Let’s say that this is the photograph I’m attempting to print: Now that we can see how our printer is going to reproduce those black and white tones in our image, it’s time to put that information to work in creating the best possible photographic print we can. You can use the gradient on the side too, to help you see how the various black and white tones are going to reproduce and see how much detail you’re going to retain in the darkest and lightest tones. At any point, you can return to the onscreen version and hover over a swatch or a tone on the gradient and see its value in the info panel. Or you may get all the way down to the second row before you can see a change in tone.Įvaluate the whites the same way, except this time you’re looking for the point at which you can see the square – the point at which the printer actually starts to lay down a visible layer of ink, and it’s not just paper white. Where can you see a difference in tone from one square to the next? You may find that the first 3 squares look identical, but the fourth one looks lighter. When evaluating the blacks, you want to look closely at that top section of swatches. Once you’ve printed it, you’re looking for how your printer/paper combination handles those grayscale values, especially in the whites and blacks. Since this is a printer test chart, it’s not doing us much good on the screen! The next step in this process is to print out your test chart using the same printer, paper, and setting that you intend to use for your photograph. Tips for Printing and Analyzing Your Black and White Test Chart By using a simple black and white test chart, you can see how your particular printer and paper handle the white and black areas of your pint and you can edit your picture to maximize the available dynamic range of your printer:
And if that’s not bad enough, this “black point” and “white point” will be different for every printer/paper combination!įortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem. The same is true with white – every printer has a point where white simply becomes “paper white” and you can no longer see any ink at all.
As the printer lays down ink to create your black tones, there will be a point at which you can no longer differentiate the detail in those blacks anymore. The problem is that, when printing, the printer usually hits the limitations of its dynamic range long before our eye (and camera, and monitor) stops differentiating detail. In a black and white photograph, you want to make full use of the entire dynamic range. The dynamic range is the range of tones, from the blackest black to the whitest white in an image.
The secret to a good black-and-white print is controlling the dynamic range.
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