Black & White Photo Printing

Traditionally a darkroom printing process, Ilford Imaging (now HARMAN Technology), together with Metro’s own Steve Macleod, developed their B&W papers in order to be exposed via digital output printers such as our Durst Lambda and Océ Lightjet and Metro Imaging are the only UK lab to offer this service. This development meant that silver gelatin prints could quickly and easily be produced at a much larger scale. Producing B&W prints digitally allows for incredibly consistent results, especially for large format editions and print runs. Both FB & RC papers produce prints up to 108 x 48 inches at their maximum size.
Digital B&W silver gelatin prints are a Premier Service only on both Bespoke and Self-service. Our Bespoke printing can include (as part of the print cost) a one to one appointment with an expert technician, a test print and archiving the file for future editions.

Both of our C Type (Chromogenic) and Digital B&W prints are produced with archival photographic, light-sensitive papers exposed digitally. When printing a B&W image using a colour paper there will always be a colour cast of some degree, usually green or magenta. Whilst the C Type process uses colour papers and chemistry, our HARMAN GDS B&W papers contain no colour dyes and are exposed with B&W chemistry, resulting in ‘true’ blacks with no colour cast.

For digital B&W prints, the turnaround time is within three working days for a test print, and a further three working days for the finals (pending test approval).

The turnaround time for traditional darkroom silver gelatin Hand Prints from negatives is five working days.