution, but should be close enough.
For pickier customers, we would add the white next (3 colors total) and finally an additional gray (4 total) if they really wanted it to look as good as possible.
We have done similar jobs with 6 colors before and it won the Golden Image, so it's really up to you how good you need to make it look.

pierre

[mk162]

of course you could always go DTG and adjust it on the fly. 

[ZooCity]

Monochrome cheapest.  Budget allowing I like three colors for best reproduction. 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Orion]

I agree with at least three colors for best reproduction. I once saw a b/w print at an SGIA show quite a few years back that was engineered with a six-color count. Does anyone else recall seeing that print of the motor bike and the black leather clad model? Absolutely stunning print!