Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor

Arch Stanton

I got some black and white pictures that look good on the computer/camera monitor, but lack the "depth" that I like in the old silver prints when I send the digital file to a printer.

Should I just give up and go back to film/chemical paper? Or are there decent digital printers out there that can do the job? My budget is limited, so my maximum price range is about $200 U. S. if I get a big inheritance....

floyduk · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:52 am Post subject:

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "depth" here. It sounds like you mean contrast but I'm not really sure. If it's contrast that's lacking then a little time in photoshop should sort it.

I did see, today, in the camera store that Ilford have started selling pearl inket paper. I guess that is intended to give the same feel as some of their chemical print paper. I've not heard of any inkjet or dye sub printing paper that emulated silver but it's possible it's out there.

John
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Dyedude · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:58 am Post subject:

At the moment, at that price range, stick with regular darkroom. From what I understand, only some high quality Epson printers have achieved excellent B&W results.
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Swetz · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:24 am Post subject:

Currenlty at $200 there is not a really good B&W printer to my knowledge. Epson has some new printers that use 3 or 4 "black" cartridges but the printers are more expensive. I think that you will see more solutions for B&W printer solutions to come shortly. I am waiting for a less expensive good B&W print solution myself
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floyduk · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject:

Ok so you're all telling me that just as I'm getting into B&W I'm not going to be able to get any decent prints of my shots?

Grrr - and I was hoping to try framing and selling some stuff this year.

John
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rstein · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:40 pm Post subject:

You can always give them to a lab. There are some, who do b&w even on special papers. For printing on colour paper, just put some fully saturated colours and a gray scale to one edge of the picture. So they know, what colour you want.

Rolf

Swetz · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject:

John, right now the "smallest: epson printer made to do great B&W prints up to 13" wide and sells for about $850 USD. I am sure they will be coming out with something that will be smaller.

Here is where you can read about thir k3 ink:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Landing/UltraChromeK3.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes
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Arch Stanton · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:27 am Post subject:

[quote="rstein"]You can always give them to a lab. There are some, who do b&w even on special papers. For printing on colour paper, just put some fully saturated colours and a gray scale to one edge of the picture. So they know, what colour you want.

Rolf[/quote]

I've tried the lab option with the grey scale, and was disappointed. The prints came back with a bluish cast, and the loss of detail in the bright and dark areas was noticable. I could have done better at home, just by using a black printer cartridge.

Thanks to all the others, too, for the repsonses. I think I'll continue with the metal based (silver, iron, chomate) processes for "black" and white prints for the time being, until the digital technology catches up....

james culp · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject:

The new Epson http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=53540920

is the current phenom. It is a bit pricy unless you take into account your lab bills. If you are currently using a lab instead of printing your self with an inkjet. Those costs can be quite high.
I did an overview of costs for the year and find it is 'LESS' expensive for me to print my own stuff then send to a lab. plus I gain the transportation delivery costs I would normally incure.
I do recomend with any new printer to sit down with a box of your favorite paper and 2 full sets of ink and "keeping good notes" run your printer through the gamet of tests.
This is still the cheapest way to gain complete control over your output, at a resonable cost.
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loup · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject: