Photos of Black and white ink drawings print with a light gray background
Nov 22, 2017 18:09:52 #
I took a series of photos of ink drawing - black on white. When printed there is always a light gray slightly greenish background . All I want is black on white. I tried tweaking the white balance in Corel Paintshop Pro, but no luck. Any suggestions? I need to add that I am a bit of a neophyte at this thing. Just trying to help out my son, who is working on a graphic novel. The drawings were all done on an 18x 24 format- black ink on white watercolor paper. I have all the photos in a raw format. The photos were taken with a Nikon 7100. Printed on an HP Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Nov 22, 2017 18:16:47 #
White balance adjustment IN CAMERA when taking the shot. Your camera is always looking to balance at 18% grey. You obviously have more white than black in the image so the whites will come out grey. The green is likely because you have flourescent lighting over some if not all of the scene.
Since you shoot in RAW, you need to properly process than RAW image before conversion to .jpg format. You need a RAW editor like Aftershot Pro (Corel) to do that. Then your white balance can be adjusted in post processing.
Since you shoot in RAW, you need to properly process than RAW image before conversion to .jpg format. You need a RAW editor like Aftershot Pro (Corel) to do that. Then your white balance can be adjusted in post processing.
Nov 22, 2017 18:32:04 #
It's not a matter of white balance, it's a matter of contrast. In fact, you might as well convert it to greyscale. You can increase the contrast with levels or curves.
Nov 22, 2017 18:32:16 #
onejvw wrote:
I took a series of photos of ink drawing - black o... (show quote)
Since you are shooting raw, you can convert the image to B&W in post processing and adjust the white and black clipping points to your taste.
Nov 22, 2017 18:35:38 #
onejvw wrote:
I took a series of photos of ink drawing - black o... (show quote)
You post no samples. So is this background some distance back or are the drawing mounted to this background? Do the drawing come out the correct color??
SS
Nov 23, 2017 08:49:39 #
not knowing what printer you used . Did you set it to print in gray style ?
Nov 23, 2017 09:08:36 #
kubota king wrote:
not knowing what printer you used . Did you set it to print in gray style ?
Yes, the OP said “when printed”.
I suspect most of the problem is with the printer. Some just don’t do B&W very well. He was using an HP Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus. It’a multipurpose printer, not a dedicated photo printer. Jack of all trades, master of none. Probably beating a dead horse.
Nov 23, 2017 09:10:48 #
GoofyNewfie wrote:
Yes, the OP said “when printed”.
I suspect most of the problem is with the printer. Some just don’t do B&W very well. He was using an HP Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus.
I suspect most of the problem is with the printer. Some just don’t do B&W very well. He was using an HP Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus.
If you adjust the photo to have just pure black and pure white, color shouldn't be an issue.
Nov 23, 2017 09:14:32 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
yes, if they are just line drawings, I think that might work. If you adjust the photo to have just pure black and pure white, color shouldn't be an issue.
Nov 23, 2017 09:43:43 #
gvarner
Loc: Central Oregon Coast
You need a dedicated photo printer with more than 5 cartridges to properly print B&W's. Most dedicated photo printers have 7 cartridges, the two extra ones are for grayscale rendering, I think.
Nov 23, 2017 12:16:46 #
Peter W
Loc: Kent, England
What about underexposed? If it is black on white and the white is coming out grey then surely, it needs an extra stop or two exposure!
Nov 23, 2017 12:19:52 #
Peter W wrote:
What about underexposed? If it is black on white and the white is coming out grey then surely, it needs an extra stop or two exposure!
True, if you metered on the white paper, it would be underexposed. But even if it is correctly exposed, it may need an increase in contrast to get pure blacks and whites.
Nov 24, 2017 09:33:47 #
RWR
Loc: La Mesa, CA
onejvw wrote:
I took a series of photos of ink drawing - black o... (show quote)
For black on white there’s no point in printing in color. For similar work I shoot NEF 14-bit uncompressed, ISO 50, and overexpose the white background one stop. Open the file in ViewNX 2 and export as 16-bit TIFF, no further fussing with post-processing. Tell the printer what paper I’m using and print in black and white.
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