Printing B&W

nubbintom

Just a quick question, when printing B&W should the image be put to grey scale in photoshop?

Benster

Doing that will give you a better idea of how the contrast and tones will look in the finished print, so yes.

Or you could just print using black ink if your printer lets you do that, but in my experience you can miss out on a lot of tonal range that way.

nubbintom

Thanks Ben, but when I switch to grey scale, the photo becomes sepia looking, will it still print just pure B&W?

Benster

Hmm, not sure what is happen there tbh. It wouldn't be your actual display making it look off-grey, would it?

Why not just try making the B+W change, then doing a small-scale print and just see how it comes out? Give it time to dry before making final judgment too, some inks can look a little off-colour when they are wet.

BTW - I think nearly all inkjets use a mix of their colour inks to get a wider tonal range of grey. If yours has a colour-cast towards a certain colour you might need to calibrate the printer.

B.

nubbintom

Thanks B, but I got them printed at photobox.ie, B&W came back with a slight blue hue to the image, as I was saying when I convert to grey scale in photoshop, the image becomes seipa on screen.

DotOrg

nubbintom wrote:

as I was saying when I convert to grey scale in photoshop, the image becomes seipa on screen.

that doesn't make any sense unless your monitor is really badly calibrated

on my fuji photolab, b&w digital images come out pure b&w on the prints, if they come out blue/sepia they lab printing them don't know what they are doing

converting colour digital images to black and white, is best done in the 'curves' option of photoshop. gives far more flexibiliity in the tones and shades of grey you get

cianclarke

I print with bonusprint.ie - I convert to B&W using photoshop using my standard method (FM plugin), save as an sRGB jpeg and send it straight to them, simple as that!

melekalikimaka

fm plug in? what is this? does the shifting the hue etc in levels differ from this method?

cianclarke

Fred Miranda B&W workflow pro it's called, available from www.fredmiranda.com - by far the best black and white plugin available, well worth the minimal price they're asking for it. Check my webby in the B&W gallery for examples!