Black and White - Printing papers and their weaknesses

Dear Stet,

The tones were achieved by using Nik Filters. These are plugins provided by NIK and I have found them particularly helpful, especially with Black and White.

Having converted from colour to BW using channel mixer in Photoshop and desaturated the result, upon printing the hue always came out green. Now what I do is simply add one more stage using the NIK black and White conversion filters. This removes every ounce of colour from the photograph. I print on Ilford paper - which in my view is the best. Ilford has two papers that I use constantly 1.) Smooth Gloss Paper and 2.) Smooth Pearl Paper. The profiles for these printing papers are provided free at the Ilford Website. There is a different profile for each printing machine. A cheaper paper that I like comes from Konica and the profile is also provided at the Konica website.

I have mentioned all of this since in the past I have always had toruble with printing and have always been disappointed by "Oxidisation" of the Black colour in my prints. Eventually, I threw out this paper and was very happy to see the new printing papers arrive. These papers are available at Data IT - in Fortune Tower or Phanthip Plaza.

In conclusion I have written this email for the benefit of others who prefer to print their photographs. I always do !

Kind regards and many thanks for the comments made.

Michael Reid