Print Black & White Like a Pro - TDS Photo Podcast

this is digital story podcast number 963 september 3rd 2024 today's theme is

print black and white like a pro i'm derrick story

seeing a gorgeous black and white print emerge from your inkjet printer will make you fall in

love with photography all over again and you don't have to spend a thousand dollars on a

fine art printer to experience this in fact by following the tips in today's podcast

you can get your ansel adams on with gear you already own all of this and more

on this week's tvs photography podcast i hope you enjoy the show

so i just wrapped up our online inkjet

printing workshop the last online workshop by the way for 2024 because now we have two

physical workshops coming up one in durango next month and then the following month here in sonoma

county where we go to safari west and do some wine country exploration and lots of other

great stuff so i was thinking after finishing the printing workshop i was going it would be

fun as i print and i'm going to print and i'm going to print and i'm going to print and i'm

going to print and i'm going to print and i'm going to print and i'm going to print and i'm going to

often do to share a few tips from that workshop just so you could have a few takeaways even

though you weren't able to attend and of course those of you who did get to attend i thoroughly

enjoyed having you there and consider this a bit of a refresher right so i'm going to focus my

thoughts on black and white printing because there's something about using your inkjet printer

to produce beautiful and i mean beautiful prints

and i think you've seen a lot of these in the past i think you're probably familiar with this

thinking of a printer is a printer is a printer is an art machine it's a printer that's making

black and white prints it sort of takes a simple printer to a whole different place it's like oh

now it's a fine art machine right because a lot of times with our color work what we're printing

is you know snapshots for the family maybe some scenics that we want to see hanging on the wall

you know those kinds of things but a lot of times i don't think especially with our everyday printers

everyday inkjet printers, we're thinking about fine art. And the minute you get a wonderful

black and white print emerging from that humble multifunctional printer, you're going to see it

in a whole different light. You really are. It's really exciting. And I'm going to gear this

conversation toward everyday multifunctional printers. The newer ones are better, obviously,

because they have updated printer drivers, the software's become more sophisticated,

those sorts of things. In particular, I'm working with the Canon tank printer. One of the reasons

why I like this printer, in addition to that it's very low cost to operate because of the tanks,

it has a gray ink in addition to photo black. And then it still has four other colors. It has red,

cyan, magenta,

and yellow. Really nice. And when we print black and white with our inkjet printers,

when I say that the software is really good, the software is really good in the sense that

sometimes it will even use some of the color tanks to give you that black and white that you want.

And that, my friend, is smart software. This will work with many of the multifunctional

printers that are out there. Epson, of course, makes great ones. Canon,

makes other great ones other than the G620. HP, of course, Lexmark. So it sort of depends. But

I think the one thing that you will want if you want to do some black and white printing

with your humble printer is that you will want at least one gray. With my Pro 100, my Canon Pro 100,

I have more ink tanks and it prints very nice black and white. But when you do them side by side,

I have to say, even though the Pro 100 is a pro level printer and the G620 is a humble printer,

multifunctional, the black and white from both of them looks really good. So, and of course,

if you have a pro printer, a lot of these tips will help you as well. All right. So let's get

into the actual discussion of how to make terrific black and white prints. I'm going to break it into

three parts. So I'm going to talk about the printer itself. I'm going to talk about the printer itself.

I'm going to talk about paper, and then I'll talk about computer and software. So those are kind of

our three components, a three-legged stool here. And let's start with the printer. So as I mentioned

earlier, you want to have at least one gray ink to help you get those nice mid-tones so that you're

just not having black ink and the printer has to do all the emulation. It actually has a gray ink

to sort of help it out. And if you have two gray inks, like a light gray and a dark gray,

that's fantastic.

Right? So the more black and gray you have, the better. That's the bottom line on this. But one

gray ink will go a long way because again, the software is so smart. Now you can let the printer

manage the colors for black and white printing, and they do so very well. So the whole thing

about using ICC profiles and all of that, that is great. And we went through all of that in our

workshop. But for black and white printing, a lot of the time, you're going to have to do a lot of

times, you can just let the printer do the work and they will provide you with nice black and white

prints. Now, if you have a pro model, Epson or Canon, it will actually have an advanced black and

white setting. And you can use that setting for your black and white printing. And it will even

give you some options within that. But again, that's basically a printer managed setting,

just geared toward black and white printing. So

it's okay. This is the one time where it's just fine to let the printer do the heavy lifting and

manage the quote unquote colors. Really what we're managing is gray. But remember, there may be some

color in there. You just can't see it unless you look through a loop. Now, even though the pro

models will have an advanced black and white printing option section, a lot of the consumer

models may have something like a

slimmed down version of that, you know, print black and white or, you know, don't print in color.

