Digital BW, The Print

Cleavis,

Excellent points. Most particularly what is neutral. I think the 
discussion is centered around two issues. One, the quad ink sets have 
tended to be warmer than most silver gelatin prints. Closer to 
platinum. Two, getting a good neutral using a CMYK ink set is often 
difficult without getting a split toning effect. And of course this 
entire issue is an inkjet issue and may not apply to other forms of 
digital output.

So the "neutral" many, but by no means all, are shooting for is a 
hazy target that includes the popular silver papers such as Ilford, 
Oriental Seagul, Agfa and Kodak with mild to moderate selenium 
toning. Looking at my own silver prints which cover a number of 
papers and variations in toning this covers a range of tones but they 
are all rather subtle.

One of the issues with the quads is that you are more limited in tone 
with a given ink. You can only change tone by changing papers. The 
MIS VM is an attempt to address that in a single ink set and offers a 
great deal of tonal latitude along a yellow-blue transition.

Some selenium toned prints seem to range from brown to magenta or 
blue to magenta or brown to yellow within a single print.

I also believe that there is a variation in individual sensitivity to 
print tone or color. I am very particular about this but others may 
be less so or their taste may favor a different tone than my own 
preferences.

I do not see trying to match the exact tone of a particular silver 
print as a worthwhile task. The inkjet prints have qualities of their 
own. All we need is enough variety to have something that appeals to 
all tastes. Since there is a great deal of variation in the 
preference in silver fiber paper, it would seem very unlikely that we 
would all want exactly the same tone in our inkjet prints.

In terms of the group topic B&W means monochrome prints. People 
searching for a sepia, cyanotype or other strong tone in their inkjet 
prints are well served by the archival color ink sets available. 

Martin Wesley

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., lyonscox@m... wrote:
> My visit here has been short so far.  There is a lot of discussion 
> about what's neutral, etc.
> 
> THE (caps on purpose) reason to achieve neutral grays from my point 
> of view is to know how to do it.  From there you have confidence in 
a 
> baseline and can push a print in a direction of color (if so 
desired).
> 
> When people speak of looking at a silver print that's neutral I 
> wonder what they could be looking at?  In our family a 'neutral' 
> silver print has to come from a chlorobromide based paper because 
it 
> has the potential of warm and cool.  Bromide papers are always 
> referred to as cool, period.
> 
> I've seen a Joseph Sudek print that was green, completely and 
> appropriately, but could still be referred to as a B&W print since 
it 
> was monochromatic.  Sheeler's earlier prints were warm 
> (platinum/palladium) but are still B&W in my book and a specific 
> media within it.  I once saw a Sheeler in a show, there was a bench 
> near by and I was glad for it.  The picture literally sat me down 
and 
> we studied it for a long while.
> 
> Cleavis