Identify Hardware / Software / Inkset for B&W Fine Art Printing

[greg_whitten1]

Hi - I have resisted digital for years, but now am jumping in with a

Canon 10D. In the past I have printed my own black and white prints

in a home darkroom. I am now rather confused by all the choices

digital printing has to offer. In the chemical darkroom, there are

millions of choices (which developer, fixer, what temperature,

agitation, concentration, paper, ad infinitum). Through much trial

and error I found what worked for me. I am much more hesitant or

unsure about the choices in digital photography / black and white

printing.

 

Bottom line, I need help in setting up my digital darkroom with

respect to printer, inks and workflow. I know there is a lot written

on various aspects of this, but for a guy who does not have a wide

and deep digital context in which to put the snippets of information

found in various places, I get oversaturated with information and

start to melt down.

 

My equipment will include: dedicated black and white photo inkjet

printer / inkset; properly calibrated monitor; photoshop 7; photoshop

elements 2; Canon 10D. With the Canon I will capture RAW and high

res jpegs with each image, so I can work with each.

 

My questions are really in 3 parts: (1) Post capture processing; and

(2) Printing; and (3) software.

 

(1) Post Capture Processing - What recommendations can you make for

converting the RAW or processing of the RAW or jpeg into a black and

white image suitable for printing (I don't mean dodging,

burning, "fixing" blemishes, etc.)? What are the best or at least

very good ways to get rid of the color and end up with a black and

white image to print on high quality paper for display?

 

(2) Printing - What are the best choices for a dedicated b&w photo

printer (budget of $400 - $800)? What about inksets? (Piezotones?)

Any special software? I don't mind spending money to get up and

running. I just don't want to have to spend money multiple times on

the same device, because I made poor choices the first time.

 

(3) Software - I need good monitor calibration software / spyder? I

have PS and PS Elements 2. I will have Capture 1 for manipulating

the Raw files. Anything else needed?

 

Finally, any good books / sites from black and white photographers

that lay all this out?

 

Thanks for your help.

[elek_ludvigh]

Hi Greg,

The Digital Photolab by George Schaub is an absolutely must have book for anyone with your goals. His earlier The Digital Darkroom is very good , but more basic and not as up to date. Get ahold of a copy of TDP. I have searched far and wide for books on black and white digital printing and TDP is head and shoulders the best learning tool.

Jay

[greg_whitten1]

Jay - Thanks for your recommendation. I'll check out Amazon for the book.

 

Greg

[bruce watson]

This is just way too much to answer here in a few paragraphs. Nothing actually "lays all this out" either. You are going to have to work for it. If I were you, I would start by sifting through the archives of a couple of the yahoo listservs:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/piezography3000/messages/

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/messages

 

You may have to join to be able to read the messages and search the archives, I'm not sure. Do search the archives - you are *not* the first person to ask these questions. They have usually been answered many times.

 

Remember also that people tend to send messages to the lists for a couple of reasons. First, they are trying to learn something new. Second, because they are having trouble. People rarely post anything when stuff is working for them - they are too busy with photography then! In other words, it's normal to have 10,000 happy customers, and a dozen unhappy ones - but all you see in the lists are the unhappy ones. This is SOP for the lists, make of it what you will.

 

The main suppliers of B&W, quad-tone inks are:

 

http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/piezographyBW.html

 

http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/quadtone.html

 

http://www.lyson.com/includes/frames.html

 

Most all the ink support is for Epson printers. Monitor calibration information can be had here:

 

http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/cm/color-management.html

 

There is a huge amount of information out there, and therefore lots of learning curves. You aren't likely going to "get it" in just a couple of days. Don't be surprised if it takes months or even years. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and am just about confortable with it, but I still have a lot to learn. If you recognize this going in, you aren't as likely to get frustrated early on and quit. But then, like all things, YMMV.

[durr3]

Greg, the book "The Digital Photolab" is available at Barnes and Noble. Much better price than Amazon.

[lori]

I would like to contribute that I am having the time of my life printing on my new inkjet

printer. I have an analog black & white darkroom that I adore using. When I want to do

something different, or just faster or cheaper, I now work at my computer and printer with

unexpected delight.

