Can I make darkroom-style black-and-white prints from digital files?
Asked 2/12/2013
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2 answers
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I like the deep blacks and look of traditional wet black-and-white prints, and I’m not seeing that from inkjet prints. I’m considering a digital-to-film workflow: shoot digitally, edit and convert to monochrome, invert the image, have it recorded back onto film as a negative/slide, then use that for a wet print.
Is this a practical approach? Are there common pitfalls, or is there a better way to get a true photographic wet-print look from a digital image?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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Does it matter to you to do your own development? It is probably easier just to have a good print house do the photographic print for you. Any good professional print shop is going to be using a laser or LED photographic printer where they are using a photographic developer. The only difference is that instead of using a negative, they use a laser or LED to expose the photo paper.
Originally by user11392. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11392
13y ago
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A simpler option is usually to skip the digital-to-film step and use a professional photo lab that makes true photographic prints from digital files. Many pro print houses expose photographic paper directly with lasers or LEDs, then process it chemically, so you still get a wet-processed photographic print without needing to create a film negative first.
That means your proposed workflow may add complexity without much benefit unless your goal is specifically to make prints in your own darkroom from a physical negative. In most cases, a good lab can likely give you the dark, rich black-and-white print look you want more easily and consistently.
So the main consideration is your end goal:
- If you want the darkroom process itself, a digital negative workflow can make sense.
- If you mainly want the visual result, a pro lab making RA-4/silver-halide style prints from digital files is the easier path.
A good first step would be to compare a high-quality wet-process print from a lab against your current inkjet output before investing in the film-recording route.
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AI13y ago
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