Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Howdy All,

1.  As far as I can tell, all I need to do to print a B&W image thru QU is to set the PRO-100 driver to "Black and White Photo Print", no other settings in QU -- is that correct?

2.  I've become addicted to photo printing paper, lots of different surfaces.  And like most addicts, I've developed an obsession, in this case, with trying to do what is probably impossible:  make a decent B&W print on matte paper, maybe including canvas.  Yeah, I know, no lectures, please.  I'm able to get a decent (acceptable?) print on glossy-type papers (including semi-glosses).   So I've been playing with Brightness and Fill Light in the Adjust tab of the Editor.  (While writing this, I just realized I should also play with Curves.)  Any thoughts on what else to attempt?  (I generally prefer color.  I have no idea what's come over me.)

--George

Hi Bill,
Not necessarily! It may look ok and give true grey tones but the balance of the conversion may not suit every image.
In QI Image Editor in the Select Color tab there are various choices for converting to black and white - and sepia toning.
See attached screen shot - there are a few extra rows there that I have created but the main ones are:
Black & White; Blue Separation; Red separation; Green Separation; Sepia.
With Black & White Mike has carefully balanced the conversion to match what the human eye perceives which usually give a very nice result.
The next point I would make and use is I treat printing black & white as a colour print and use the printer profile appropriate to the printer and paper and ink I'm using. A good color profile should give neutral greys on any print.
I have printed on Epson Archival matte paper with reasonable success, but like a colour print, there's less contrast. My favourite paper for colour and B&W is Ilford Smooth Pearl -it's a sort of lustre.
These are some recent B&W image I printed for a competition a few weeks ago.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/37358229804/in/album-72157686083534842/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/37358229804/in/album-72157686083534842/)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/38036805502/in/album-72157686083534842/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/38036805502/in/album-72157686083534842/)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/37358230674/in/album-72157686083534842/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/37358230674/in/album-72157686083534842/)

I hope this helps your addiction  ;D
Terry

Hi Terry,

Actually, I'd found and read through several previous posts on converting color to B&W, using the Editor and Sel. Color dialogue.  My question was actually more generic, printing images already converted (using Topaz Studio Black and White Adjustment or Tabaz Labs BW Effects), or even (imagine this) something already shot in mono.   :o

I'm extrapolating from your reply that there are not any other additional tweaks for BW printing that I'm overlooking. 

I did play a little with the Sel. Color filters, which would do the job if I wasn't already familiar with the Topaz programs.

Unfortunately, you didn't help with my addiction:  when I get back to experimenting, I'm going to print out at least one color image with the just the printer driver set to B&W -- I'd never considered that.  Thanks!  (not sure if that's meant in gratitude or sarcasm.   ;D  )

Thanks for the reply,

--George

I produce excellent B&W images on my HP Z3200 on matte (Breathing Color Elegance Velvet) and on canvas (Breathing Color Lyve). I set the printer to use only the grayscale inks, so there is no colour "leakage" in the profile. My clients generally provide the B&W images pre-converted. If I do it myself, I use the B&W adjustment layer in Photoshop and sometimes luminance masks (Tony Kuyper's plug-in). In some cases, the image shadows will plug up, so I use a curve to bring that up a bit before printing to get the most contrast on the paper. I print with Black Point Compensation. I don't use Qimage nor the printer driver to do the B&W conversion.

Cheers!

Brad