It's funny on the G620 that I'm using, it basically has a slider switch for printing in color or not

printing in color. And I did some testing on this and it doesn't seem to really make any difference

when I'm sending a black and white print to the printer. Now, if I was taking a color print and

sending it to the printer, then of course,

and I wanted it to be black and white, then I would use that little toggle switch to print in black and

white. But I don't recommend doing that because, you know, what we want to do is set up our image

first. And we're going to talk about this in a minute. Set up our image first for the kind of

black and white that we want. And then we're going to send that file to the printer. And when you do

that, at least with my multifunction here, it doesn't make a lot of difference.

If you turn on or off the black and white printing, I just leave it on color and the

black and whites come out fine. And I actually even did a test on it today. And I can't tell

the difference. I can't tell the difference. So, but it's nice to have those advanced black and

white options. If you have a pro model, which lets you do some toning, adjust contrast, things like

that. Other than that, the printer is very straightforward. And again, what I'm looking

at more and more these days are the tank printers for the multipurpose printer. And I'm going to

talk about the multifunction ones just because they're so easy to operate. And if I can get six

tanks for a $220 printer, boy, I'm pretty happy kid. And that's what I'm working with, with this

new Canon. All right, let's get the paper now. It goes without saying that I'm using Red River paper

and all of this discussion will be about Red River paper. The type of stock that you choose

is really important. And I'm going to talk about the Red River paper. And I'm going to talk about

what I'm working with and that's my main

task. And here I'm going to show the red river paper for the principal printer, which is really

important. And what I mean by that is that the white of your paper will be the white of your

photo. Printers don't print white, right? The paper is the white. Now, you may not think there's a lot

of difference in your printing papers that you have available to you at home. In their whites, you know, go, isn't white white? Well, no it isn't. And especially when it comes to printing papers. And a fun test that you can do is pull out the paper stocks that you have at home so

right now set the box down pull out one sheet set it on top of that box and do

the same thing with each one that you have put them on a table and look at how

different those whites are they will be very different as you go from different

stock to different stock whatever you want for your white in your black and

white print that's the paper you want to choose I tend to like the crisp blue

whites some people like the warmer whites and sometimes it depends on the

print itself on what the subject matter is be in tune with the white of your

paper stock because that's going to be the white of your print the Red River

paper some of the cool toned papers are Arctic polar luster ultra pro satin or

gloss and polar matte so those tend to be the cool toned papers and there are

more

but those are three of the biggies now on the warm toned papers palo duro

satin Aurora art natural and blanco matte canvas those are all warmer tones

I would have both cool toned papers and warm toned papers available so that you

have all of your options open and for example let's say that you shoot a barn

an old barn that's in a

you shoot a barn an old barn that's in a

field it's really lovely barns got lots of texture you have a nice setting

around it and it really gives you a nostalgic feeling when you look at this

shot well in my mind even though I normally

print on cooler tone papers that's a shot that I think I would want to print

on the warmer paper Aurora art natural or Palo duro satin because I want to

give it sort of that nostalgic warm tone that we think of a lot of times when we look at those

shots. So even if you normally like one look over another, it's good to have both looks on hand

because you never really know what you're going to want to do with a shot until you're sitting

down and working on it. And believe me, those prints would look different on the cooler tones

versus the warmer toned paper. They'll be completely different. I mean, not completely

different, still a barn, right? Still a landscape. But the whites are really going to drive a

different feel. And then it comes to play in the gray areas too, in the mid-tones as well.

So warm paper, cool paper, keep that in mind. Now, the other thing about paper that I'll say

is that the glossy papers and the satin papers tend to achieve deeper

blacks than the matte surfaces. So if you want a deep black in your black and white print, a really

kind of black, then you want to look at probably glossy or satin. Now, a lot of people ask me,

what's the difference between glossy surface and satin surface or a luster surface? Well,

a satin paper or a luster paper starts out as a glossy surface, and then it just has a texture

added to it. So essentially, satin,

luster, glossy, those are basically all the same in terms of the kind of blacks you're going to get.

