Most of my pictures are mostly black. That makes printing them a long argument with a machine that would very much like black to be one colour.
Empty black, full black
An empty black is a hole in the paper. A full black has information in it: you can lean in and find texture, a hint of the wall, a hem.
Getting there means proofing on the actual edition paper, never on something cheaper. Baryta papers give the deepest blacks; cotton rag softens them into something closer to velvet.
I proof every print at least four times before an edition is signed off.
If you buy a print from the shop, the one you receive is checked against the master proof in daylight and under a 5000K lamp.
