Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer's Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing (Digital Process and Print)

384 Pages·2007·25.25 MB·English

by  Amadou Diallo

Mastering Digital
Black and White
A Photographer’s Guide to High Quality
Black-and-White Imaging and Printing
Amadou Diallo
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This book is humbly dedicated to the memory of
Bruce Fraser (1954-2006), whose writings and
lectures combined a deep understanding of
complex subjects with the willingness and ability
to communicate in an accessible manner.
His body of work stands as a touchstone for
all of us who write about digital imaging.
Foreword
I spent my youth and college days buried deep in photography— better. Why? Foundation: a basic knowledge of my craft. That’s
not so much shooting images, but spending days and nights in the right, craft. I went from doing output to making prints. It is a
darkroom. Processing film, making silver prints, and toning with process, from input, to manipulation, to making a print. I was a
selenium. It really made me happy. I had become a darkroom guy. craftsman again.
At some point, others started coming to me to make prints or to
This book will help with building that foundation and provide you
ask advice. It seems that all that time in the darkroom had made me
with a thorough understanding of the black-and-white inkjet print-
a craftsman of sorts. After college, I went on to other photography-
ing process. When I was asked to write this foreword, I figured I
related jobs, and earned the title of “Custom Black-and-White
would just skim through the book, then write something really
Printer” along the way.
quickly. I was wrong. I read it from beginning to end. Then I read
Fast forward to the digital age. Now, we could scan our film or shoot it again. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “This is good stuff!”
with a digital camera, manipulate the images in the computer, then
I recommend this book to beginners and experienced photogra-
off to the printer and presto, an inkjet print! Suddenly, everyone
phers alike for gaining the knowledge necessary to give you an edge
could make “good” prints. This is about the time I migrated to
in the creation of black-and-white images and prints. Mastering
Vermont and joined Cone Editions Press. I learned about inkjet
Digital Black and Whitecovers all the basics from equipment, to file
printing first on an Iris printer and then eventually moved to the
handling, to printing and beyond. Even if you’ve been involved with
Epson platform. We began making black-and-white images with
digital black and white for a while, this book introduces new ideas
color ink and then the seas parted and the wonder of quad black
and technologies of which you may have not been totally aware. It
printing arrived.
has inspired me to recommit myself to my chosen career.
I learned that printing—even with an inkjet printer—is still print-
In our printing studio and at our workshops, one of my favorite say-
ing, and being the person I was, I wasn’t happy to just click and
ings is, “Make a print and let’s see.” I’m heading for my printer;
print. I wanted to learn how the printer worked and what I could
what are you doing?
do to it to make prints that looked better. I just couldn’t accept that
Larry Danque
all our output would look the same. I listened and learned from my
Studio Manager
master printmaker, and once again found myself becoming a “spe-
Cone Editions Press, LTD
cialist” in black-and-white printing. That’s when I started noticing
East Topsham, Vermont
something. If I took someone else’s file and printed it, mine looked
Acknowledgments
It’s a crime that this book has only one name on the spine. The hardware, and software from numerous vendors. I’d like to espe-
number of people who have made this endeavor possible is stag- cially thank Shari Becker at Porter Novelli, Johan Lammens at HP,
gering. But my first and most heartfelt thanks go to my wife, Mishi Leonard Musmeci and Felix Ruiz at Canon USA, Evan Phillip
Faruqee, whose intelligence, compassion, and unwavering support Lippincott at Aztec Inc., Derrick Brown at Integrated Color Corp.,
for my creative endeavors have made me a better person than I C. David Tobie at Colorvision, Mike Collette at Better Light, John
could have become without her in my life. Nack and all the CS3 engineers at Adobe Systems Inc., Mark
Duhaime and Greg Hollmann at Hasselblad USA, Kari Kroeger at
Harald Johnson, my series editor, was the first to believe that my
Hahnemühle USA, Wayne Connelly at Innova Art USA, Mark J.
idea for this book could, and should, become a reality, and he
Rowe and Peter Supry at ErgoSoft USA, John Pannazzo at
enthusiastically convinced others of the same. Tyler Boley, in addi-
ColorByte Software, and Josh Lubbers at CSE, Inc.
tion to a thorough job as technical editor, graciously allowed him-
self to be my sounding board, never tired of explaining ideas and I’d like to thank the entire editorial, design, and production team
concepts (often more than once), and most importantly for my san- at Course Technology PTR, particularly Kevin Harreld for cham-
ity, seemed to always be in the office when I called. pioning the concept, Marta Justak for turning my manuscript into
an actual book, and Mike Tanamachi for designing the perfect
A good chunk of the information in this book would not have been
cover.
possible without the generous sharing of technical information,
About the Author About the Series Editor
Amadou Diallo is a New York City-based photographer, writer, Harald Johnson has been immersed in the world of commercial
digital imaging consultant, and teacher. He owns and operates and fine art imaging and printing for more than 30 years. A former
Diallo Photography, a studio that offers fine art printmaking and professional photographer, designer, and creative director, Harald
digital imaging workshops to a client base from Brazil to Brooklyn. is an imaging consultant, the creator of the Web site DP&I.com
Amadou’s words and images have been featured in national maga- (www.dpandi.com), and the author of the groundbreaking books,
zines and graced some of the most popular photography-related Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer’s and Artist’s Guide to
sites on the Web. His fine art photography has been exhibited in High-Quality Digital Output (2003), Mastering Digital Printing,
galleries nationwide and is in a growing number of private collec- Second Edition(2005), and Digital Printing Start-Up Guide(2005).
tions. For information about his photography or the services he Harald is also the founder of YahooGroup’s digital-fineart, the
offers, please visit: www.diallophotography.com. Amadou lives in world’s largest online discussion group on the subject of digital fine
Fort Greene, Brooklyn with his wife and son. art and digital printing.
If you’d like to share comments about the book, please e-mail
Amadou at [email protected].
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Why Inkjets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 1 The Printer Purchase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Color Management Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Image Gallery 1
Ambient Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Measurement Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 2 Test Charts and Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Building the Digital Darkroom 33
Chapter 3
Surviving the Technology Treadmill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Color Management for the
Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Are LCDs Ready for Prime Time? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Black-and-White Photographer 79