 

For black & white work: I scan in my medium format negatives into Adobe Photoshop (I

use an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo scanner). After considerable altering (Curves,

Dodging, Burning, etc, and Variations (for simulated toning)), I print to my new Epson

Photo 2200. If I want a fine print, I use Illuminata Fine Art (300gsm) 13x19 paper (from

inkjetart.com), making sure the Matte Black ink cartridge is loaded into the printer (the

Photo Black ink cartridge that comes with the machine is for semigloss, luster, and glossy

surfaces; the Matte Black is astoundingly, deliciously black on matte papers). It is possible

to tell this printer to print Black only, but I really enjoy a slightly warm coloration to my

monochromatic prints, just as I would provide for in the analog darkroom by warm papers,

warm developers, and some toning.

 

This printer's ink comes in 7 separate cartridges (easy to change out the depleted

cartridge $10 each) and is *archival*. I am delighted with the depth of the Matte Black ink

on matte fine art papers. What amazes me is how it was so easygoing and perfectly

matched to my monitor right on the first print. I was expecting headaches, and here I'm

making gorgeous prints on every whim.

 

Good luck, and let us know what your experiences are!

-Lori Dagley

 

P.S. I feel I should also mention I'm working on a Macintosh dual G4 with OS X; Adobe Photoshop 7. I attribute my headache-free color matching between monitor and printer partly to this setup as well.

[emre]

<ol>

<li>If you use color ink, a RIP is recommended. Otherwise the procedure depends on the ink set you are using. Some use ICC profiles, color separation curves, while others simply require a change of settings in the printer driver. Check the instructions that come with your ink set.

<li>The options are, in increasing order of complexity, and probably quality: use only the black cartridge, use color ink with a RIP, or buy monochrome/reduced gamut ink. Obviously, if you don't install monochrome ink, you can also print in color. Without doubt, the best printer in your price range is the EPSON 2200. It is <b>imperative</b> to pick a widely supported model, because you want to be sure that your printer will be supported when a new ink set or RIP comes out. Without a RIP or vendor support, you will have a hard time profiling your ink and paper (obtaining a smooth grayscale gradient.) Being an MIS customer, I would recommend <a href="http://inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/bwpage.html">UT7</a>. <a href="http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/UT-2200-Readme.htm">UT7</a> allows you to make B&W prints with popular papers from any application; a bit like WYSIWYG. This is significant because you usely need to mess about in Photoshop. Since I own a 1200, I have not tested this ink set... If you use OSX or Linux, you can buy a variant of this ink set that is compatible with <a href="http://harrington.com/QuadReadMe.html">QuadtoneRIP</a>, a free RIP.

<li>Not unless you want you force your monitor not to use its native gamma. For B&W, all you need is to properly set the contrast and brightness on your monitor. You can do this with the aid of a <a href="http://normankoren.com/makingfineprints1B.html#steps">grayscale bar</a>. Needless to say, a colorimeter is required for color printing.

</ol>

[x]

Will try to answer all your questions - I also use a 10D for digital capture.

 

Raw -> Colour image. Mostly I use the Canon supplied software. I've tried the Adobe converter supplied with PS CS including the updated version but the colour conversion was disappointingly flat.

 

Colour -> B/W. This is a broad and difficult area. I think someone could easily write a book on the different options and techniques. I've tried lots of different methods - convert to grayscales, desaturate, PS Channel Mixer and didn't like any of them. I had better success with dedicated plugins but even then some results were disappointingly flat. Whichever method you choose be prepared for lots of contrast enhancement in PS.

 

Printer/ink. Have had great results with the old PiezographyBW plugin, Piezotone inks and an Epson 1160. Some people prefer the 1280 but I haven't tried it. The 1160 is cheaper to buy and equip (if you can find one) and I doubt you'd be disappointed with the results. Epson Archival Matt paper (called Enhanced Matte in the USA) is cheap and will be enough to get started with. 1160 users who've upgraded to the new Piezography ICC are reporting even better results.

 

Lastly, be sure to calibrate your monitor. The Gretag Eye-One Display gives great results although I understand the Colorvision Spyder is rather cheaper.

[greg_whitten1]

Thanks to each of you for your contribution. Making a "cold turkey" technology change is difficult, and input from those of you who have already made the change is invaluable to those like me who are in the process but have limited time.

 

Greg