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I used to work in my own darkroom with b/w film and prints. I miss that now that everything is digital. Is there a way to print b/w photos from digital files? In the way you use an enlarger to print film, is there something comparable to use to print digital jpgs onto paper and then process them the way we used to make prints from film?

Sorry if this is a crazy question but I was curious. I would like to print out my own prints from my digital photos, not send them out to be processed.

Thank you.

Cynthia

photosbyhenry Loc: Apple Valley MN

I print all my black and white photos that I shoot. I like shooting in the black and white mode and not convert the color photos to black and white.

Al Loc: Southern Delaware

Hi Cynthia,
Digital conversion is very easy. You will need a software program to do this. Photoshop CS5 is the latest version and the top choice of professionals but it is rather expensive (~$600). A more user friendly program that will do almost everything Photoshop does is Photoshop Elements 9 (~$99). It offers several ways to make b&w pictures from your jpeg and raw files. I use Elements almost exclusively and get great results. A suggestion - there is a book "The Photoshop Elements 9 Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski (~$50) that I think is the best companion guide to learning and using Elements. It is easy to read and gives step by step instructions on every aspect of the Elements program. A hint - go to your local bookstore and sneak a peak at pages 175-179 and 332-333. Even better, start shooting in Camera Raw and use the technique on pages 99-101. The final results will amaze you. The only other things you will need are good photo paper and a decent printer, and you will get great b&w prints. Good Shooting! Al

notnoBuddha

Well first off - I know little about anything. What I think I know about this is the most common pratice to get blk & white digital photos is to shoot in color - in raw format, to save the most information. Then convert by means of a photo editing program such as Photoshop. You can shoot in black and white but you then do not have the option to convert a photo to color. I an somewhat confused as to making a picture as you used to to do "with an enlarger" as digital is just that and must be edited by that means. I understand your feelings to the old way, but to duplicate you must use a film camera - as some do for this very reason.

Cynthia

Thank you for the responses. I guess what I was trying to say is that I like the actual physical act of developing the photos. I like to be able to lighten or darken one small area of a photo by controlling the light from the enlarger. I have had digital b/w photos printed out before but I don't feel the satisfaction that I used to get after actually printing the picture out myself. I thought maybe there was a way to project a digital photo onto photo paper and print it out yourself, not through a printer. But I guess that's gone. When you take a digital photo, I guess you have to print it out on a printer. I love Digital photos but I sure miss the old days. I loved developing my own film and making my own prints. Oh well...

lvphotog Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

I well understand the desire to produce the darkroom product by hand, and most digital processes come up short, especially when using the limited range of jpegs.

I compensate in Photoshop by desaturating the color image (it's really the only way to assess dynamic range), and then manipulating the brightness of each of the color scales (red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, magenta). Once I have a good monochrome master I'll save that as a layer. Then go back with the original and do it again as needed for effects in different areas. Those layers all get blended together. It has the effect of manipulating lights and darks. "Screen" and "multiply" will also give gross light/dark manipulations which can be blended in, and there's always dodge and burn for emergencies.

You can get quite respectable results. Here's an example, not the best, but not the worst either. It was a multishot pano, combined and desaturated as described above.

http://www.pbase.com/fletcher_hill/image/137301735