Black & White digital prints

[Jeff East]

Does anyone know where I can get a professional quality, fiber based paper reprint from a digital file souorce? I am looking at a possible job with a large foundation who wants their photo collection restored , but printed on museum quality black & white photo paper. Hope someone can help, i think i could put a dent in my mortgage if i could find one...Thanks!

[LindaJ]

Jess, you might want to go over to the Yahoo Group

DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint

which is a group of professionals who pursue high quality black and white printing. I'm sure they can refer you to a source.

Best of luck

Linda

[roger_ele]

These people can do it, I met them at a national convention for the photography industry, they can definently handle it ... they are in San Diego, California

http://www.photofactory.com/

If I remember right they use a film recorder with 4x5 b&w negative film and they do focus on high quality fiber printing and toning.

Roger

[Jeff East]

Thanks for those links, I have seen that the Photo factory will only reproduce a 16 x 20 print or larger, I only need 8x10 prints. I found that Epson is making a new archival pigmented printer that is in use by museums and sells for 1000.00. Now if I can get the foundation to purchase that......hmmmm...

[roger_ele]

Jeff,

We have a black & white darkroom in my studio. Because we offer Fiber printing I wanted to be able to print fiber from our digital work to round out our offerings and set us apart from our competition. I ran some tests and plotted the tonal shifts of a copy negative and created a curve adjustment that corrects for the shift in tones that you get from a copy negative.

This is what we do,
-Epson 2200 printer
-Do restoration
-Apply copy negative curves adjustment
-print on enhanced matte
-shoot copy negative and print

The way I created the curve was visual, I created a step wedge and added it to an image for testing. Printed it straight and shot a copy negative then made a print (a whole bunch of prints)where the mid gray and white and black matched. I then opened the original test image and by comparing the straight print with the copy neg print and clicking on each and ball parking how much of a shift there was on the patches where detail wasn't lost I was able to create an adjustment curve.

I basically looks like the reverse of a normal s curve. Copy negs loose detail in the highlights and shadows and increase contrast in the midtones. The adjustment curve lights the quarter tone and darkens the three quarter tone so that contrast is increased in the shadows and highlights and decreased in the mid tones.

My point in all this (besides sharing something I think is exciting), is to suggest that you could create an adjustment layer with a copy negative curve and make a print and then take it to any good lab that does fiber and have a copy negative and 8x10 made. You would not be limited to a lab that specializes in this. Give them a straight print to match as a guide.

You would need to inspire the lab about the possibilities to run the tests to figure the most appropriate adjsutment curve to work with thier copy negatives.

Or you could get the epson printer ... but you could probably charge more for the fiber prints ...

Loads of luck,
Roger

[VidKid]

Jeff,

When I worked for a lab 10yrs ago, we would send RGB B/W digital files to graphic house which had a quality film recorder. After gettin back a cheap 2 1/4 or 35mm color negative for $3-7, we would hand print fiber/RC prints with a BW enlarger from the color neg. The prints look great and sharp. Most graphic houses offered Ilford BW negs, but very costly. I'm sure negs are more expensive now and where I work now, it's all digital prints with Epson 9600, Kodak 8650 or a Pictography 3000. A Kodak 8650 will print great BW digital prints similar to RC with a BW ribbon which is available. Fiber and hand toning is still the best quality when you can find a lab. You could purchase a reasonably good used BW enlarger around $500-800 and print fibers up to 16x20 yourself. Some used BW enlargers are much cheaper, but will be limited to 8x10 prints.


VidKid

[Photo Grafix]

Jeff, contact San Miguel Photo Lab in New Mexico. They use a digital enlarger. It's awesome. I work with very, very picky photographers who specialize in B&W and they have been 100% satisfied. San Miguel Photo Lab will give you a free trial. You must pay for shipping, but it's worth it.

I've spent hundreds of hours and dollars trying to overcome the digital B&W printing obstacles and turned in my guns when I tried out the above lab. They are very, very friendly and helpful.

Sorry, I am away from my desk and cannot supply email or phone for them. But do a search on the internet. They have a good web site.

[Noelf]

Originally Posted by Photo Grafix

Jeff, contact San Miguel Photo Lab in New Mexico. They use a digital enlarger. It's awesome. I work with very, very picky photographers who specialize in B&W and they have been 100% satisfied. San Miguel Photo Lab will give you a free trial. You must pay for shipping, but it's worth it.

I've spent hundreds of hours and dollars trying to overcome the digital B&W printing obstacles and turned in my guns when I tried out the above lab. They are very, very friendly and helpful.

Sorry, I am away from my desk and cannot supply email or phone for them. But do a search on the internet. They have a good web site.

Your post made me curious so I looked them up, for those wanting the url it is http://www.bestlab.com/

- Noel

[Jeff L]

Thanks for the link! I think I'm gonna give these guys a test drive soon.

[CourtneyConk.Co]

Ive never tried this, but its an easy concept:
http://www.handcolor.com