Digital BW, The Print

I've been in a funk lately, and it's all Paul Roark's fault.  But
today while pulling weeds I finally found my way out.  Weed pulling,
you see, is my therapy.  It's when I get away from my computer and
existential challenges and focus intently on the nearly mindless
physical task, and often I do my best thinking.  That was the case
today when I finally emerged from a weeks long period of restless
unease about archival BW printing with my 2400.

It all began a few weeks ago when Paul sent me some sample prints of a
new printing method he had developed.  After several years of struggle
and frustration, through various unsuccessful attempts with MIS ink
blends, workflows, curves and profiles that kept failing and throwing
me me semi-happily back to first base with Eboni-BO printing to lick
my wounds and recoup for the next sortie, finally (and mercifully)
emerging into the nirvana of K3 printing with my trusty 2400 wherein I
had gotten comfortable in a life of happy, angst-free (and clog free)
printing, Paul comes along and invents a new and better 3-channel
method of Eboni-BO printing with the 1800, one that has all the
advantages of BO and virtually eliminates it's one glaring major
weakness.  

Suddenly we have a nearly perfect pure carbon archival fine print
solution that completely eliminates all doubts and rationalisations
regarding color inks in our prints, either mixed as dots on paper or
blended in the inks as toners.  And that's where my problems began.

The K3/2400 system had finally given me what I only could dream about
in the beginning: no fiddling with RIPs and profiles, RGB curves and
clogs - just work up the image, dial in the tone, and send it off to
the printer and get beautiful smooth gradations and first class dmax -
no muss, no fuss.  Finally I could concentrate on the photography,
make beautiful prints, and go about my business as a software
developer to earn a living.  So just as I had gotten used to it all,
along comes Paul with something better.  The nerve.

K3 ABW prints, beautiful as they are, contain some LC, LM and Y along
with the blacks, and there's the rub.  Theoretically they someday will
color shift as the color pigments fade at different rates than the
carbon blacks.  That's been a fly in the K3 salve, which Paul's new
3MK brilliantly eliminates.  The prints are gorgeous, with all the
punch, dmax and luminance that BO is famous for, but without the
infamous graininess, disliked by many.  And they are pure carbon,
which means virtually no fading or color shifting.  And they are low
cost to boot.  Ah, but there is a price to be paid.

The problem for me is that it means buying another printer, using QTR,
fiddling with curves, filling carts, resetting chips - all the things
I was very happy to leave behind when the 2400 came along.  It's not
that I'm lazy (I spend hours being a perfectionist working up the
images), but I'm always extremely busy with various projects and
activities and I'm just not inclined to be twiddling with all that
technical stuff.  I just want to take pictures and make beautiful
prints, thank you.  It is anathema for me to think about going back to
all that...but those gorgeous BO prints, truly archival....DARN!  What
to do...

So for weeks this background noise and debate has been floating around
in my mind, and today I finally resolved it.  Here's what it boils
down to for me:

1) K3/ABW prints are quite stable and will take a long time to shift.
 They are rated by Wilhelm as follows, depending on the paper:

- Framed under normal glass: 110 to >205 years
- Framed under UV glass: 110 to >300 years
- In dark album storage: > 200 years

2) I have a snowball's chance in you know where to become a famous
photographer who's prints are valuable and collected, etc.  So it's
not likely that my prints will be still around and coveted 100 years
from now.  I can think of two scenarios where a print might still
exist and be appreciated in 2107: a) a family portrait is passed down
through generations, and b) someone buys a print, likes it, displays
it, eventually dies, and the print is either inherited or is purchased
at an estate sale by someone who also likes, keeps and displays it,
and so on.

3) I figure that in 100 years or so if the print begins to shift, the
technology will be such that it could be scanned and reproduced with
perfect fidelity, much like we restore/reproduce old family photos
today.  The important thing will be that the image continues to bring
joy to it's owner(s) for another century, not whether it is original
or vintage or whatever.

As tantalizing as 3MK is, I'm not willing to give up the advantages of
K3 printing for it.  I also have confidence that Epson will continue
to improve it's technology and that their inks will become even more
lightfast.  Since I do sell prints, the printer is paying it's way, so
the ink cost is not so much an issue.  And oh what a joy not to have
clogs, occasional leaky poppet valves and bad chips. and the extra
software layer.  And the prints are beautiful, on both matte and fiber
glossy papers.  

I'm a happy 2400 camper.  Tomorrow I'm going to church, and then I'll
come home and pull some more weeds.

Regards,
Clayton

p.s. - for those who don't mind (or even like) using a RIP and
refilling carts, etc, I highly recommend looking into Paul's new 3MK
method.  IMO this is the most truly archival method of BW printing we
now have available to us, and the prints have a unique and stunning
beauty.


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm