Black & White prints

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Barbusdel

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Derek Wiblin
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Hi, everyone.

Can anybody recomend a good lab for B&W prints please?

The reason I ask is I have just recieved some prints from Ilford lab Direct, and I have to say that I'm somwhat disapointed with them. They appear flat and lack contrast. On my calibrated monotor the images look as I want them, but the prints...

Regards Del
 
they have to be printed as B&W, I've had decent results from asda with XP2.

don't look at the prints in photoshop or some other colour managed software as their printers will no doubt not use the embeded profile.
 
dalex_257 said:
I'd be interested to know as well if someone can advise - I have yet to find one that does them good and neutral (no casts)...
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are we not mixing digital and film here ?
 
donutagain said:
are we not mixing digital and film here ?
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Not sure what you mean by that - BW prints from film are fairly obvious and hard not to find by now. Of course I am talking about digital which my post would kind of suggest being added in response to the answer of this very clarification
 
I found printing I need to use soft proof in photoshop for the paper profile to see the variation and correct it. It may be worth while trying if a profile is available to see if your print matches the soft proof, at least you could correct for it in future,
 
dalex_257 said:
Not sure what you mean by that - BW prints from film are fairly obvious and hard not to find by now. Of course I am talking about digital which my post would kind of suggest being added in response to the answer of this very clarification
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If you look above someone mentioned XP2 which is in fact a type of film. A little bit of an over-reaction I think ;)
 
Sorry, I'm not in the UK anymore, but it's worth looking for a lab that uses proper black and white paper. A few down here have started to offer it, makes a difference.

EDIT: Or you could splash out on a good inkjet print, the new Epson machines are much better than a traditional Pegasus print from what I've seen.
 
I know it's not much help, but I sent some files off to ProAm imaging. The colour prints I got back were amazing for the money, but I had the same problem as the OP with the B&W prints - they were disappointing - not much contrast and a distinct magenta cast.

Given that they were 'machine prints' and relatively cheap, I wasn't surprised - a good B&W print (from digital) appears to be extremely difficult to achieve. If I want a display print, I send it off to a guy who is an expert in B&W printing, and I get stunning results, but an A3 print costs about £18 or so delivered on art paper.

If you are doing a lot of B&W prints then your own printer (something like the Epson 3800) is worth considering, however the running costs are quite high.
 
my point about XP2 was to show that the laser fuji frontier machines can print neutral B&W images. These machines print the images from both film and digital uploads and so long as the machine is told its a B&W image it will print B&W. If they are not then they come out with green or blue hues.


I can get neutral prints from my R2400 no problem either
 
donutagain said:
are we not mixing digital and film here ?
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Actually you can mix, simple make your image into a negative, print it onto OHP media then contact print it onto black and white paper and develop in chemicals. Quite a lot of people are doing this these days for experimenting with alternative processes :D

Anyway back on topic, don't know if you want a local supplier but here is one in South Manchester

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/

Some of the people at college have had colour and black and white done with them and they do look very nice
 
POAH said:
my point about XP2 was to show that the laser fuji frontier machines can print neutral B&W images. These machines print the images from both film and digital uploads and so long as the machine is told its a B&W image it will print B&W. If they are not then they come out with green or blue hues.
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Those guys seem to be doing something along the lines - but I have not used them for BW yet.
 
Knikki said:
Actually you can mix, simple make your image into a negative, print it onto OHP media then contact print it onto black and white paper and develop in chemicals. Quite a lot of people are doing this these days for experimenting with alternative processes :D

Anyway back on topic, don't know if you want a local supplier but here is one in South Manchester

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/

Some of the people at college have had colour and black and white done with them and they do look very nice
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what i meant by my post was ,,,the op was about bad prints from a digital file , then someone else said about colour casts from black and white ,,now i didnt think you would get colour casts from a digital file ,
only from a c41 developed film thats been printed on colour paper , hence the blue/green/sepia effect .hence my are we mixing digital with film remark.
 
milou said:
I've used Printspace for mono work on the Hahnemuhle and Kodak metallic papers - fine work indeed. BPDphotech are also recommended although Printspace has the better paper choices.
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Thanks, I'll give them a try then...
 
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