Monochrome Camera Print Offer!

[Sale ended 11/25/2022 at one minute to midnight]

I'm very pleased to offer for sale a small selection of fine prints made from a monochrome digital camera. The camera is a Sigma fp converted to monochrome by having the CFA (color filter array) stripped from the camera, a service that can be performed on any camera that has a Sony sensor by Daniel Morrison at Monochrome Imaging Services in Vancouver, Washington (among others). It is a 24-megapixel full-frame camera. The conversion increases both sensitivity and sharpness such that the prints look more like they were made with a 36-MP camera.

The prints are gorgeous. I'm so pleased with the way they turned out that I've decided to commit to working this way into the future. I've loved black-and-white since I first discovered, as a boy, that the local pharmacy would make black-and-white prints to special order. I drove their technician crazy! Not long afterward, I set up my first B&W darkroom in the bathroom under the basement stairs in my parents' house in Bethesda. My love of B&W continued through a career as a custom B&W printmaker for galleries and museums, and as a darkroom expert writing for such magazines as Darkroom Photography (US) and Black & White Photography (UK) among others. When I first started the "Collector Print Program" at Photo Techniques magazine several decades ago, the idea was to offer beautiful pictures that were also outstanding examples of various specialized, exotic, or unusual photographic techniques, so readers could see for themselves what good examples of those techniques look like. These monochrome-sensor prints follow fully in that tradition.

After the Rain, Keuka Lake, from Hammondsport
["Lake" on the ordering page]

Vultures Eating the Remains of a Deer
["Vultures"]

Car Coming
["Car"]

These prints were made under my supervision in Daly City, California, by Ctein (it's his only name—he's mononymous—and it's pronounced "kuh-TINE). Ctein is a longtime custom printer who transitioned to inkjet printing from dye transfer; he wrote the standard textbook on photo restoration, and we hope he will write one on inkjet printing. He certainly could. They were printed with Epson UltraChrome HD pigment inks on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper. The prints are BIG—for me—printed on 17x22" paper with approximately 1" borders.

The cost is $265 per print, and SHIPPING IS FREE TO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. Your satisfaction is guaranteed—if, after seeing it, you choose not to keep it for any reason or for no reason, simply return it for a full refund. We will accommodate your wishes.

For those who order two prints in any combination, there is a choice of one of two free 8.5x11-inch bonus prints...

Corn at the Harvest
["Corn"]

Wet Asphalt
["Asphalt"]

...and anyone who orders three large prints in any combination will receive both free bonus prints.

The sale is not limited in number; it is LIMITED IN TIME. We take orders only through Friday, all the way to midnight. If you have any questions, please contact Ctein or myself or leave your question in the Comments.

Please click through from the sales page to the large JPEGs that Ctein has put up. They will give you a better idea of what the prints look like. There is a big difference between seeing these little JPEGs and the magnificent full-sized prints. Hopefully, these will help convince you, as they have convinced my grateful self, that monochrome, a.k.a. black and white, is still alive and well, easier than it used to be, and as beautiful as it ever was.

Mike
(Top photo by Dan Whicker)

Featured Comments from:

Nikhil Ramkarran: "Ordered, with great pleasure."

robert e: "They may be just JPEGs, but I can see why you're jazzed, Mike! Boy, the more I see of 'Vultures' the more I like it—there's so much visual variety and many points of interest, but all within a harmonious whole. Congratulations on all these prints and on finally obtaining your dream tool. Good luck with the sale!"

Mike replies: Thank you.

Stan B.: "That's one handsome set of prints!"

Mike replies: Thank you!

Darlene: "I ordered 'Vultures' because I like the image. I call it Circle of Life (or something like that). It is a beautiful image, and I cannot wait to see the print. Happy early holidays to you, Mike."

Mike replies: And to you as well.

Rodolfo Canet Castelló: "Well, I've just ordered my first fine art print! There's a first for everything. I liked 'Lake' the very moment I saw it, and I believe having a master-printed copy will be extremely useful to educate my eye for my own printing. During these years The Online Photographer has been very important to let me escape from the oversharpened, oversaturated amateur photography of today and this should take my education to the next level. Thanks Mike and Ctein!"

Mike replies: It's a good reason to keep a collection of prints or even clips. When I was a custom exhibition printer, specializing in B&W, I kept a large folder of examples of excellent B&W close at hand—some were original prints by others, some were my prints, and some were tearsheets from magazines. The purpose was to "calibrate my eye" before a printing session. I used it infrequently, but I could usually sense when I needed to do so. Five or ten minutes of looking through those examples and I would feel grounded and be ready to start tackling the negatives I had to print that day. (I probably also used that time to formulate a mental plan as to how I wanted to approach that day's negatives.)

Comments

[Steve Greenwood]

Mike: As the owner and user of an Epson P800, I'd love to see a discussion from Ctien on printing these. Specifically, I'd love to know whether or not he used the ABW mode and his thoughts on same.

[Garry Stasiuk]

FYI
Daniel lives in Vancouver, Wa, less than a mile from me…

[jp41]

I'm a little surprised the "One Gull" image didn't make the cut for being offered as a print.

[brian]

It's interesting to compare your photo in this post to an earlier version with a Ctein-made print. Some things haven't changed much.

https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2015/02/winner-of-the-megapixel-race.html

[William Lewis]

Congrats on the sale, I hope it goes well for you. Honestly, I love the "Corn at Harvest"; to my sense of aesthetics, it's by far the best of the bunch.

Alas, it's not particularly relevant since I can't afford any of them at this time. Hopefully you'll get the level of sales you deserve for these marvelous images.

[Jakob]

I second Steve's request above for a discussion on printing these - both technical issues specific to Epson printers, and creative aspects from your side, Mike.

I'd also be interested in how and why you selected these 3+2 images for this sale.