What's BPC for, when printing? What's it do? Are you using the wrong black point correction setting?

There is a BPC check box on many printing applications, Should you use it for fineart printing? A look at what BPC is, why it's often needed and how it works for your printing. Why appreciating it can make all the difference for your printed photos and artwork.
Why does BPC matter for Relative Colorimetric rendering intent but not usually for Perceptual? Are there times not to use it - why test images and really looking at your prints matter.
#fineartprint #printer #colormanagement #BPC
The Colour Management book I recommend is Bruce Fraser's
'Real World Color Management'
Should be available 2nd hand at a good price.
Some much more technical references:
BPC from the ICA
www.color.org/...
How BPC is implmented
www.color.org/...
More about rendering intents
help.onyxgfx.c...
For a full categorised index of all my videos, see:
www.northlight...
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If you'd like to make a small donation, I have a Kofi page:
"Buy me a coffee" ko-fi.com/keit...
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My articles and videos are always free to access.
Any help with running this channel is gratefully received.
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I also have some affiliate links which earn me a commission if used.
US Amazon photo/print gear: amzn.to/3l9vJC6
B&H Photo: www.bhphotovid...
Adorama: www.adorama.co...

[@KeithCooper]

Please just ask if you've any questions? Don't forget the full categorised index of all my videos at www.northlight-images.co.uk/keith-cooper-photography-videos-index/ If you'd like to make a small donation towards my testing, I have a Kofi page: "Buy me a coffee" ko-fi.com/keithcooper See the video notes for books and links to more BPC information. Buying stuff? I also have some affiliate links which earn me a small commission if used. US Amazon photo/print gear: amzn.to/3l9vJC6 B&H Photo: www.bhphotovideo.com/?BI=2008&KBID=2711&DFF=d10-v1-t8-x4 Adorama: www.adorama.com/?

[@craigbrockway652]

Keith, every time watching your videos is a learning experience or a good memory refresher. I now understand BPC better, thank you.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it was of interest

[@nigelbramley6289]

I've been printing quite a few years and it's so easy to get bogged down and confused with set ups for beginners. I only use three types of papers and know them very well with various image types. It can be as difficult as you want it to be, so dont let it and enjoy printing! Excellent, informative vlog as usual Keith. Happy new year to and yours.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - it's very easy to over-complicate things

[@okvaale2548]

Brilliant video - thanks a lot

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@dw-et3gm]

Bruce Fraser book is one book every photographer doing printing should not miss. Concept of color management is not easy to master, this book helps a lot.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes absolutely - I was re-reading a few bits before I did this video. Some is distinctly outdated, where it's talking about different operating systems and software which are no longer around, but the essence of the book is as valid today as it ever was.

[@tyren51]

Happy new year Keith! Your channel is great - was just gifted the 8550 and my prints are already remarkably better thanks to you 😊

[@KeithCooper]

Excellent - Here's to great prints in '25!

[@phototaggr]

Thank you Keith, thats really helpfull!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@puck528co]

Very helpful!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - it's a tricky one to cover in any depth without getting very technical, and as such not much more helpful for most people

[@Richard-i9t2k]

Great as always, thank you and Happy New Year 🎉

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - all the best to you too...

[@malcolmwhiting3078]

Excellent. Thank you. Ihave just installed the ET8550. So far I am very happy with it but at the stage of finding the best Lustre paper. I am awaiting a profile from Marrutt as I have used their oyster paper for many years. I do want to try the Epson equivalent but just seem to have difficulty finding a supplier who has stock. Even Epson seem to have troublecwith it. I shall look at Fotospeed also. Anyway, I love printing and rewatch many of you videos. Happy New Year.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - I'm glad to see more people finally making profiles for the 8550

[@steviesteve1716]

Thank you

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@KatrinaRRP]

Great video! One exception: As a general rule, I say that Relative Colorimetric with Blackpoint Compensation OFF is a good place to start for artwork reproduction. For traditional artwork reproduction, crushing of blacks is often what you actually want (not always but in 95% of cases in my experience running a fine art reproduction print shop). The reason for this is that black oil/acrylic/watercolor paint is seldom significantly darker than the darkest blacks on matte paper on higher-end printers (ie P900, Pro-1000, Pro-300, etc) and if you have one stray totally black (L=0) pixel somewhere (perhaps from a shadow caused by texture in the work) in your image, having BPC on will raise all the dark colors up, causing the print to look washed out. This is a common problem people run into with cotton papers especially.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Good point... Art repro is definitely an area where colour management expertise and knowledge really helps. It's something I've covered several times for companies in our bespoke commercial training - one where I take a lot of kit with me in the back of the car...

[@KatrinaRRP]

@@KeithCooper Yep for sure! One demo I do for BPC is I'll take a black square where the whole thing is L=17 and print it on matte cotton paper. Ok looks great. They I'll add one single pixel to it that is L=0 and then print it and now the black square will be a gray.

[@KeithCooper]

That's a good one, I'll file that away...

