Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

I am new here.  I used to be a 4x5 black and white photographer 
with my own darkroom - pretending I was Edward Weston or 
Paul Caponigro or some other hero. In more recent years I have 
been a color medium format landscape photographer and am 
now using an Epson 10000 with archival pigment inks to make 
my color prints.  

I have an interest in trying to scan some of my old B and W 
negatives and print them digitally.  My question is can I get 
excellent inkjet b and w prints from my Epson 10000 or would I 
need to buy a second printer (such as an Epson 7000 or 9000) 
that will let me use third party quadtone inks.  I am very 
interested in prints that have some degree of permanence (thus 
the Epson pigment inks).  

I must admit to having seen very few b and w inkjet prints and 
thus don't have a good feel for how they compare to silver 
darkroom prints (I suspect you have discussed this one at great 
length).  I have printed at least one almost b and w image I like 
by simply turning the saturation down to almost zero in a Hue/Sat 
adjustment layer, but this started as a color image not a b and w 
negative.  

So would I be wasting my time to try and get an excellent b and w 
print from my Epson?  

Many thanks!

Tom Andrews
www.wildlandart.com

> My question is can I get
> excellent inkjet b and w prints from my Epson 10000 or would I
> need to buy a second printer (such as an Epson 7000 or 9000)
> that will let me use third party quadtone inks.


Tom, welcome,

One big problem you may experience using the Epson pigments for BW is their
relatively high metamerism. Now, I know Epson is working with the GCR of
their printers to help with this (means mixing a higher percentage of black
ink into the desaturated and neutral tones, since it's less metameric than
the color inks), but I haven't seen any BW prints from a 10000 to know how
effective it is. I only know BW prints off a 2000P were very objectionable
to my eye, as they were usually garishly green in daylight.

So, the quads are much less metameric than most if not all color pigment
inks. The other thing with the quads is when they fade, and all inks will
fade, they fade gracefully to warm, whereas the color inks may fade in any
direction depending on what color in the set is the weakest link.

Todd

PS, How do you define dynamic range?  Just kidding...