Digital Black and White

Our specialist black and white digital photography page

We’ve lots of articles on this site covering digital black and white photography and other monochrome issues.

If you are just starting out with digital black and white, then this particular article may be of interest. It’s a 2020 version of the original I wrote in 2004.

The basics of digital Black & White photography

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

It covers all aspects from taking photos for black and white 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. There are also some of my older Black and White Photos in the Gallery

Reference pages and test images

• Printer Test Images
• B&W printer test image
• Printer cleaning
• Paper reviews
• Black & White from colour – 20+ conversion techniques

Videos

• Keith’s YouTube channel has a specific digital black and white playlist.

Current printer reviews (include B&W sections)

• Dye based: G550 | XP15000 | PRO-200
• Pigment ink: PRO-300 | P700 | WF8690
• Hybrid ink set:  ET-8550
• 17″ width: P900 | P5000 | PRO-1000
• 24″+ PRO-2000 | P7000 | P7500 | P20000

^ All about making this image
…from idea to print

Other article index pages

• Keith’s photo blog
• Keith’s photography videos
• Articles and Reviews
• Prints and printing
• Photography book reviews
• Colour Management

Why Black and White

Black and white photography still inspires me.

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

Digital 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 current version of our standard black and white printer test image, first published in 2005.

The test image incorporates a number of features designed to make it 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 existing 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. There are also numerous articles that include its use.

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.

Videos

These are videos embedded in articles/reviews.

For a full index of all videos on YouTube, there is a categorised index page here:

Index: All of Keith’s YT videos

• Video: What is the best photo printerWhat is the best photo printer? I'm often asked about printer and print quality, but unless you know what it is you actually want the printer for, then it's difficult to answer. Some of the ways I decide what's good about a printer I'm reviewing
• Hahnemuhle natural line papersVideo and notes: Hahnemuhle natural line papers. The four tested are based on bamboo, hemp, agave and sugar cane fibres. Fine Art printing colour and B&W
• Video: Fixing unwanted colour tints in black and white photo printsVideo: Fixing unwanted colour tints in black and white photo prints. How to adjust the B&W printing mode for Epson and Canon printers. Removing green/brown/magenta casts seen in prints under some lighting
• Video: making ICC printer profiles for my reviewsVideo: Making icc printer profiles for my reviews. A review of using i1Profiler and the i1iSis spectrophotometer for making printer profiles
• Video: BW print workflowVideo: An example fine art BW print workflow with the 100MP GFX100S. Making a large black and white print from a medium format image

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Articles

• Printer Test ImagesCollection of printer test images - colour and monochrome (black and white). Test photos for printer and monitor checking.
• Dye inks or pigment inks for photo printingWould a dye based ink printer or one using pigment inks be better for your photo printing. What prints look best on what printer ink type?
• PRO-200 Black and white printingPrinting black and white on the Canon PRO-200 A3+ dye based ink printer. Addressing the problem of colour tints under different lighting. Different types of paper and optimising the reproduction of your photos.
• Black and White printing with the P700/P900Black and white printing on the Epson SC-P700 A3+ pigment ink printer. Different types of paper and optimising the reproduction of your monochrome photos. Also covers P900 and P5300/5370
• Custom media for the PRO-300Creating custom media settings for the Canon PRO-300 printer with the MCT software. Using the free Media Configuration Tool software for the PRO300 A3+ (13")printer
• Black and white printing with the PRO-300 [and 310]Printing black and white on the Canon PRO-300 and PRO-310 A3+ pigment ink printesr. Different types of paper and optimising the reproduction of your photos.
• Keith Cooper’s paper reviewsKeith'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. Regularly updated for new papers tested
• Digital black and white photographyExploring black and white photography and image editing. Methods of converting colour to B&W. How to get the monochrome image you want from a colour photo.

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Reviews

• MonoChromePro pigment inks for black and white printingReview 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

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Printing

• SpyderX Studio reviewReview 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
• Fotospeed Fotospeed Smooth Cotton 300 paper reviewFotospeed 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 reviewFotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 paper review. Smooth unglazed gloss surface, Cotton based 325gsm natural warm white paper. OBA free. Making large exhibition quality prints.
• Printing low megapixel images at large sizePrinting 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
• Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 paper reviewFotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 paper review. Smooth unglazed gloss surface 300gsm natural white paper. Making large exhibition quality prints
• Better photography by printing your workBetter 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
• Fotospeed Metallic Lustre paper reviewFotospeed Metallic Lustre 275 gsm paper review. A microporous coated paper with a metallic lustre surface finish, for dye and pigment inks. A4 sheet to 44" roll sizes available
• Canon imagePROGRAF TX-3000 reviewTesting the Canon TX-3000 36" width printer. Keith Cooper reviews the Canon TX wide format printer and plotter for photo and graphics printing. Also covers the 24" TX-2000 printer and 44" TX-4000

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News

• Epson SureColor SC-P5000 STD Printer announcedLatest information about the new SureColor P5000 17" large format printer from Epson. The replacement for the SP4900 A2 sized desktop printer.
• Keith Cooper’s talks about printmakingKeith 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 announcedCanon 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