Digital BW, The Print

I just wanted to contribute my own thoughts on these issues.
 
First, I don't think we are ever going to see any inkjet technology that
produces a print identical or even close to an air dried silver fiber print.
The problem is that with a silver print your pigment, the silver particles,
are suspended in a transparent gelatin. The layer is very thin but it is
still three dimensional. When light falls on the print some is reflected
directly from the pigment and some light passes through the gelatin to
reflect off the paper base coating and back through the pigment structure to
your eye.
 
With the very nature of inkjet the pigment will always be sitting on top of
the paper to a greater extent with some soaking into the paper. 
 
There is no way these two very different structures will look the same.
 
To my mind and eye they both look great. My take is that trying to produce
silver print clones with inkjet printers is a fruitless quest. If you want
to make silver prints, make silver prints. This is not a question of digital
printing vs. traditional printing. The technology for making flawless
contract negatives from digital files is very well developed and the results
are absolutely gorgeous.
 
The only inkjet technology that seems to come close to silver is dye ink or
perhaps Ultrachrome inks on RC type papers. These can be a very good match
to RC silver prints and if that is satisfying to you then you are in luck.
The longevity, metamerism and the RC look are just are not acceptable to me
personally.
 
I like pigment inkjet prints on high quality matte paper. It is medium
worthy of use and needs no apologies in any regard at this point. Personal
and artistic tastes prevail and you really should be working in a medium
that you find satisfying.
 
As to the issue of the dedicated B&W printer, that is a non-issue for me
since I don't do any serious color printing. My color printing is limited to
an occasional family snap shot and my old 1270 with Epson dye inks on Epson
Colorlife paper does the job for me. (I have no eye for color and they look
as bad as you might imagine.<G>)
 
My collection of digital B&W prints made by other people is now close to 150
prints. Within the collection are representatives of just about every ink
set, paper type and workflow. This includes prints from 2200 and 7600 using
the RIPs with Ultrachrome inks as well as all of the grayscale sets, dyes as
well as pigments, and prints made with full color ink sets.
 
I have in the collection some really outstanding example of prints made with
the Ultrachrome inks and a RIP. These are really top notch quality prints of
wonderful images produced by people who have remarkable talents as
photographers and artists. These prints a of a caliber where I have to sit
and ask myself if I shouldn't follow the same path and stop knocking myself
using alternative inks.
 
After giving it a great deal of thought and looking over many prints I find
that I still have to give a slight edge to prints made with pigment
grayscale inks in dedicated B&W printer systems. The differences are slight
but to my eye there are subtle qualities in hue, tone and gradation that I
prefer. The differences are at a level that I think they may only be
apparent to master printers. Someone who is intent upon extracting that last
1% of quality out of his/her prints. This has as much or more to do with
artistic sensibility and critical print evaluation as it does with choice of
materials.
 
I don't intend to sound elitist or snobbish with this but the fact remains
that what we find pleasing or acceptable in a finished print is going to
vary greatly over the 3700 members. We represent a group that ranges from
very casual B&W printers to people who are dedicating a major portion of the
lives to the effort. We always need to keep that in mind when we read posts
here.
 
I think the choice should be pretty straight forward for most people. If all
you print is B&W then dedicate a printer to it. Why not? If you need some
office level color output, (an Yahoo map for instance) letter size printers
are dirt cheap. If your printing is largely color then one of the 7 ink
printers with a RIP to optimize B&W and color printing is definitely the way
to go. If you fall in a 50/50 split then I would still go for the dual
purpose printer. If you are printing mostly B&W and want to extract the most
you can then I would recommend a dedicated B&W machine with grayscale
pigment inks.
 
One last piece of excellent advice that comes from the late Fred Picker (who
in general I found to be extremely annoying and often wrong):
 
"Find a photographer whose prints you really like and then find out how they
did it."
 
I am fortunate enough to have several of Tyler Boley's 17x22 prints. To my
mind and eye he produces some of the finest inkjet photographs I have seen.
There are others that equal him but none that are better. Given that and his
long and extensive work in inkjet he is someone whose opinion I take very
seriously. Following Fred's advice I am leaning towards an Epson 4000 loaded
with Selenium and Warm Neutral PiezoTone inks and the StudioPrint RIP.
 
My two cents. Opinions will vary. Opinions will change as this technology
races ahead. 
 
Martin Wesley
www.carolyn.cc/Guests/MartinWesley/pages/MW_01.html
www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html
 


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