How to master black and white printing

Helen Bartlett is passionate about family photography and shoots entirely in black and white for its timeless appeal. "It's all about longevity and pictures not just looking good when children are small, but when they're 20, 40 or 60," she says. "Black and white takes out the distractions of clothes and it becomes more about people, emotions, relationships and the story rather than about what they're wearing."

Printed images have always been an integral part of Helen's work. "At the end of the shoot, I want the family to have something tangible, whether it's an album or framed prints to go on the wall," she explains. "Having a physical print is hugely important. I want people to look at the pictures and use them. If I just gave clients a disc, even the most tech-savvy parents would probably just put it in a drawer and forget about it."

Helen currently has her leather-bound albums and framed and unframed prints made at professional labs, but is keen to explore the process of making her own prints using Canon's range of professional printers. She was invited to experience one first-hand at Canon's west London office, with expert guidance from printing specialist Jay Sinclair. Helen brought along a selection of files from which to print, and got to work with Jay. Let's see what she learnt.

Preparing the perfect black and white photo print

One feature Jay highlighted at this stage was Pattern Print, which is a great way to fine-tune your print settings. By clicking on Pattern Print, he brought up a work layout showing 49 variations of the image, all at slightly different brightness or contrast settings. He advised printing this out on the same type of paper Helen would be using, then selecting the image she most liked. Inputting the brightness and contrast settings beneath that image would ensure that the final print would match that image.

Printing the image at A2 size on a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 took around six minutes. Jay advised that Helen should view it using a lamp fitted with a 5000K (daylight) bulb, so she would see the print's colours accurately. He then outputted a number of Helen's images for her to view.

The benefits of printing your own photos

And how did she feel about seeing the high-quality A2 prints of her images produced by the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000?

"Seeing those big prints, to be honest, makes me more excited about my work," she says. "When you hold a print, that image etches itself on your mind much more than other ways of viewing it."