How to get "warm black" on an inkjet print?

Paul Verizzo · Jul 4, 2022

Once upon a long ago time I had a roll of Polycontrast II, N surface (matte). It was warm black by default. I loved that warm black! The cold "blue-black" of bromide papers are fine for some subjects, but not people or many others.

What settings can I use to create a warm black inkjet print? A touch of red comes to mind, but that sounds awfully simplistic.

unwantedfocus · Jul 4, 2022

That's exactly what you do play around with colours til you like it. There are also papers that are More warm compared to others. Best would be in an image editing software and print from there.

Edit: Attached 2 images maybe that helps.

fgorga · Jul 4, 2022

Unwantedfocus gives one way... work your image as a color file and print in color.

I can think of two other methods

If you have an Epson printer, the advanced black and white mode allows one to tone images when you print. Maybe other brands of printers have something similar, but I am unfamiliar with them.

Lastly, if you really want to go off the deep end, you can convert an Epson printer to the Piezography Pro system, see https://piezography.com/. This system allows very sophisticated control over the tone of a monochrome image. You can print images from cool to very warm and have very fine control over split toning if you want.

jeffreyg · Jul 4, 2022

Paul
Although there are a few steps what I do is easy and controllable. If you have PhotoShop, scan your B&W negative in RGB, adjust as desired, copy, paste into a new file, turn it into grayscale, then duotone, play around to make a tritone and save that so you can use it over each time and not have to repeat for other images. Convert the tritone image back to RGB, copy and paste into a new layer on the original and adjust with the fill slider until you get the tone you like (probably somewhere between 30 to 60). You can merge the layers or keep them separate since different papers might require different amounts of warming as to your liking.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

Paul Verizzo · Jul 5, 2022

I thank all of you for your thoughts. Some are in range of my abilities, some are over them.

I just now pulled out my "Kodak Photographic Papers" sampler. I cherish this flip book of every single paper Kodak made. Not sure when, it does have Polycontrast in it.

I referenced my memories of Polycontrast II. To be honest, if the cold/warm tone didn't change from the original to II, I may be mis-remembering a tone that never existed.

juan · Jul 5, 2022

Ted Forbes created some Photoshop and Capture One presets that take the tone of old emulsions into consideration. I don’t think he tried to match any particular one, but used the idea that black and white prints are more than black and white.

jtk · Jul 18, 2022

NIK in combo with PS or LR eliminate most needs for presets IMO. Makes that stuff intuitive.

BMbikerider · Jul 22, 2022

A touch of red but never never ever try yellow. That makes the tone look jaundiced.

How to get "warm black" on an inkjet print?

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