making b/w prints look, well, B&W!

[Hair Bear]

I'm shooting 400iso film at the moment and having a good time with it.

Dev and printed at local shop and onto CD

The prints they give me are very blue in the cast and the scans are RGB

I would like to get a print that looks like true B&W

I have some prints here to compair and they look quite brown.

I can get this look and feel in PS but have been unable to get it on the print

Got any ideas?

The print will be through a corner shop not my own printer.

 

[Torus34]

This may sound simplistic, but why not use Tri-X, an ISO 400 b&w film, and have it processed traditionally? The results will be 'true' b&w. If you wish, you can rig for development and contact printing yourself. You can then pick individual negatives for b&w enlargements.

 

[LaFoto]

My experience with C-41 b+w film has been similar, HairBear, the prints were no true b+w and when I scanned them, I got RGB-files that I had to "convert into b+w" in Photoshop. NOT what I had expected.

The sad thing is that not even my prints from an Ilford HP5 400 film are truly black and white. I guess they scan the b+w film as well as the colour films all in the same process and no longer do real prints but prints from digitalized images. I find that highly annoying.

But I don't have access to a darkroom so I haven't got a choice, I cannot make my own prints directly from film through an enlarger and all that. I must rely on what the big photo printing enterprises offer me .

 

[j_mcquillen]

What film were you using?

Some types of B+W film are processed and printed through the same system as colour negatives - these can often end up with a bit of a colour cast (usually blue or brown), as they are not printed using 'true' black and white paper.

 

[Hair Bear]

This may sound simplistic, but why not use Tri-X, an ISO 400 b&w film, and have it processed traditionally? The results will be 'true' b&w. If you wish, you can rig for development and contact printing yourself. You can then pick individual negatives for b&w enlargements.

I really havn't got the space, time or money to set up at home.

I'm having enough propblems keeping up with the scans and processing what I like etc.

Printing my own would be cool if I could get all the smell and waste away from the house but for now its using the system i have.

 

[Hair Bear]

What film were you using?

Some types of B+W film are processed and printed through the same system as colour negatives - these can often end up with a bit of a colour cast (usually blue or brown), as they are not printed using 'true' black and white paper.

I'm using Ilford XP2 400 and I'm sure its run through the same process as colour film. This is whats given it the blue tinge.

 

[Hair Bear]

Random pic no crit just for example

here is the processed image as I recive it
1


and with a bit of help
2


Its been desaturated and then some colour balance adjustment 10/0/-20

I'm just fishing to find out if any of you have an optimum setting to get that from a neg print look.

I'll just keep trying it and printing until I get there its just a long process!

 

[niccig]

On my screen, the first photo actually looks ok - maybe a little bit bluish, but no more so than printing on cold-toned paper. The second one is very very warm - almost sepia. Perhaps our monitors are calibrated differently.

 

[JEazy]

On my screen, the first photo actually looks ok - maybe a little bit bluish, but no more so than printing on cold-toned paper. The second one is very very warm - almost sepia. Perhaps our monitors are calibrated differently.

Nah your montor's fine. The first one is b+w, second is sepia.

 

[Jennie]

I use the XP2 all the time, I love it! I take it to a pro lab and they process it black and white. I find it has a nice dark contrast. If I take it to a local store they process it as clr. and it is a crap shoot what I get. With the pro lab I have never had a problem, they are always consistent.

 

[Peanuts]

I use the XP2 all the time, I love it! I take it to a pro lab and they process it black and white. I find it has a nice dark contrast. If I take it to a local store they process it as clr. and it is a crap shoot what I get. With the pro lab I have never had a problem, they are always consistent.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, I know too little about film and want to learn more My understanding is that XP2 can only be developed in C-41 chemicals. ?

 

[Hair Bear]

Nah your montor's fine. The first one is b+w, second is sepia.

Pushing me back to the orginal question as the second one is mirroring (on my monitor) the tone and look of hand made B/W prints I have.

There must be an average setting to get this effect?

 

[Digital Matt]

Convert the image to grayscale, and then back to RGB.

 

[terri]

Pushing me back to the orginal question as the second one is mirroring (on my monitor) the tone and look of hand made B/W prints I have.

There must be an average setting to get this effect?

Someone's either given you slightly toned prints, or else warm-tone paper developer was used with a warm-tone photographic (darkroom) paper. It's not difficult at all to get these minor tweaks done in the darkroom. You still indeed have a "B&W print", you seem to gravitate towards a warmer tone of B&W, as opposed to that cold-tone, bluish/black of the first example. It's all subjective to your own tastes and is easily done on PS, too. Matt's suggestion is probably as good as any without going too far into the sepia look.

 

[rp1600]

I'm not sure if this advice comes even remotely close, but I know when printing RGB images converted to grayscale, if the printer, in my case a Canon i9900, isn't set to grayscale you will get B&W images with a slight color tint. Maybe check with the lab to make sure they're not printing the converted images in "color mode."

Not sure if this is close to what you're asking, though.