With my photography I have recently made the switch to digital. As I create quite surreal conceptual Black and White images, using the computer quickens up the whole process and eliminates doing complicated composite prints under the enlarger.

However I'm trying to find the best method to present these digital images for entering in various Photo Competitions. I have experimented printing out onto "Hewlett Packard Photo Paper", on my "Hewlett Packard Deskjet 710C Printer". I was quite pleased with the clarity and tonal range in the print, except my black and white print turned purple after being exposed to the light for a few hours.

Are there better types of Photo paper that I could use that would retain the black and white tones and still have good contrast?

I have also looked at printing a negetive image from the computer, straight onto inkjet transparency film. I contact printed this under the enlarger to produce a silver print. However the "Agfa Transparency film" I was using has a slight texture to it, plus it doesn't have the same level of contrast you would get from a normal silver film.

Any suggestions on a better brand of transparency film, that is made to be used in this way, or a different way to achieve a black and white digital print?

At the moment I create the images using a digital camera, scanned prints and Adobe Photoshop.

To see the type of work I am trying to print, check out my website at: http://www.nzmagic.com/felicity/photohomepg.html

Thanks

-- Felicity Rogers (chicane@nzmagic.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

you might want to try a different type of inkjet paper. ilford seems to be coming out with new-and-improved papers every time i turn around. you also might want to try some of the artist-grade inkjet inks available if you haven't already.

i'm afraid i can't help more than that. i don't do any kind of digital imaging, save occasionally scanning stuff, playing around with photoshop, and putting it on a webpage.

there is one thing that might help, though it would involve you having someone else print your work. the guy i deal with at our local lab told me they have a new gizmo that prints digital images onto real photographic media. it works basically like an inkjet printer, except that, instead of droplets of ink, it shoots droplets of different-colored light at photographic paper--ilfochrome paper, for instance--which is then processed as if it were exposed under an enlarger. he said that b-w paper can theoretically be done the same way, just using one color of light, for instance.

i don't know if that helps you at all, though.

good luck.

-- brad daly (bwdaly@hiwaay.net), February 27, 2000.

There are at least two brands of printers, which use color negative paper (RA4) and lasers to expose it. The result is an ordinary color print. I haven't tried, but I suppose B&W images are way better as color prints than inkjet prints. Maybe a little experimentation is needed to get rid of color casts. The printers are really expensive, maybe $ 200 000, so small labs usually haven't one.

Another way is to use those larger HP inkjet printers; you can buy quadratone ink cartridges, there are three gray and one black ink. However, the printers are more expensive than the little ones, maybe $ 1200.

Sakari

-- Sakari Makela (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), February 28, 2000.

Read Dan Burkholders book on creating digital negatives. There is an article about him in the latest shutterbug. I believe you can order his book through Amazon.com. I have not read it myself as I have not yet started to work digitally, but I have been doing some research and asked a similair question myself in the digital forum. Good luck let me know if you figure something out. Art Nichols

-- ARTHUR NICHOLS (ARTNICHOLS@SYDA.ORG), February 28, 2000.

Presumably you've been printing B&W using the colour setting, hence the colour shift as the inks dry and fade. Getting decent black and white images out of a computer is a real problem, and one that manufacturers need to address fairly urgently IMHO.

Using only the black ink will prevent any colour shift, and make the image far more permanent. The default black ink output is appalling, but can be tweaked to give reasonable results. You have to manipulate the curve to compensate for the printer's blocking up of the shadows. Lift the gradient at the bottom end of the curve very steeply for about the first quarter of its height, and then bend it smoothly over to give a straight line up to maximum white. You might even need to lift the bottom of the curve off black level completely. At this point the image on screen looks terrible, and you need to print it out to see if it's anywhere near right. However, once you've got the correction right it can be saved as a profile and applied to further images before printing.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 29, 2000.

Luminos makes monochrome ink designed specifically for printing B&W images. However, I think they only make them for EPSON printers, you may have to get another printer for the purposes you describe. I just ordered a set, along with their paper sampler packs. I'll try to remember to post observations once I have some.

-- Marc Talusan (talusan@psyche-dot-mit.edu), February 29, 2000.