How to print black and white prints.

[Grandpa Ron]

Since the local Walgreens drug store charge 39 cents for a 4x6 print I have been using them as my digital darkroom.

Color photos are fine but the black and white shot lack the crispness and latitude of my computer screen.

My digital black and white photos are shot both, in color and change in the computer and in the black and white format on the camera.

Is there any thing to do in the digital editing to enhance the picture for the drug store printing machine.

 

[dxqcanada]

Not sure what you mean about the B&W shots.
You are taking images from a digital camera, importing them in some App, then converting it to B&W ... then having them printed by Walgreens ?

 

[480sparky]

You're sending b&w files to Walgreens?

They don't have b&w printer paper. They're printing on color paper, which is horrible for true b&w images. Stop sending your monochromes to them and source a lab that has a dedicated workflow for them.

 

[Jeff15]

How to print black and white, carefully, good luck........

 

[webestang64]

Our Noritsu Green III printer does a wonderful job at printing BW and our Epson 9900 (run through Image Print Rip) is even better.

BTW Our online 4x6's are 23 cents.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Our Noritsu Green III printer does a wonderful job at printing BW and our Epson 9900 (run through Image Print Rip) is even better.

BTW Our online 4x6's are 23 cents.

Who is " Our "?

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I am shooting B&W with a old Olympus C740 DSLR. I have two options, shoot in color and change to B&W with Gimp or Pixlr photo editors or chose the C740's B&W format and directly in B&W. Either way the photos look fine on my HP 3211x the monitor.

When I down load them to a flash drive and take them to Walgreens, the color prints are pretty good but the B&W do not have the same rich tones as they do on the monitor. My HP Photosmart printer results are even worse.

I am not trying to push the digital edge of photography, I am simply trying to figure out how to get the B&W prints to match the computer monitor image. I have not tied to down load the images as a PNG. rather than a JPG. I do not have the option for the RAW format.

I will check into the on-line services.

 

[480sparky]

You're using Walgreens. They use all paper and inks intended for color in an attempt to make an image without color. You need to find a lab that has a process designed for monochrome files. Using paper meant for it and ink in shades of gray, not cyan, magenta and yellow.

 

[greybeard]

Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, and others are fine for 4x6 color machine prints. But, when you start getting into B&W prints you are asking for something that they are not setup for. They try but the prints usually have a blue or purple tint. I personally have only had one thing printed black and white from a digital file and it was a picture of the High Level Bridge in Fairmont WV. I had it done on Canvas by Adoramapix. It came out beautiful.

 

[webestang64]

Our Noritsu Green III printer does a wonderful job at printing BW and our Epson 9900 (run through Image Print Rip) is even better.

BTW Our online 4x6's are 23 cents.

Who is " Our "?

Schiller's Camera in St. Louis MO. We have been in the photo store/lab business since 1892. www.schillers.com

 

[mrca]

My epson printers have 2 blacks, photo for resin coated paper and mat black for mat absorbant paper. In addition they have light and light light black. Printers without black or gray inks have to make black by combining colors and that can lead to color in the blacks. My profiler makes a separate profile for each paper for black and white. Paper has a smaller gamut or latitude than your monitor. When printing we choose either of 2 methods to deal with out of gamut colors that the printer can't print. One, relative, takes the out of gamut color and jams it into the gamut colors which it doesn't change. Perceptual changes the relationship between colors to get the out of gamut within the gamut the printer can print. Also, there is a loss of sharpness when ink hits paper and you need to sharpen accordingly. I use nik sharpener which takes into consideration, the type of paper and viewing distance.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

While I appreciate the ability to down load my photos and adjust them for exposure and tweak the image a bit, the down side is, it can become all consuming trying to get the perfect picture. Once you get the perfect picture you begin allover trying to print that picture.

So, based on the collective wisdom of the folk on the board, I sent my prints into cyber space to be returned as "true black and white " photos . At 29 cents each and less than $4.00 postage we will see how "true" the results are.

 

[mrca]

If you calibrate your monitor then create custom profiles, the print is nearly dead on to the monitor. If you don't create the profiles for each of your papers, then you are right, it is trying to adjust brightness, contrast and color in multiple frustrating test prints. I use the i1Studio hard and software and, bingo, my prints not only match my monitor, but they are nearly identical on different papers, altered by the brightness for whites and texture of the papers.

 

[webestang64]

My epson printers have 2 blacks

That's what I like about the Epson 9900 I use. It has matte black for flat matte, water color and canvas paper and photo black for glossy and lustre. It also has 2 more blacks, light black and light light black. The Epson only uses the black inks for BW images and comes out great. Now there will be a slight variance in overall tone depending on the color cast of the paper.

On the Noritsu Green printer it does use all the ink colors to print BW but we have it dialed in fairly well (using a BW print I did in the darkroom for a guide and one from the Epson 9900). Also the light that you view your prints at home will change the color tone of the print you are viewing. BTW our lab uses nothing but daylight corrected lights to view all the prints that leave our lab.

Just know that sending your image to 20 different labs will most likely yield 20 different color tones.

 

[mrca]

Yes, by only using matt or photo black and light and light,light black for black and white, a color cast from improper blending of colors to get black is eliminated. You are absolutely right sending to different labs yields different results. The big question, do any match your vision. I just finished calibrating monitor/ paper profiles and printed the same image for each paper profile and I have consistency across all of them and they ALL match my monitor. I will never print without using i1Studio to create custom profiles for my specific printer, it's condition, the humidity and temperature, the inks and paper I use. That system only prints 100 patches, a far cry from the thousand or so used by paper manufacturers for their profiles but theirs are generic and every printer is different. I NEVER got a print matching my monitor using the paper's generic profiles without an hour of screwing with brightness contrast and color not to mention wasting paper and expensive ink. Now I just hit print and it is spot on, capturing my vision EXACTLY as I edited it on my monitor. I can select from a range of papers that suit my image and vision, some that I don't see offered at many labs.