Screen Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Color Management: What Is It?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Judging Screen Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Color Management: Why Bother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Alphabet Soup: DVI, DDC, and LUTs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Problems with Digital Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Spectrum, Dynamic Range, and Gamut. . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Device-Dependent Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Device-Independent Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Photoshop Speed Boosts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
RGB into CMYK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Scanners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Out-of-Gamut Colors and Rendering Intents. . . . . . . . 84
Film Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Solutions for Digital Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Wet Mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The ICC Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Bit Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Calibration and Profiling: Kissing Cousins. . . . . . . . . . 88
Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Working with Color Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Soft Proofing: The Magic Bullet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Capturing Pixels: CCD Versus PMT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
viii Mastering Digital Black and White
Digital Black and White: Then and Now. . . . . . . . . . 104 Shadow Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Piezography and the Quad Black Revolution. . . . . . . 105 Grain Reduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
MIS Tones It Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Third-Party Scanning Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
RIPs Tuned for Black and White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Edit Now or Later? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
StudioPrint: A Precision Tool for Printmakers . . . . . . 107 Scanning Black-and-White Negatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
QuadTone RIP: Big Control, Small Price. . . . . . . . . . 107
OEMs: The Empire Strikes Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Chapter 5
Grayscale Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Photoshop in Black and White 167
Closed-Loop Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Grayscale ICC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 A Study in Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Color-Controlled Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 The Benefits of 16 Bits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Digital Black-and-White Pioneers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Tools Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 4 Palette Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Digital Capture 123
Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Image Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Blending Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Reading the Negative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Darkening Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Analyzing Digital Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Lightening Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Master and Derivative Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Contrast Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Matching Resolution to Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Size Does Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Layer Masks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Resampling Pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 History Brush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Capture Sharpening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Localized Edits in Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Digital Camera Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Color to Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Raw Versus JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Collecting Photons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Channel Mixer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Raw Converter: You’re the Boss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Calculations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Film Scans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Sharpening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Film Format and Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Soft Proofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Scanner Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Contents ix
Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Black-and-White Inkjet Printing 219 The Imaging Workflow 263
Matching Features to Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Raw File: An ACR/Photoshop Split Workflow. . . . . . 263
Color Versus Monochrome Inks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Capture Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Print Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Imaging Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Length of Ownership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Image Adjustments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Roll Versus Sheet Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Epson Inkjet Output with a RIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Service and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Black-and-White Negative: An Adjustment Layer
Printing for Hire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A Black-and-White Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Capture Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Multiple Black Dilutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Imaging Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Pigment Ink Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Image Adjustments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Enhanced Printer Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 HP Inkjet Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 3D Scan: A Composite Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Surface Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Capture Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Ink Compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Imaging Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Storage and Handling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Image Adjustments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Less Is More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Web Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Printing Gotchas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Ambient Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Chapter 8
Pigment Settling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 The Limited Edition 291
Nozzle Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
What Is an Edition?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Paper Dust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
The Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Final Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
The Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Output Sharpening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Look Before You Leap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Photoshop’s Print Dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Understand Your Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Printer Driver Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Communication Is the Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
RIP Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
History of the Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Pixels to Dots: The Printmaker’s Craft. . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Lithography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298