What comes into play though is how reflective or shiny that surface is. And the reason why I like

satin and luster papers is they don't reflect as much distracting light, right? Ambient light,

picking up a light source in the room or whatever. The satin and lusters don't reflect as much as

glossy. Glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy, glossy,

seems to pick everything up. So even though you can get a really nice deep black with a glossy,

it may be picking up reflections that downplay that black. Whereas you can get a black that's

just as good with satin and luster and maybe have less distracting reflections. So that's why I like

those. And then of course, the matte papers, that's a whole different look. When you're

thinking about the emotion you want to elicit with that black and white shot, maybe you want

something different. Maybe you want something different. Maybe you want something different.

Maybe you want something a little bit more subdued. Maybe you want something that isn't as

contrasty, where the blacks aren't as deep and the whites aren't as bright. And maybe you want

something like a matte paper that really has a wonderful texture and feel to it. So all of these

choices, you know, really make a big difference on the final product. So you're looking at both

the color of the paper. Is it bluish or is it more yellowish? And then

how deep are the blacks, you know, due to is it glossy or is it matte? All those sort of things

come into play. And what you want to do is get the right combination for the image that you're

going to print. Finally, now computer and software. First thing that you need to do when you're going

to edit for printing is dim your monitor to about 50%. Your monitor is a backlit display. What comes

out of the printer is reflective.

Two different worlds. Well, the way that you can, you know, bring those worlds closer together

is by dimming your monitor. And when you do that and you edit your image with the monitor down

about 50%, what will come out of the printer in terms of tones will be much closer to what you're

seeing on the monitor than if you have it up like 80 or 90%. Then that print is going to come out

looking dark to you, right? So dim your monitor.

Down to about 50%. Next thing you want to do is make a virtual copy of the image that you're going

to print. You don't want to work on your master. When you're editing for printing, that's a whole

different ballgame. Your master is more, generally speaking, for viewing on electronic devices.

This is going to be for reflective surfaces. So make a virtual copy of it, and then you can just

do what you want to do to it. And you don't have to worry about having to re-edit your master

to see what's going on. First thing I like to do is crop the image to fit the paper size or to fit

the proportions that I want. So if I'm going to be making a very nice 11 by 14 print, if I'm going

to go full frame, if I'm going to go edge to edge, then I want to crop my image 11 by 14 so that

there's no surprises when that image comes out of the printer, right? So the printer has positioned

your image correctly on the printer. So I'm going to go full frame, and I'm going to go edge to edge.

And I'm going to go edge to edge. And I'm going to go edge to edge. And I'm going to go edge to edge.

Because you've already set those parameters. Crop the image to the proportions that you want.

And again, this is your virtual copy that you're editing for printing. Next, you want to convert

your color image, if it starts out as a color image, to black and white. And this is where

the black and white presets in Lightroom are so nice. On1 has fantastic black and white presets.

Or you may want to do something like put the image inside of the printer. And you can do that

silver effects pro where you really have some great black and white tools to work with that's

what i use personally silver effects pro i'm using version 6 right now or you might want to do

something like dxo film pack which also has some great black and white looks but you really want to

edit this thing in black and white right you don't want your printer to convert it to black and white

you want to send a black and white file that's as close as to what you want to the printer and then

let the printer do its thing from there and again the presets in most of the apps capture one pro

too also has great black and white presets are called styles in capture one pro but use something

like that or silver effects get that image oh just get it so you're excited about it on the screen

and then

i'm pretty sure you'll be excited about when it comes out of the printer when you're setting up

your print job make sure that you set the correct media type that'll be in the print dialogue box

and this is critical to the image being printed correctly the right amount of ink going on the

paper because media type you know would be luster or glossy or matte you know whatever you happen

to be using that determines how much ink goes on the printer and that's what i'm going to be

talking about in this video so i'm going to show you how to set the right amount of ink going on the

paper so that the proper amount of ink goes for the type of surface that you're printing on so of all

the settings that you do in the print dialog box the media type is super important and then when

