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I recently had a few rolls of black and white film developed. When choosing options for 4-inch prints, I could either opt to have color prints or, for an extra cost, true black and white prints. I opted to have one of my rolls printed on true black and white gelatin paper, and the other on color paper.

In the end, I couldn't see a difference between the true gelatin black and white prints and the black and white roll printed on color paper.

Is there a concrete, conceivable reason why I would want to have my black and white rolls printed on true black and white gelatin paper if I just intend to use them for personal use, or is it just a marketing gimmick?

gparyani
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    How sure are you that they didn't just print everything on the same paper, regardless of what option you selected? – xiota Apr 30 '19 at 01:09
  • @xiota The backs of the paper had different watermarks. The color ones had a Kodak watermark, the true B&W ones blank. – gparyani Apr 30 '19 at 01:10
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    @Hueco https://thedarkroom.com/faq/, the first question under "Prints". In short, it's actually enlarged (not scanned and printed), color prints are on Kodak Royal, and B&W prints are on Ilford Galerie RC. – gparyani Apr 30 '19 at 01:35
  • I sincerely doubt that the b&w negatives were traditionally enlarged and printed on colour paper. Different contrast and the lack of colour mask (the orange-brown base colour of colour negative film) does not allow you to enlarge b&w negatives on colour paper. – jarnbjo Apr 30 '19 at 14:16
  • @jarnbjo The page on true B&W prints strongly implied that...they don't have a page on color prints. – gparyani Apr 30 '19 at 14:34
  • @jarnbjo I think he was talking about the B&W gelatin prints. But they are also digitally enlarged (laser exposed). – Michael C Apr 30 '19 at 16:07
  • @gparyani The link to the paper page for the B&W prints says, " It has spectral sensitivity and exposure characteristics specially suited to optical digital exposure systems with tricolour laser enlargers or LED systems produced by Durst, Océ, Pollielettronica, Fuji and others." – Michael C Apr 30 '19 at 16:09
  • I think you should ask them what paper they are printing on. 'Ilford Galerie' is, as far as I know, now a name for a range of inkjet papers. Note that, like Kodak, the name 'Ilford' now refers to at least two different companies: Ilford Photo make traditional gelatin-silver B/W product and don't make a range of paper called 'Galerie', the other Ilford don't make traditional gelatin-siver products but do make a range known as 'Galerie'. To add to the confusion, there was a traditional paper range called Galerie before the split –  Apr 30 '19 at 18:53
  • @tfb Ilford Galerie RC Digital Silver. – gparyani Apr 30 '19 at 19:19
  • OK, that looks like some name for a paper which has some other name in the UK (but presumably is made in the UK to add to the confusion): I suspect this is a trademark issue. –  Apr 30 '19 at 20:24

1 Answers1

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The images on gelatin-silver film and prints are formed by silver particles. The images on color (chromogenic) film and prints are formed by color dyes. There are also chromogenic black and white films that are developed using the standard C41 color process, but use black and white dyes to form the image.

Modern commercial chromogenic and silver-gelatin prints are both produced by scanning the negative and shining lasers at the appropriate papers, which are then developed using the appropriate chemicals. When printing black and white images on color paper, the image is formed by a mixture of colored dyes.

  • "Black" won't really be black (Alan Marcus explains).
  • There may be a color cast.
  • Image resolution may be affected (guessing).
  • There may be longevity concerns.

If you just want an image that will look good in a frame for several decades, normal chromogenic prints are likely good enough, as long as the aforementioned issues are not significant (as in your case, where you cannot tell the difference between the two processes). I don't know what other scenarios would lead someone to want "real" silver prints, except to try it out, as you did.

xiota
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