I was going through some of my B&W film prints and was reminded of how amazing true b&w film was. While I'm fairly comfortable converting my digital stuff to bw I'm wondering if anyone has a secret weapon paper for their B&W prints?
I'm mostly interested in glossy prints for this as I've already nailed down the matte papers.
I've tried many glossy papers - epson, Ilford etc...
Maybe it's a printer issue? I'm using an Epson R1800.
Ken, I've not been able to print a serious B&W these past two years with my R1800 until I tried Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk just this week. No more color casts, finally!
I've read good things about Hahnemuhle's and Harman's Baryta offerings too.
The Harman Gloss FB is beautiful, very glossy, but it doesn't detract from the image in any way. It is very fragile though, scratch prone. I haven't tried the Hahn or Ilford or Epson Exhibition Fiber, but they're all supposed to be nice..
Many paper manufacturers use paper of some sort to "wrap and hold" the loose paper roll closed with tape. On their baryta paper, Hahn uses "wax" paper---and I've found this helps to lessen fine scratches at least at the beginning of the roll. So I now use wax paper to secure the Harman roll.
After printing, I let the Harman Baryta set overnight---and then seal with Premier Art Spray. Much less prone to scratching now.
Both the Hahn and Harman are also excellent with color images, btw.
Emile:
I'd heard good things about the Ilford but haven't found any here at my usual places. Thanks for the tip though, I'll get more serious about finding it!
floris & KD: Yes the Harman gloss FB is very nice and quite similar to the Epson Exhibition Fiber (tried both). Looking forward to trying the Hahn Baryta as I quite like their papers. Good idea about spray sealing them for scratch resistance.
kdphotography wrote:
A note about "scratching" on Harman:
Many paper manufacturers use paper of some sort to "wrap and hold" the loose paper roll closed with tape. On their baryta paper, Hahn uses "wax" paper---and I've found this helps to lessen fine scratches at least at the beginning of the roll. So I now use wax paper to secure the Harman roll.
After printing, I let the Harman Baryta set overnight---and then seal with Premier Art Spray. Much less prone to scratching now.
Both the Hahn and Harman are also excellent with color images, btw.
I do the same.. well, I use sheets but after printing and letting it sit out I'll spray and they're much more robust. As long as you're careful it's not a problem, just need to always be thinking about it.
Has anyone tried out the b&w ink from inksupply.com for the R1800 – as seen in this months Shutterbug? I've ordered a set but they're already out of stock, so it'll be a few days. I've heard of fantastic results with them.
The MIS inks are superb. You will be amazed at the high quality of them. I love them so much I will not use anything else. I use the ultratone inks on an epson 1280 printed on epson radiant white watercolor paper. Hahnemuhle's papers and Moabs are superb as well. I will be upgrading to an 1800 soon and stick to MIS inks.
I'm happy with Pictorico Pro Photo gallery HI-Gloss. It's expensive but the results are super.Very good for color also, but outstanding for B&W. I use it with my Epson 3800 in printer B&w mode.
I've been printing 16x20's on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk. It's one of the nouveau baryta papers, and, in that category, is warmer than the others (they're quite cool). I like the paper a lot.
I second kevin's feelings about the Ilford paper. I received a ten pack of it today and printed all ten pages within the hour. The paper is absolutely superb and I do like it a lot. It's already becoming my favorite and I just went and ordered 50 pages of the stuff.
If you can still find them, Adorama has trial pack of Harman's Baryta 8.5X11.
At $4.99 it's half the regular price. Some other stores have it , but only Adorama let you order as many as you want. Try it and since you seem to want to get a look and feel (and even the smell) of darkroom B&W..you'll love the paper.
Most of the suggestions here are for the "new" F type papers that generally use Photo Black ink.
The MIS and other ink sets are for matte papers.
I have been testing the various F type papers (Epson Exhibition, Harman F Gloss, Brilliant Museum Silver Gloss White) on a 2200 using the Ultra Chrome Inks and Quad Tone Rip software.
I suggest you start with the QTR and your R1800 Then see what inks you may want to try.
QTR eliminates the color cast and provides a great deal of tonal control. It also permits building an optimized profile for each paper.
Good Luck. Have Fun.
The MIS site has info about QTR or you can go to the website directly:
I think the Harmaqn paper is great for b&w. I have also had good experience with Inkpress Fiber Gloss. half the price of the Harman, nice tonality in b&w. Some gloss differential when still wet, right off the printer. Admitttedly Harman is the best I have used. Michael Riechmann likes the Ilford Gold Fiber Gloss, but I'm not a fan of luster finishes, I always printed b&w in the darkroom on gloss paper hung to dry. Harman is a lkittle glossier than that, Inkpress a tiny bit more. Inkpress is from InkJet Art.
