Choosing a printing service for B&W

I've been asked to consider a gallery exhibition of my portraits. I have decided that if I do this, I want to narrow this down to black and white prints of men and to print them in probably 11x14" size or maybe up to 13x19" but the mounting costs would be much more. the exhibit would be of from 10-20 prints and I am hoping for exhibition quality.

My HP Pro B9180 does a very nice job with black and white, the paper options from HP are limited and not sure it's worth it trying to experiment with finding other papers/profiles etc. I have yet to see how black and white prints from this printer look from behind glass.

The main source for outside printing that I have had so far has been MPIX through my Zenfolio acct but it isn't the MPIX pro service. Other than this I don't know where to start. If I decide to do this It will not happen for another six months or more.

Any suggestions on where to start looking. What I would do is probably send 3 different images to each possible printing houses to print full size and then compare.

I use Miller's for all my printing and love the b&w's I get from them. They offer true b&w paper and several mounting options. You can have them do no correction or print files with competition print density. I've always used the no corrections, so I can't comment on what the competition print looks like. Here's a little about their b&w paper.

True B&W Paper (matte finish)

Ilford True B&W paper is designed to make rich black, continuous-tone prints, while avoiding color tints.
Product Highlights:

• Panchromatic, resin-coated paper provides excellent tone reproduction.
  
• Uses a silver-based emulsion rather than dye-based, offering the same imaging performance and characteristics as traditional B&W continuous-tone prints.
  
• Specially coated on the back, it accepts ink for crop lines or writing notes.
  
• Display and 100-year archival quality.

Thank you D Thompson, do you have a link so that I get to the right place?

Jannie, are you saying you don't want to do any printing on the HP? You can get very good quality 13x19 paper from HP for those printers.

Jannie wrote in post #11794799
Thank you D Thompson, do you have a link so that I get to the right place?

Here you go. Miller's Labs You do have to sign up as a professional, but it's a fairly simple process with them. I think you'll really like them.

I've just started printing some B&W from MPixPro and have been pleased with the results so far. I ended up there after discovering that WHCC doesn't use B&W paper, which resulted in some odd and varying color casts to my B&W files.

I went with MPixPro mainly on price, but I've heard good things about West Coat Images and their lower priced operation, Aspen Creek Photo. (Test images from both were quite nice, but I haven't pursued B&W with them.)

Cheers,

Gary

Some printers do print with a color cast unless you specifically go to the driver and have the printer handle things as B&W only printing.

I am getting very nice black and white out of my HP printer but I keep getting the feeling that they don't quite have what I'm wanting. It might be that I still miss what I think I remember from the film days. Anyway the idea of silver halide prints is interesting an certainly worth the try, I found out MPIX pro also offers them.

So at this point I have time to mess around, I'll be placing three black and white photos in an art show in four months and I'll run the first try there.

So far I have:
MPIX Pro: B&W Silver Halide prints
Miller's Labs: B&W Silver Halide prints
West Coast Images

I studied black and white printing in school under an old time salon printer named Boris Dobro and I try to use the things he's taught me when processing on the computer, I like what I get here but the prints which seem to be right on, aren't quite good enough. It could be the way I'm processing or even shooting/lighting, I don't know. And memories are always sweeter than reality huh.

Also I used to shoot with a medium and large format camera back then, I've been thinking a lot about my old Hasseblad lately, and how I relied upon it to help me get that look, especially with Tri-X. It's not that it was sharper, my camera/lens is plenty sharp and I am working some with inducing grain in LR3 just to see what happens, nothing to write about so far but there's a lot of choice in those few sliders down at the bottom of the Develop module.

I also was talking about a friend today about skipping the idea of black and white from the standpoint that I hope to gain new clients and this could quickly type cast me and my work with new people. It happens so easily and I am the one that is finding shots to process in black and white but no one ever has requested them; it seems like people are more likely to go wow over black and white but I've yet to have someone come to me and ask to do a shoot with the intention of getting black and white images.

So I guess this is going to be for fulfilling my own creative urges or maybe my ego or unfulfilled fantasy lol, but the process just getting to where I know I can get the prints I want will be worth the work.

Jannie -- Please report back on your findings. I'd love to know your results and impressions of what the noted print shops can provide compared to your self-printed images.

I have fond memories of my darkroom days -- 25 years ago, yikes! -- and have really been bitten by the B&W bug again. I wish I could find a shop that offers various Ilford and Kodak paper choices, at reasonable prices of course. But I'm happy with my initial experiments so far (Glacier covered volcanoes make for some very dramatic B&W's).

I'm not sure if Miller's and MPixPro even use different papers or printers since they're two parts of the same company. I'll be curious to hear what you learn.

Cheers,

Gary

I use a heavyweight matt paper for B/W behind glass it gives the print a very professional finish,worth having a go with your HP before you ship them out to be printed.

In the Uk there is Ilford Labs.

They use Ilford silver gelatin B&W papers and do a fine job.

So far I have:
MPIX Pro: B&W Silver Halide prints
Miller's Labs: B&W Silver Halide prints
West Coast Images
Ilford Labs. might be worth it for prints to display in my home. Maybe for sale, first to find what looks the best.