Digital Black and White

Our specialist black and white digital photography page

We’ve lots of articles on this site covering black and white digital photography and other monochrome issues. There are also many Black and White Photos in the Gallery

If you are just starting out with digital black and white, then this particular article may be of interest:

Black & White digital photography – an Introduction

This page is a reference point for all our digital black and white photography related articles and reviews.

It covers all aspects from taking photos for b&w use, processing and editing them (converting colour to b&w) and producing black and white prints.

Articles listed here are those with significant sections dealing with aspects of black and white photography.

Other index pages

• Keith’s photo blog
• Articles and Reviews
• Prints and printing
• Colour Management

Why Black and White

There is a resurgence in interest in black and white photography.

I’m reminded of this quote from someone who’s original work, and ability to explore new techniques I admire:

– Ansel Adams
forward to his book “the Negative”, published January, 1980

Black and White Photography

The image to the right is a special black and white printer test image.

Keith Cooper has created it to test the quality of black and white printing.

This is the latest (2014) version of our standard black and white printer test image, first published in 2005

The new test image incorprates a number of features designed to make it more useful in testing and then improving monochrome print output.

Many features are also directly copied from the old version so as to maintain compatibility with exisiting test prints.

It’s quite a harsh test, but covers most areas where printers have difficulties, such as shadow detail, colour casts, and linearity. All the various parts are explained and an A4 300ppi sized version is freely available for download. There are versions with a 51 and 21 step greyscale ramp available for creating QTR ‘correction’ profiles.

Black and White photography articles on this site

The articles and reviews are grouped into different categories. You can look through all the articles via the categories selection at there right, or use the search box.

Articles

• A simple black and white print A simple black and white print workflow aimed at showing just how easy it is to create a black and white landscape print, with a few simple edits.
• Keith Cooper’s paper reviews Keith's photo paper reviews - collected data from all the papers for printing photos that we've tested over the years. Helpful if you can't get them where you live. Matt, satin, lustre and glossy
• Printing low megapixel images at large size Printing low megapixel images at large size, looking at resizing and image editing techniques that let you make larger prints than you thought possible. Getting good prints at A2 and 17" x 25" sizes
• Better photography by printing your work Better Photography from prints. Printing your photos is a useful skill to work on. 5 steps towards getting great prints that will help you improve all of your photography
• Keith Cooper’s City Light Luminar presets Keith's 'City Light' presets for MacPhun's Luminar photo editing software. Developed for architectural images when converting from colour to B&W. Before and after examples, and how they differ from 'straight' B&W conversions. Also using them as a luminance adjustment for colour images.
• Moving back to film photography Returning to film? Rediscovering old film equipment offers a simpler more direct world of photography. Is it time for Keith to buy some camera batteries and rolls of film?
• The art of the big photographic landscape print What makes for a great looking large 'fine art' print? What differences do you need to consider when deciding to make larger prints (A2 and above). Larger prints are that work are far more than just more megapixels, sharper lenses and big printers.

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Reviews

• Panoramic printing review using Fotospeed paper Wide prints and panoramic photo composition. Review of Fotospeed panoramic paper (210mm x 594mm) for wide prints colour and black and white. Some thoughts about making wide prints work.
• SpyderX Studio review Review of the Spyder X Studio kit from Datacolor. Includes the Spyder X Elite monitor calibrator, SpyderCube white balance and exposure tool and SpyderPrint printer profiling kit for creating ICC printer profiles
• DxO Nik Collection 2- review info. Nik Collection 2 image editing plugins - Updated Nik plugin collection from DxO with improved compatibility for modern apps. Links to Keith's detailed reviews and discussion of new functionality
• Fotospeed Fotospeed Smooth Cotton 300 paper review Fotospeed Smooth cotton 300 paper review. Smooth matte surface surface, Cotton based 300gsm white paper. Takes a good ink load and for a matte paper gives solid colour and B&W tonality
• Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 paper review Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 paper review. Smooth unglazed gloss surface, Cotton based 325gsm natural warm white paper. OBA free. Making large exhibition quality prints.
• Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 paper review Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 paper review. Smooth unglazed gloss surface 300gsm natural white paper. Making large exhibition quality prints
• Nik plugins by DxO – review info. Looking at the Nik image editing plugins - The updated version of the Nik plugin collection is launched by DxO with improved compatibility for modern apps. Links to all of Keith's detailed reviews of the plugins

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Printing

• Epson Stylus Pro 3800 review Review of the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer. Desktop printer is 17 inch print width and takes A2 sheets, photo and fine art papers.
• Paper review Permajet Fibre Base Gloss Testing Permajet Fibre Base Gloss, a 'Darkroom feel' gloss or semi-gloss lightly textured paper. Tested on an Epson SP2400
• QTR and PrintFIX PRO to get better black and white prints Using the PrintFIX Pro colorimeter with QTR to make greyscale ICC profiles to improve linearity for black and white printing.
• Why don’t my prints match my screen? Why your prints often don't match your screen very well. Some explanations, solutions and ways of dealing with the problem
• A Black and White test image Special test image designed for black and white print checking. Includes explanation of use for all features of the downloadable image.
• MonoChromePro pigment inks for black and white printing Review of the MonoChromePro pigment ink set for black and white printing. Includes custom profile curve creation procedures for using QuadToneRIP (QTR). Making use of black and diluted black (grey) ink sets for monochrome photo printing
• Better Digital Black and White printing on your Inkjet printer Simple technique to make linearising curves for black and white photo prints. Measuring test prints with flatbed scanner provide data for curve construction

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News

• Keith Cooper’s talks about printmaking Keith Cooper talks about making large prints at The Photography Show 2017 - Getting great looking big prints from your work. From camera to print, the complete workflow
• New Canon papers announced Canon USA announce three new Premium Fine Art papers — Premium Fine Art Smooth, Premium Fine Art Bright White and Premium Polished Rag. Designed to produce, rich-color reproduction, and detailed expression of gradation. Keith has a roll of the Fine Art Smooth for an upcoming paper review

Useful B&W resources

Useful Black and White related resources

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More print related information

For information about other printers, paper reviews and profiling (colour management) see the Printing section of the main Articles and Reviews page, or use the search box at the top of any page. There are also specific index pages for any articles connected with the following topics:

• Digital Black and White
• Tutorials and 'How to' articles
• Colour Management
• Printer test images
• Why do your prints look wrong?

More of Keith's articles/reviews (Google's picks to match this page)

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