it's time to make your final print do the best quality settings so you can get the most out of

that image when it goes onto the paper then finally let those prints dry down for 10 minutes

before making any judgments you'll be surprised

how much they change from the time you see them coming out of the paper tray there

to the time they dry down 10 minutes later they'll get better they get better every time

as they dry down and then look at them under a nice soft diffused light something that's relatively

neutral you know daylight as we like to call it and that's the best way to view your images

once they've dried down then if you want to make any adjustments you can do that

based on the dry down version of the print and then remember you're only working on the virtual

copy of the image not the master file itself the last tip i have for you is that when you

get a print out of the printer the way that you like make some notes on the back of that print

and then put that in the box of paper so if you're printing on

satin paper you get one of those images and it's exactly the way that you want or so close

make all the notes on the back all the settings everything that you can think of every variable

that you can think of make that note on the back of the print and then keep that print in that box

of paper what will happen is next time that you go to print on that paper surface then you have

that guide print there as a starting point and it'll save you sheets of paper and it will save you

save you ink up the road. All righty. Printing black and white is a blast. It's one of the more

satisfying things that we can do in photography. And regardless of the kind of printer you have,

I hope you give it a try. I think you'll really like doing it.

Canon Pro 1100 17-inch printer promises richer blacks and blues. This is an article

on Petapixel, and I have a link in the show notes. So we were talking about consumer printers

earlier and how much you can get out of them. Well, if you really want to get serious and get

into some fine art printing, Canon has just updated its Pro 1100, and it's a 17-inch printer,

which means you can do nice big prints out of it. I'm going to read you a little bit about it.

Probably more aspirational for most of us, but it's nice to know what's going on.

in the world of printing. Canon has announced a new A2 17-inch class printer,

the Image ProGraph Pro 1100. Through its 12 Lucia Pro pigment inks, so this is a pigment ink printer,

the professional grade printer promises gallery quality prints at home or in a studio. The Pro

1100 succeeds the Pro 1000 announced way back in 2015, which is currently Petapixel's

recommendation for the best photo printer for color accuracy. While the Pro 1000 also uses a

dozen inks, the Pro 1100 uses brand new inks that promise deeper black levels and richer blues,

especially dark blues, and smoother color gradation. The Lucia Pro 2 inks also include

Canon's Chroma Optimizer, ensuring smooth reflections and anti-bronzing,

properties to prints. It is a safe bet that there's a new top choice regarding Petapixel's

color accuracy printing recommendations. Looks like we have a video. Yeah, we have a video

for the Pro 1100. They get into some of the details about pigment inks. So, you know, there's

pigment ink printers, which tend to be more archival than the dye-based inks. My little

multifunctional that I was talking about, the G7X, the G7X, the G7X, the G7X, the G7X, the G7X, the G7X,

that's a dye-based ink. They're good for 20 years, possibly more, depending on how the prints are

managed. Whereas pigment ink prints can go over twice as long under the same conditions, sometimes

up to 60 years, which is, you know, pretty cool, again, depending on how they're managed. And they

also get into the different types of media that the printer accepts. And I'm looking at this thing

here, and it is, it is a big printer.

So you're going to need to have some space for it. It has a pretty large footprint. And I'm also

looking at a black and white print coming out of it that looks really good. Looks really good.

Anyway, so this printer is available to pre-order today for $1,299. Impressively,

this is the same price as the Pro 1000, launched in October of 2015.

So again, if you want to get your serious gallery print thing going, or archive print thing going,

and you want to make some big ones, this is definitely a printer to look at.

Can photography competitions help your progress as a photographer? This is an article on F-stoppers,

and I have the link in the show notes. I'm just going to read you a little bit about it here,

and then we will talk.

There are many photography competitions out there to enter regardless of your preferred genre.

But will they help you improve your photography skills, or are they just for bragging rights?

This video looks at photography competitions and what can help progress your photography.

