The ability to print newspaper-quality photos exists almost from birth personal computers. Dot matrix printers easily provided newspaper quality printing, and laser - the quality of a good art magazine. With the advent of colored inkjet printers There was a breakthrough in printing color photographs. For a moderate price, it became possible to obtain almost photographic quality. The question of comparing a black-and-white photograph and a black-and-white print did not even arise, the quality was incomparable. Over the past twenty years, black-and-white photography has ceased to be mass and has turned into a purely professional one, in demand mainly by photo artists. Today, the cost of black-and-white film exceeds the cost of color, and finding a laboratory that develops and prints it has become almost a detective task. One could talk for a long time about the features of black and white photography and unique opportunities beyond the reach of her colored sister. But this article is about technology, not about art. I leave the art to the readers, but here I will try to talk about the solution implemented by Lyson, which makes high-quality black-and-white printing available, which allows black-and-white photographers to seriously think about the possibilities of using a computer in their work. I'll start with a picture taken under a microscope. The right and left parts of the picture look, at first glance, completely different. However, if we reduce the image by a factor of 100, we will see a dark gray line and a light gray field next to it, despite the fact that in one case this gray field was printed with Epson T008 color ink, and in the other with Lyson gray ink.
The division value is 0.01 mm. The picture was taken with a Casio QV-4000 camera, using a Helios 44 lens as an eyepiece.
The idea, implemented by Lyson, has been in the air for a long time. It is based on very simple considerations. If we want to display 256 shades of gray in a photograph and at the same time we use ink, the drops of which absorb light 100 percent, then in order to convey a shade of 1/256 of black, we will have to leave the place around one black point untouched, in which 255 more such points could be put. That is, in the case of a regular raster, we can imagine an image consisting of squares of 16 by 16 pixels, where the gray scale will be determined by the number of black dots in this square. Now imagine that we have taken ink, which absorbs only 10% of the light falling on them. In this case, we can get 1/256 of black by printing one gray dot in a 5 by 5 dot square and leaving the rest untouched. If instead of colored inks we fill in gray inks of different densities, then we can get smooth transitions in shades from annoying rare dots, i.e. it will be possible to look at such a photograph not only from afar, but also from a distance of the best vision of 25 cm. Of course, if you mix colored dots, as in the photo above, you can get almost the same result, but, firstly, if you get closer to the photo and take a magnifying glass, then the colored dots will still be noticeable, and secondly, the colored ink discolors with different speed and in different ways, so a print that was originally a neutral gray may take on a color cast over time. By combining different gray inks, you can get a much finer screen than when printing with only black, since there is no need to allocate a field for each dot of the image in which 256 drops can be placed.
Gradient fill area with 0-10% density. The gray field is printed in color (T007+T008), black (T007), and gray (Lyson) inks at 1440 dpi on an Epson Stylus Photo 870 printer. Image scanned on Epson Perfection 2450 at 2400 dpi.
Thus, if the droplet size of the printer is 1/720 of an inch, then if the image has only 2 shades, black and white, then we can transfer 720 dots on 1 inch of the print. If we have a halftone image with 256 shades of gray, then when printing with black ink alone, we can display only 45 dots of the image on 1 inch of the print. In the case of 6 colors, when the ink of the minimum density absorbs 3.5% of the light incident on them, and the next densities - 7, 14, 28, 56 and 100%, respectively, all 256 gradations can be transmitted by varying the number of dots in a square with a side of 3 drops. Those. On 1 inch of a print, 240 dots of the original image can be transferred. With an irregular raster, this value can be even higher.
Ink tanks and their installation in the printer.
Let's consider how the ability to print with gray inks on the Epson Stylus Photo 870 color printer is implemented. Epson native ink tanks are equipped with microcircuits that count the number of drops used for printing. Initially, Lyson ink tanks did not have a microcircuit; it is proposed to insert microcircuits from old Epson cartridges into them, having previously reprogrammed them. To flash the chips, a special programmer is used (judging by the inscriptions on the case, from ILRS or JET TEC), which is sold at about the price of 2 ink cartridges. The programmer kit is a blue box, 2 trays where chips are inserted, and a plastic spatula for removing chips from the cartridge.
The programmer is non-separable, inside it is a 9-volt E23A battery, which theoretically should be enough for the rest of your life. We could not resist and broke the programmer, so you can see its filling in the photo.
The reprogramming process is extremely simple. You remove the chips from the cartridge, insert them into the tray, and slide the tray into the programmer.
A tray with an old type chip, which the programmer is designed to work with, and an empty tray.