[@JorenVaes]

Hi Keith, thanks for all the videos on printers, I've been learning a lot watching them these last few days while looking for my first 'real' photo printer. A question I had: In a lot of the video reviews of yours, you don't seem to spend a huge time talking about gamut that is covered by the printers. Why is this? Is it in your experience just less relevant in the real world? Some reviews spend a lot of time on this, discussing exactly which colors can and can't be reached by a certain printer. Have a great new year!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks. You have spotted where I disagree to a degree with some people 'reviewing printers' ;-) Yes, it's nowhere near as significant as some would have you believe... To my mind concentrating on gamut is missing the point - it is a boundary condition, much like the maximum speed of a car. It is much beloved by people [overly IMHO] concentrating on numbers. Much of what I see about it is just meaningless tech-filler. Having lists of gamut volumes and fancy graphs showing hue shifts is fine in a detailed review of a printer profiling package, where it can have context, explanation and caveats. It risks, in other articles/videos, becoming just pretty graphical data for the sake of show, and 'demonstrating expertise', not explanation. The numbers can seemingly give definitive 'which is best' answers, even when the real answer is 'it depends'. So for two cars which have a top speed of 180MPH, I would probably find the one which did 0-60 in 7 seconds vastly better to drive than one which did 0-60 in 40 seconds. Similarly for a printer/paper combination, very few real world images run into gamut limit issues - what I'm interested is tones/transitions throughout the gamut volume [I've looked at aspects of this in some recent videos, linked to my pro-1100 testing]. Gamut volumes and the like introduce a seeming certainty and precision, which some photographers find re-assuring. I come from a scientific and research background which included quite a bit about how different sorts of people 'see' the same data/information, so I'm always wary of introducing too much 'techy' stuff without explanation. As I noted in this video, that means I'll sometimes simplify or gloss over things to reach a wider, less specialist audience. Don't get me wrong, accurate, meaningful and well presented data and information can have a definite use in some contexts - much more likely in a written article [with references] where time can be devoted to fuller explanations. For my work, it's a different way of looking at things, but I know that some people just want 'definite answers' from their reviews... That audience are never going to be entirely happy with my approach to reviews ;-) :-)

[@filmic1]

Thank you. Quite a few years ago I was using Piezography pigments (Split Tone) on my Epson R1800 (around 2007.) It was quite the learning curve. Have you ever discussed printing from Piezography's pigments? When I'm working on an image (scanned from a b+w negative) I always curve a black point and white point in the threshold window before working further.

[@KeithCooper]

Not covered such inks for nearly 20 years... I only get loan printers to test for reviews - I cannot afford to buy kit just to test ink sets. Happily do so if someone loans/gives me kit but otherwise it's unlikely

[@defconreee3105]

What BPC and rendering intent settings do you use when printing a profiling target and how does it affect the profile? I use an old Colormunki and an Epson 8550 printer.

[@KeithCooper]

For creating normal icc profiles, you print profiling targets with no colour management, so rendering intents are irrelevant. If you are printing targets and get a choice, you are likely doing something wrong ;-)

[@WildpixFPV]

Hi Keith! I started to print on my new ET-8550, so far so good. Using the Epson Print Layout software, I ran into following issue; Some .tif files cannot be opend by EPL. Seems like many others found this issue as well. Is there any solution/workaround? Are .tif files outdated? I've been taught in media design (print) some years ago that this format is the only way to go for prints. This is for another coffee incoming! Cheers, Oliver

[@KeithCooper]

TIFF is useful, but can have compatibility issues. It works when it works. You say 'some' ? What types of files failed and exported from what? Layers and odd colour representations, encodings or compressions can all cause problems. These are essentially the same reasons I've seen TIFFs cause issues for over 20 years :-) For print output a max quality jpeg [RGB in whatever colour space you are working in] is normally perfectly fine

[@WildpixFPV]

@@KeithCooper Thanks for the quick answer! I will dive into this, I'm also trying to find a decent "no-Adobe"-workflow. Darktable was the editing software with the not working TIFF file. AdobeLightroomClassic tiff was ok. Will check for more details now. Didn't even remember them being so tricky with printing, had great teachers back then, 10 years ago! haha ;-)

[@WildpixFPV]

@@KeithCooper But I'm happy to say the 8550 gives me great results, even in B&W! Loving it!! 🙂

[@michaelwhite4810]

Hi, when I print on hahnemuhle photo rag baryta 17''*22'' using pro 1000, it will produce a line on the paper I guess that's because the printer head is too close to the paper ? I don't have such issues when using canon paper, do I need to turn on prevent paper abrasion ? The manual says that the option could affect printing quality.

[@KeithCooper]

Have you installed Hahnemuhle's AM1X file for this paper? The paper abrasion setting should not normally be used

[@michaelwhite4810]

@@KeithCooper I don't find a place to download Hahnemuhle's AM1X file, can you provide a link ?

[@KeithCooper]

@@michaelwhite4810 the content seems to vary by site - try their UK one and main one. I've not used these files at all in my testing

[@jean-claudemuller3199]

Hi Keith @1:22 are you sure that this is the Canon software ? For me using only the Epson software, it seems 1:1 identical !

[@KeithCooper]

Absolutely - the prints were made on a PRO-1100. I shot the video with the Epson printer on view, to make the point that this is not a Canon or Epson thing

[@paularnold9009]

Are you saying that the Prophoto profile is not really useable in home printing?

[@KeithCooper]

No - not at all... It just has a few potential traps for the unwary See here for example www.northlight-images.co.uk/a-photo-print-of-some-bright-red-flowers/

[@pharmacist5884]

Prophoto is a display/working profile not be used for printing.

[@paularnold9009]

@@pharmacist5884 ?

[@CharlesBonham-bh8mt]

Can you discuss black enhance overcoat on glossy and luster paper. How does the printer do this and when should you use it?

[@KeithCooper]

Prophoto is used as a working colour space [not a display space - nothing can display anything like prophoto]. It can be used in a print workflow perfectly well.

[@freehand5040]

Thanks for your input over the year Keith please do not become to famous, content is king not really interested in soft lit rooms etc. 👍

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks! May be moving house next year, but content will always come first [so no music and sweeping drone shot intros ;-) ]