As photographers aim to improve their photography skills, they often encounter competitions where

they can measure themselves and potentially gauge their progress as photographers. In past Q&A video,

William Patino was asked to talk about photography competitions. He said,

he was asked if photography competitions were beneficial, and he answered that he did not think

they were for most photographers. After receiving feedback on his reply, Patino revisits that answer

to address it more completely. Patino advises that he doesn't think competitions are right

for everyone. Sometimes it is simply the stage one in their photography journey that makes them

prohibitive. For example, someone only a few months into their photography pursuant,

entering a competition against a seasoned professional can end up being more discouraged

than beneficial. Patino also discusses some things to watch out for in competitions and advises that

if you do enter a competition, choose wisely. Choose competitions judged by photographers and

judges whom you respect in your genre. Also watch for image rights grabs, where by entering the

competition you give up rights to your image. While Patino advises that if you enter a competition

which is a very simple and simple competition, you can easily get a lot of the same results.

Patino clarifies his answer from the previous Q&A, and acknowledges that competitions can have their

place. The other tips he provides in this video are very helpful. They range from who is the best

judge of your photography to steps you can take to progress through your photography.

So it's kind of fun. It's a good video. And if you're thinking about competitions,

and you're thinking about, are they right for you? And if they are, you know, what kind of

competition should you enter i think there's a lot of good food for thought in this video

and it's really worth considering i'm not against them at all my feeling about photography

competitions is that you need to set your expectations accordingly right going into

this thing and thinking that if you don't win or if you don't place that your photograph is a failure

and a lot of times that just is not the case and to give you a real life example i was just

at the county fair here where they have a gigantic photography competition

every year it's so much fun to go through that hall and look at all the images

and i look at how those prints were judged and i have to say that i disagreed with a lot of them

and if i were a judge i would have moved some third place ribbons to first place

and

i would have moved some first place ribbons to third place or honorable mention so you know it

really does depend on the criteria being used to evaluate the images and who's doing that and you

just can't put you know your perception of who you are as a photographer in the hands of someone that

you really don't understand where they're coming from in terms of judging so again set your

expectations

that being said they can be a lot of fun and when you do succeed let's say you do get that blue ribbon

that really feels good and you should enjoy it so anyway a pretty pretty good article pretty good

video here on photography competitions and i have a link in the show notes

all right let's take care of a little virtual camera club business i want to give a big shout

out to our inner circle members the people that support us and the people that support us in the

world that support this podcast this community month in and month out they have their own space

on derek's story online where they get to compare notes share pictures all that good stuff we're

getting ready for a new photo challenge because we're into a new month now every month we have a

photo challenge where people share images based on a theme it's nice to have an assignment right

it's nice to have something that a prompt shall we say so i'm going to give you a little bit of a

look at that so that you go okay let me see what i have that pertains to this theme and you kind of

either dig through your stuff or you go out and you shoot something fresh it's just good to keep

the photography juices flowing and that's just one of the things that we do on the inner circle

if you're interested in joining us click on the patreon tile that's on all the pages of the

digital story you can nose around there sign up please sign up and i'll see you next time

because you will enjoy it and then soon you'll be getting an email from me welcoming you to the

inner circle site on derek story online and a huge thanks to our inner circle members for supporting

this podcast and finally i want to give a big pat on the back to our friends at red river paper

longest running sponsor of the digital story and you know i was talking about printing today

and i have learned so much from the

folks at red river paper and specifically drew but other red river paper photographers matt

suisse is another one that i have learned so much from you know matt suisse did a talk for us

on black and white printing and it was super educational and i learned stuff from him

and he reminded me of stuff i hadn't thought about in a while

great to have a resource like that and then we take that information put it into our online

workshops but i also bring it to the table and i'll see you next time bye bye

bring it into the podcast here a lot of information in this podcast is based on things

that i've learned through my association with red river paper so their benefit to us reaches

way beyond their excellent paper and i'm so happy to have them as a sponsor that being said

getting some paper and getting that variety of paper so that you have your

options open when you go to make a print that all happens by starting by clicking on the

tile that's on every page of the digital story the red river paper tile it'll take you to our

landing page and there you will see a code that gives you free shipping for your order

and you just use that story ship code and then you will get free shipping on your order the

holidays are coming up and you want to have paper on hand because nothing makes a better

last minute gift than a set of fine art greeting cards or a beautiful

print on red river paper a big thanks to them for supporting this podcast

right's going to do it for me this week i hope you enjoyed this show

i'm working on some great stuff for next week make sure you come back and join me

until then stay safe be creative take some pictures see you next tuesday bye bye now

you