Digital BW, The Print

To my Fellow B&W Printmakers:

I know that this will harken back to the infancy of digital B&W print making, but...

I started this odyssey because of a print I bought from Ron Harris about 1998/1999 timeframe. It is an absolutely stunning and quite lovely B&W print made, I believe, on an Epson 1270 using standard Epson dye inks, and a color adjustment layer to modify the overall tonality. I have kept it safely in its original envelope with glassine sheet over it and, to date, it's still looks to be in the same condition as the day it arrived on my doorstep. Oh, and it was printed on Epson Photo Paper. I originally bought it for two reasons: 1) I very much liked the image itself, and 2) I wanted to see what could be done in the digital lightroom. At the time, I was still doing all my B&W work in your typical darkroom. All  through my many (and there have been quite a few!) trials-and-tribulations over the years with digital B&W printmaking, the lovely quality of this print has always haunted my thoughts. Was I missing something? Was there some very basic "trick" to producing this type of print? Early on in my digital lightroom days I had attempted to match the quality of Ron's print, but just couldn't get what I wanted. I followed Ron's tips to the letter and tried many different "recipes" on my own. At no point, did I produce a print with the qualities (tonality) of Ron's photograph. So, I abandon this path and headed down many others...

Now, several years later and certainly much wiser to the ways of digital imaging the thought of that print came to mind. Once, again, I pulled it from its safe haven and was struck by the sheer beauty of it. I thought, hey, maybe, with my better understanding of PS and digital printing, in general, I could do better, nowadays. I have always liked the finish of Epson's Photo Paper; very similar to the air-dried silver papers I've used in years past. I selected a quite lovely B&W snowscene that I had printed numerous times on EAM, EEM, HPR, and, most recently, on Epson Velvet, whipped an old stock of letter size Photo Paper, and went to work. I selected this image because I am very familiar with the way it prints. I started with Ron's basic toning adjustment layer, went through many iterations of my own, and ended with doing some overall color toning with nik's Color Efex Paper Toner filter. I spare you all a long diatribe; bottom line: I was able to produce a very nice image on my Epson 1270 with the standard dye inks, and Epson Photo Paper. My last print looked quite close to the slightly warm color selenium toned silver prints I made in the darkroom. To say I was surprised would be an understatement!

Now, I know this combination is certainly not archival and that metamerism would be a factor if the print was displayed under various light sources, but consider this... How long would one of these prints last, framed under glass, in a typical room in your house with indirect daylight and/or tungsten illumination? What if it were sprayed with the Premier spray? This wouldn't be a combination that I'd sell or give to a friend, but for your own personal use/viewing, what's the harm? I remember reading on this forum that Paul was surprised by his prints on Epson Photo Paper with the UT-2 inkset. What do you gals/guys think? Am I crazy?

Alan Huntley

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