This turns on the LED, which, when programming is finished, will start flashing at a rate of 1 frame per second. Reprogramming is carried out quite correctly, not only the number of ink used is reset, but the record indicating the ink manufacturer from EPSON to ILRS is also changed.
Therefore, after installing the cartridge in the printer, the latter reports that non-native ink is installed, and offers a choice of whether to continue or stop working.
The engineers who developed this programmer use a round contact pad on the chip to turn it on. This achieves maximum ease of handling and savings on the circuit breaker.
But, as it turns out, they saved in vain. Because Epson has changed the shape of the contact pads installed in the latest series of cartridges that are currently on sale.
A new type of chip in an Epson T008 cartridge.
In general, if you have microcircuits from cartridges of the first releases, then everything is in order, a couple of microcircuits will be enough for you to complete work, perhaps forever. If you only have modern microcircuits, then the programmer will have to be deceived. To do this, I used a piece of gum packaging with foil on one side. Wrapping it around the tray, I stuck the chip into the programmer. The LED lights up and after a while flashes frequently. In general, the mode is abnormal, but, as it turned out, we completed our task, the ink consumption was reset to zero. True, Epson remained the manufacturer of the ink tank.
In conclusion, I note that the system does not care which cartridge you took the microcircuit from, from color or black. I used two chips from color cartridges, one of which I put in a cartridge with 5 gray inks, and the other in a black cartridge from Lyson. In the information about ink in the printer menu, a message appeared that 2 T008 color cartridges were installed, however, this did not affect further work.
Test results.
Lyson QuadBlack Neutral ink tested.
Based on the color of the lines in the nozzle cleanliness test, we compare the procedure for replacing color ink with gray ink and evaluate their density.
| Epson | paper | ||||||
| R | 107 | 75 | 250 | 255 | 121 | 250 | 247 |
| G | 91 | 150 | 94 | 231 | 205 | 139 | 243 |
| B | 101 | 241 | 159 | 98 | 255 | 200 | 254 |
| Lyson | |||||||
| R | 107 | 140 | 163 | 178 | 204 | 208 | 247 |
| G | 88 | 124 | 150 | 161 | 193 | 195 | 243 |
| B | 98 | 136 | 162 | 176 | 207 | 209 | 254 |
| D%~ | 100 | 75 | 60 | 50 | 30 | 30 | 0 |
No difference was found between the density of prints made with gray ink sprayed through nozzles designed for light cyan and light magenta ink. The variation in paper whiteness exceeds the difference in ink density, if there is any.
Let's compare the system for converting a color image to grayscale in Photoshop and Epson drivers with grayscale obtained by printing a color table with Lyson ink.
Let's evaluate the change in the print density of a linear gradient fill made in the Corel Draw program.
After scanning, QuadBlack Neutral ink feels warmer than the original print. The tint of the print depends greatly on the paper. In my experiments, the print tint was almost neutral on LOMOND matte paper and substantially warm on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper.
Note that if we print color fills with complementary colors, we will get a different contrast. Thus, it becomes possible to change the contrast of the print by varying the composition of the ink involved in its creation.
To test the resolution when printing halftone images, a radial world was printed with half of the strokes having sharp edges, and the Gaussian Blur filter was applied to the rest. The original image had a resolution of 720 dpi. Printing was carried out in 1440 dpi mode. Scanning was carried out with a resolution of 300 dpi. The curves are built for the scanned image and the original image, reduced to a resolution of 300 dpi. The world contains 90 black strokes. The red circle has a radius of 70 pixels and is 440 pixels long, which is 1.46 inches long on the print, i.e. There are 123 black and white lines in the original image per inch of print. One can not only clearly distinguish their existence, but also notice changes in their density along the width.
Let's compare a picture of the world taken with a digital camera and its scanned print. Resolution 300 dpi. As you can see, virtually all the details have been preserved, although the CCH has changed significantly.
Below is the original image, above is the scanned print.
Original image - green curve, printed and scanned - red.
Let's compare fragments of the original file, a print from this file on standard photo paper using Gretag Net Printer 812 and fragments of a print with Lyson ink on LOMOND paper. Visually, the original photograph looks more preferable, although it is not possible to say that this better perception is associated specifically with one or another detail that is lost on the printer's print. Probably the micro-contrast of the original is essential. As for the photo print made from a computer file, it looks very believable, but excessive contrast is noticeable. This resulted in the loss of details, which, however, are reproduced when printed on an inkjet printer.
Original photo. 
Printed on an Epson Stylus Photo 870 printer with Lyson QuadBlack Neutral ink.
Print from a file on photo paper.
In conclusion, an example of a print of a photograph made in the "high key".
Scanned at 72 dpi.
