By Charles James

A flock of pigeons foraged through the litter on a lonely alley in New York City. From the far end, a man began walking towards me, and a single pigeon took flight beside him, as if to accompany him on his journey. I captured this moment on the streets of Chinatown, New York City when I was a first year art student at The Cooper Union School. The year was 1973, and the film was Kodak Tri-X.

The original silver gelatin print was made on my favorite black and white paper: Agfa Portriga Rapid paper on an Omega condenser enlarger. Portriga Rapid is a warm toned fiber-based paper graded by contrast. This print is probably a Grade 3. A bit on the contrasty side, which I felt suited this image.

The Digital Medium
Thirty-three years later, I decided to reprint this image as a digital black and white archival pigment inkjet print using an Epson R2400 printer. My goal was to create a digital pigment print that had warmth and rich dense blacks of a Portriga Rapid print .

To remain as true to the original fiber-based silver print as possible, I chose Crane_s Museo Silver Rag. This newly released paper, is a 100% cotton rag paper with no optical paper brighteners, and a surface coating optimized for pigment inks and Photo Black (as opposed to Matte Black ink).

A key part of my digital workflow is the printmaking software (or RIP), which allows me to control precisely how the printer, inks and paper behave together. My software of choice is IJC/OPM, which BowHaus developed and uses daily for black and white Fine Art printmaking.

High Resolution Drum Scanning
First, I had my 35mm Tri-X film negative scanned into a digital image on one of BowHaus_s Crosfield Drum Scanners. We use several types of film scanners at BowHaus, but to capture the subtlety, detail and dynamic range of film, drum scanners are the best choice. . Drum scanners employ highly sensitive photomultiplier tubes, and are used for most high-end reproduction and publications.

Scan Size
As for resolution and scan file size, a 25Mb scan may be fine for an 8x10 print at 300dpi, but I chose a 100Mb drum scan because I was approaching this from a _long term_ perspective. In what I call a _long term_ approach, an original is scanned ONCE for many purposes, not just the 8x10 or 12x18 print for the show or photo editor that needs something _right away _. Scanning ONCE, means that my negative leaves my care ONCE. Any retouching is done only ONCE. I save time and money.

Larger Originals Need Larger Scans
The basic rule that I follow is: Larger Originals Need Larger Scans. To capture the detail in film transparencies and negatives, I prefer 1,800 dpi scanning and higher (shown in blue on chart). Shown below are five different scan file sizes (25, 50, 100, 200 and 300Mb) and corresponding scanning dpi_s for 35mm, 120, 4x5 and 8x10 originals.

*The RGB ORIGINAL + INPUT RESOLUTION Size Chart (For Long Term, Multipurpose use and Archiving)
	25 Mb	50 Mb	100 Mb	200 Mb	300 Mb
35mm	2554 DPI	3612 DPI	5109 DPI	7225 DPI	8849 DPI
120 (6x6)	1295 DPI	1831 DPI	2589 DPI	3662 DPI	4484 DPI
120 (6x7)	1196 DPI	1691 DPI	2391 DPI	3382 DPI	4142 DPI
4x5	661 DPI	935 DPI	1322 DPI	1870 DPI	2290 DPI
8x10	330 DPI	467 DPI	661 DPI	935 DPI	1145 DPI

At 100Mb, my 35mm was scanned at over 5,000dpi. Well over the 1,800 dpi mark to allow for up to 16x20 prints at 300 dpi. For larger originals (120 format or larger), I would have chosen a 200Mb or 300Mb Fine Art scan. See scanning 101 article on our website for more on scanning resolution and dpi.

After scanning, one of our senior scanner operators carefully cleaned my negative and returned it to the archival PrintFile sleeve. A BowHaus digital retoucher then digitally spotted the digital scan and made minor adjustments to the file.

The Ingredients:

Paper
Most inkjet prints are made on either textured water color type papers or high gloss RC type papers. My Portriga Rapid silver print has a smooth surface, and an _air-dried_ finish rather than high gloss. Crane_s Museo Silver Rag was developed to fill in this gap . Since the introduction of Silver Rag, other paper manufacturers have announced similar products. Very exciting news for all fans of silver gelatin prints!

Inks and Printer
Since my final print size was only 8x10, I used an Epson R2400 printer and the UltraChrome K3 pigmented inks that Epson USA graciously sent us for testing. UltraChrome K3 is a pigmented eight-color inkset that includes three dilutions of pigmented gray/black inks plus a choice of Photo Black or Matte Black. For Silver Rag, I used the Photo Black ink as recommended by Crane.

