Striking the right tone

An iphone pic I took the other day whilst out for a walk with the dog. I've since tweaked the curves for the dye and pigment blacks
so they match better in terms of shadow detail as the colder shadows were cutting to black quicker than I wanted.

Fine-tuning the printing process with the Epson 1400 now allows me to select cool, warm or neutral toned prints at the click of a button. I thought it would be interesting to show on the blog the different tones it’s possible to achieve by careful use of different print profiles.

When using the QTR software that drives my Epson I have two main profiles that I select depending on whether I’m using the dye black ink or pigment black ink for the print at hand. The dye black ink endows the print with a cool tone whilst the pigment black is a much warmer-toned alternative. These two tones usually suit different subject matter - such as a cold tone for, say, a snow scene or a warm-toned print for a sunny autumn landscape.

However, a clever feature of the software is that up to three print profiles or curves can be blended together to produce a single print exhibiting some of the qualities of each. In my case, I can print using both the dye and pigment profiles and tell the software exactly what proportion of each it should use in making the print.

If you look at the photographs accompanying this blog post, you’ll see, from left to right, a cold toned print, then a neutral print and finally a warm toned print at the right. The print in the middle is a 50-50 mix of the two either side of it. But it’s possible to alter the ratio in favour of one or the other to any degree. For example, I could choose to print so that the dye black ink makes up 70% of the print and the pigment black ink the remaining 30%. With QTR it’s a case of selecting the profiles I wish to use and the ratios in which I wish to use them. Then, it’s just a matter of hitting the print button and waiting a few minutes until the print emerges from the Epson 1400 printer. 

This level of flexibility is something that I could only have dreamt of when I was darkroom printing. To achieve significant print tone colour differences in the darkroom requires either a different type of paper, different kinds of developer or a combination of both. For some darkroom diehards - I was one not so long ago, remember - clicking a button to achieve a different tone in a print is cheating and only chemically-induced tone shifts count for anything. I have some sympathy for that position but only to a point.

If we're talking about the final print - say it's being judged at a camera club competition - then you'll get no extra points for doing it the old-fashioned, laborious way as it's the image that is being rated and not the process. Nevertheless, for some photographers the digital process lacks any merit largely because the traditional “craft” part of printing is considered to be AWOL.

Another iphone shot of pub window reflections in Kirkmichael, Perthshire.

As someone who has been fully immersed in both silver gelatin and pixels, I think the digital detractors have an overly simplistic view. It's taken about a year of reading, thinking and testing to get to the stage where I can make successful prints and it was a steep learning curve at times. The concept, technology, process and testing are MUCH harder to work through than anything I did in the darkroom. Darkroom printing takes longer to learn if you want to master more than just the basics whilst inkjet printing using QTR is more difficult to work out but much easier once you’ve done that hard work.

So, I’d say each form of printing makes its own demands which are harder in some ways and easier in others. Some of the adverse reactions film shooters have to inkjet prints have occurred at various points in the history of photography when other new materials or processes have emerged. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that each step forward in the development of photography has been accompanied by complaints from people who feel their hard won expertise and craft skills are being or have been by-passed by the new technology.

It happened when 35 mm gained in popularity and it happened again when electronic cameras entered the market - many professionals were unhappy at their dependence upon batteries but also at the ease with which their auto metering systems could capture a decent exposure. When auto focus started appearing on professional grade cameras there was also much consternation. I can well remember suggesting to a friend that his newly acquired auto focus Canon camera was possibly not the epitome of manliness. Or something to that effect.

But if you find yourself struggling to spend much time in the darkroom as you get older - and it could be for any number of reasons - don’t be frightened to have a go at the inkjet side of things. You don’t need to do it the hard way like me: you could just splash some cash on a new photo printer that should start cranking out very nice prints with little fuss. All while you sit there with a wee dram listening to Eminem on your stereo.