Scanned at 300 dpi.
A high key implies a complete absence of thick shadows. Ideally, such an image should be completely shadowless, with only separate black "strokes".
The Lyson-branded firm specializes in the production of lightfast inks and papers. Print Guard protective varnish is also available for applying to the finished print and protecting it from smearing and fading. In addition to the neutral QuadBlack we tested, there are similar inks available with a warm or cool tint. Lightly colored Small Gamut inks are also available, allowing for a tinted print. There are kits for Epson and Canon printers.
The company also manufactures color inks: Fotonic - for color printing of photographs, Lysonic - for printing color art graphics.
Ilford continues to talk about working with film: this time we are learning how to print pictures.
We recently wrote about a video course on developing black and white film from Ilford. Now the British manufacturer of photographic materials has released another video - this time dedicated to printing. black and white photographs. If you've never printed before, this is a great introduction to the subject. The video is in English, but all the steps of the process are described below.
The video is divided into 7 parts:
Part 1: Checklist (00:08)
Before you start printing, you will need to find and collect everything you need, including a dark room (a room that can be made completely dark) with enough space to work, an enlarger with a lens, chemicals, and a number of other small items. Supplies and tools (photo paper, red lamp, tongs, thermometer, rubber gloves, and so on).
As for the reagents, you will need: developer (to develop the image on photographic paper), stop solution (to stop the development process) and fixer (to fix the image). As well as cuvettes for each of them.
Part 2: Preparation of reagents (01:28)
Then you need to prepare the reagents, calculating the correct amount of each, as well as water for the solution, depending on the size of the photographic paper and the cuvettes used.
Part 3: Choosing the Negative (02:45)
Place the film strips on the light table and use the magnifying glass to select the frame you want to print. Then place the desired section in the holder to separate the desired photo.
Part 4: Focusing the image (03:07)
Attach the holder to the magnifier to project the image onto the projection table. Raise/lower the “head” of the magnifier to obtain the desired image size. Use the magnifier's focus mechanism and focusscope for precise focusing.
Part 5: Choosing Aperture (03:33)
Set the desired aperture on the magnifier lens (Ilford recommends starting at f/8) and set the desired filter.
Part 6: Test Print (03:52)
Set the timer to go off at short intervals (Ilford recommends 5 seconds). Expose a piece of photo paper, covering the rest, then, after five seconds, move the shutter a little - and so on until the entire sheet is ready.
You should get five stripes, each darker than the previous one. Then the image needs to be developed, fixed and washed. This test print will show you the result at different exposure times and help you choose the best one.
Part 7: Final Seal (05:26)
Expose the picture for the time selected in step 6, then place the photo paper in the developer cuvette. Take it out, place it in the stop solution cuvette, then in the fixer cuvette, and finally wash the finished photo. It remains only to dry it - and your first printed photo is ready.
The art of photography has always been very popular. Love for photography and its prevalence makes it close to works of art, and it is sometimes valued more than sculptures and photographs.
The art of photography is not only the art of finding different landscapes and people that are worthy of the attention of photographers. This is the work of people who perform auxiliary work, who turn the moment of capturing a photo into a work of art that you can look at for a very long time.
It’s not enough to take a good picture, you need to print a photo of high quality.
Black and white photography is real art
Professionals believe that color photography can only reflect appearance and the shape of the object, and the soul and real face of both the person and the object that served as nature for the photograph are reflected in a black and white photograph.
Photo Center PREMIUM prints black and white photos High Quality on modern equipment manufactured by well-known companies.
Their specialists in the shortest possible time, at a high professional level at affordable prices print black and white photographs of any complexity. Employees of the company are able to turn any photo into almost a real masterpiece.
For those who urgently need photos, they can offer "Urgent printing of black and white photos" and the order will be completed in the presence of the customer.
Printing a photobook
Graduation photos are the basis of the graduation album. The photographers of their firm use professional equipment from Canon and Nikon. All their specialists have passed a big competition before cooperation. Customers can be sure that they will receive unforgettable photos.
Before the photos get into the photobook, they are retouched by a professional designer. He removes skin imperfections, retouches clothes, if necessary, corrects the figure. Don't worry if you have a pimple or a cold, it won't interfere with your shooting! Always be in a wonderful mood, and they will think about the details! If you decide to print a photobook, you will have the best gift, because they can print photobooks best of all.
Graduation photos are no longer framed photos. Now graduation albums are made in the form of a photobook. As the name implies, this album resembles a real book: with a hard laminated cover and pages and high quality paper. They offer 2 types of photobooks: printed pages and hardcover and plastic pages and hardcover.
