Topic: Mono prints from colour negatives

[choppert]

Hello world,

I've got quite a nice photo (in colour) which I'd like printing (traditionally) in black and white.

Looking at it one the web it sounds a right bloody faff!  And have been speaking with Leon about it too.

Anyone done this before?  I can't print myself so if anyone knows of a UK printer who would make a good fist of it I'm all ears.

Thanks,


Chops

[moominsean]

just from personal experience, printing a color neg straight onto bw paper makes for a very grainy picture. but with computers an such nowadays, maybe it can be done better.

[rore]

when i started taking pictures i only shooted color, later when i discovered my dad?s durst b30, i started to print those in bw paper. My results were really low low contrast wich, suited some pictures but not all of them.

when i got into bw film i never tryed to print color into bw paper anymore but, if i scan the negatives, i tend to use some green channel plus a little bit of red channel, or sometimes just the red channel alone (wich i love).

rore.

[Heather]

I guess digi is the only way here. You could still have it printed on B&W paper via Ilford's service if you're in the UK.  Check out ilfordphoto.com and click on their photo printing service link.

The colour neg to B&W I've printed is always very gray. Not so much of a problem with grain as with contrast. It takes forever to print as well because of the orange-masking in the base of the colour negative (which is what makes it low contrast).

Had another idea... Copystand. Make a big colour print, set up a copystand with a film camera full of B&W film. That'll get you a traditional print then.

[Pete_R]

There used to be a paper just for this, I think it was Panalure, or something like that, but I don't think it's been made for a long time.

If you definitely want it on traditional black and white paper, I would scan and fiddle with it to get what you want then use one of the labs that will print digifiles onto black and white paper. I've had quite acceptable black and whites printed from digifiles onto colour paper, but it's not the same look or feel as the real thing.

[Francois]

Kodak Panalure was the thing. It was a panchromatic B&W paper. It had to be processed using a dark green safelight or in plain darkness using regular B&W chemicals.

I think your best bet for now is to either do a repro job or scan and have it printed on a lightjet. Kodak does produce a B&W paper that gets processed in standard RA-4 chemistry. If you find a place that has it, you will get decent looking B&W prints in either cool tone or warm tone.

If you do a reproduction, remember that contrast always goes up when you reproduce the image. Process accordingly.

[Pete_R]

Monolab in brighton do hand prints onto fibre paper from digital files using a digital enlarger. That's another possibilty rather than use a lightjet printer.

[This-is-damion]

not sure why im even chipping in here, given my total and wide ranging lack of experience,   could you not make a digital neg?   i only know of these  from Ed and  his adventures in PoP.

Could you convert to B&W in photoshop then just print that out onto acetate (as i guess it is?)

would this work?

[Pete_R]

not sure why im even chipping in here, given my total and wide ranging lack of experience,   could you not make a digital neg?   i only know of these  from Ed and  his adventures in PoP.

Could you convert to B&W in photoshop then just print that out onto acetate (as i guess it is?)

would this work?

In a word, yes. Though I don't know anyone who uses the method for printing onto normal paper. Usually used for alternative processes where exposure times are long.

[Francois]

There's no real reason for it not to work... only thing is you might end up seeing the inkjet dots (photo paper has a higher resolution than alt.process.).
But those are so small that it might not make any difference.

You could also try making a negative from the color print at your local Xerox Machine. The one they got at my local Staples has a built-in photo and negative mode. Printing on regular paper could be the source of cheap experiments.

[choppert]

Well chaps I'm staggered!

What did we do before digital?  There must have been millions of photos taken over the years that people have wanted in B&W from colour negatives.

The reason I don't want to go down the PS route is because my scanner is a bit crappy.

Chops

[Pete_R]

What did we do before digital? 

Use Panalure...

How about getting it scanned by a lab?

[Francois]

Or if you have a good digicam, just take  snap of the picture