Quoting Paul Braun <cygnus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> OK, so you guys have convinced me to take the plunge into
> digital printing -
> - I'll probably pick one of the 1800's up in the next
> couple of months. I've
> got access to a Nikon slide/film scanner, so I'll give it
> a shot.
>
> However, I haven't seen any reports on how this thing
> prints with B&W
> negs. Do I still need to set up a darkroom for that, or
> can I just develop my
> own film and then scan and print to the Epson with
> satisfactory results?
This is even more heated, potentially, than the film v.
digital debate itself, since B&W is sort of the quintessence
of the photographic art. Some ardent supporters of the
silver standard would never allow that an inkjet could
produce the equal of a darkroom print. I am more
sympathetic, but even in the best instance I say to myself,
"Well, that ought to be pretty close."
When I had a darkroom, I looked down my nose at anything
other than fiber-base prints, which require a huge amount of
washing to be made perfectly archival. RC papers were lousy
at that time, but they've improved a lot, so that printers
like Ag Schnozz use them effectively now.
I suspect an argument can still be made for FB papers, but I
haven't done BW printing in a darkroom for many years now,
so I don't know. The Ilford Gallery marque now means inkjet
paper.
Anyway, the wider use of RC papers makes what comes out of
an injet very acceptable in terms of feel and finish in
comparison. Getting really neutral grays is the bigger trick.
I got Colorvision profiling software years ago and now tend
to print a BW test print in the course of building a
profile. This actually assures quite good color accuracy as
well, so it kills two birds with one stone.
With some inks you have to watch for a phenomenon called
metamerism, for which I have only a non-techie definition,
which is, that depending on the light you view the print in,
it can look, say, a little too pink or too yellow. So
people spend money on OTT lights and that sort of thing. I
had never experienced this problem too much in the past, but
my current ink set (Lyson) has this problem.
As I've been saying a lot lately, there's always something.
In my case, I've given up wondering if my inkjet BW prints
are as good as my old darkroom ones. They're actually
better in some ways, but for me now it's a case of not
looking back and just trying to perfect my processes to get
the best I can.
Joel W.
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