For this image, I wanted to use ONLY the gray/black inks and completely bypass the color inks. The gray/black inks are the most lightfast (archival) and I personally like the slightly warm/olive look of the gray/black K3 inks. In order to isolate the gray/black inks and, more importantly, to give me almost tactile control of the inks, I used BowHaus_s printmaking software: IJC/OPM to create a custom IJC tri-tone profile to suit this image and my taste.

Software
The original 1973 print was made in the darkroom, where I dodged and burned using my hands under the enlarger and then hand processed in a tray. A very _organic_ process where you literally roll up your sleeves and get your hands wet.

Today, when you click _print_ in Photoshop, software called _printer drivers_ grabs your image and delivers the data from the computer to the printer. Together with any color management software you have installed, the printer driver decides how to interpret your image into ink on paper. Complex software algorithms and presets take control of the printer and_ your image.

At BowHaus, we developed our own printmaking software, IJC/OPM, to bypass the standard printer drivers and take direct control of the printer and inks.

Image + paper + inks + standard print driver = TV Dinner
Image + paper + inks + IJC/OPM = Gourmet Cooking

OK. I_m not a gourmet cook, but using a generic print driver and presets reduces printmaking to a few clicks of a button. The same clicks in anyone_s hands will produce identical prints. There_s an analogy to a microwave oven here somewhere_

Handcrafting the Print with a Custom Tri-tone IJC Profile
The gray/black inks from the Epson UltraChrome K3 inkset are the Light Light Black, Light Black and Photo Black inks. I call this a tri-tone print, and many printmakers also refer to a gray/black only pigment ink print a _carbon print_ because the black inks are carbon pigment-based. Carbon black isn_t perfectly neutral, in the K3 inkset the gray/black inks have an _olive_ color. Some people will find carbon prints a bit too _green_ for their taste. Personally, I don_t mind the _color_, but some images need to be more neutral and so I also planned to create at least one more IJC profile using the tri-tone profile as a foundation and then add enough Light Cyan and Light Magenta to achieve a more neutral gray. I want to avoid using Yellow in my ink mix because Yellow is the least archival of the color inks.

Using IJC, I enabled the three gray/black inks and disabled the other seven color inks. IJC gives the user precise control over each of the inks via a separate curve (like Photoshop_s Adjustment Curves.

With this level of control, I was able to isolate the lightest dilution of gray/black for use in the highlights and mid-tones, reserving the middle gray and black ink for the three-quarter tones and deep shadows. By making adjustments and then printing a built-in 26-step grayscale, I was able to incrementally adjust the tonal qualities to suit my liking. By overlapping my Ink Curves, I _feathered_ the inks together and seamlessly blended the three dilutions of gray/black to create a smooth grayscale. All in all, I made about a dozen or so changes to my Ink Curves before arriving at a grayscale to my satisfaction.

As a final step, I used an X-Rite densitometer and IJC_s Linearization function to even out any _bumps_ in my grayscale. Again, using the Linearization function_s Gamma control I made several different Tri-tone IJC profiles to lighten or darken a print to suit different images. This approach to controlling contrast and density is similar to using graded papers in traditional darkroom printing.

The Moment of Truth
I waited impatiently as the printheads slowly glided back and forth, laying down ink on paper. When the printer finally nudged the first test print out, I quickly snatched it up and held it side by side with the original fiber print made over thirty years ago.

Overall, the pigment print and the silver print appeared similar. However, the pigment print lacked the luminous quality of the original silver print. Traditional black and white silver prints have a magical, organic and _luminous_ quality. The pigment print looked a bit dull in comparison.

Next, I had my test prints sprayed with PremierArt™ Print Shield. The surface was now much smoother, and the blacks had become even denser. The pigment print looked more _alive_.

Conclusion
On it_s own the carbon pigment print looks very good , but the original silver gelatin print is still my personal preference of the two. I miss the darkroom, but digital photography and printmaking has definitely arrived and the technology will only get better. By using InkJet Control™ and OpenPrintMaker™, I was able to use an off-the-shelf Epson R2400 inkjet printer with off-the-shelf inks and paper, to make a very good, very customized print.

I loved the film cameras that I used thirty years ago, but I shoot with Nikon digital SLR_s now . I process RAW files, rather than rolls of film . And based on the introduction of papers like Crane Museo Silver Rag, I will make my monochrome prints with an inkjet printer and InkJet Control™ and OpenPrintMaker™.