B&W test prints

[CarolynP]

Hi Damien,

My monitor is calibrated (and compared to test prints) but I'm changing labs so ordered some more prints.

The colour prints were done a while ago and I'm not sure what quality they are. I had the same files reprinted now and they look very similar.

I included some recent b&w ones though, and saved those as level 8 baseline and the colour has come back really different to my screen.

I'm not sure what I should do now? 

[Damien Symonds]

I know it's hard, but try to ignore black-and-white photos.  BWs are really hard for labs to get right.

Concentrate more on near-neutral areas of your colour photos.  How do they look?

[CarolynP]

They're a bit warmer so maybe I should recalibrate? The top one is from the old lab

So how do I get the quality of BWs right? Frank told me the contrast was wrong, do I just let him correct it at his end? And do a test print before an enlargement?

Edited November 3, 2021 by CarolynP

[Damien Symonds]

41 minutes ago, CarolynP said:

They're a bit warmer so maybe I should recalibrate?

Which is warmer? The screen or the print?  Either way, yes, you should recalibrate.

41 minutes ago, CarolynP said:

Frank told me the contrast was wrong

What did he mean, exactly?  What was he referring to?

42 minutes ago, CarolynP said:

do I just let him correct it at his end?

No, we can never go down that road.

[CarolynP]

Thank you, the new prints are warmer than my screen (and old prints).

Frank looked at them on his computer and said the BWs looked grey and he'd recommend increasing the contrast for both the blacks and whites.