Black & White Images: Warmth

[myke]

Hi everybody,

I've been around the forum for just over a week or so (a short period as a guest), loads of great information which I've been checking out as I embark on my sublimation hobby journey.

I've been doing various tests and experiments between materials, and trying different temperatures/durations to try and come up with some kind of correlation for my own understanding.

e.g. hotter > shorter duration > burnt colours etc.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and whilst I am happy with how I am sublimating coloured images at the moment, I thought I'd challenge myself and sublimate a B&W image. I've tried this maybe 7 or 8 times now on polyester, and I think I have found the sweet spot, I am happy with how it sublimates there. I have identified on polyester where the black ink burns and becomes a warm image. The one that I am struggling to really nail is slate (unsurprisingly) - I can't seem to come up with anything noticeable that changes the result. I don't know if I'm just being too fussy, and if my B&W slates are just destined to have a warm hue to them.

I made the newbie mistake of trying with some large slates 19x19, and as you'd expect, screwed them up - oops! So, I figured I'd get hold of some smaller ones (9x9) and more of them, to try and test.

I've spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the various threads on slate on the forum, noting methods that have been tried, and trying them myself, but I just can't seem to nail the black and white image without the warm hue. I thought I'd reach out and ask your opinions, what do you think?



From L to R, I've got:
480s at 185c - Face down
420s at 180c - Face down
400s at 180c - Face down

I am currently pre-heating the rear of the slate for 60s, then the white surface for 60s (my first few slates had a real issue with moisture in them), allowing to cool for a few minutes and then sublimating.

All of these are using the correct ICC for the material and it does deliver colour prints well, it's just these black and white images! I have checked the B&W image itself to ensure that it's actually black-and-white and there's no colour in it, which it's all good.

Keen to hear your thoughts and perhaps suggestions, or if I'm just being a bit too fussy!

Thanks, and looking forward to continuing to learn here.

myke

[pisquee]

If you're going the perfectionist route, then you'd be best getting a ICC profiling system (SpyderPrint or ColorMunki) and making your own profiles for each substrate you print on... maybe even doing seperate colour and monochrome ones.

[Justin]

We do all slates at 197c for 600 secs, preheat for 125 secs

You might be asking a bit too much from sublimation to get these images any better. It will depend on a huge number of possible factors, for example different coatings on slates from different manufacturers gives different results. What printer/inkset are you using?

[myke]

Thanks Pisquee, I've been aware of those kinds of things in a photography capacity, so may be worth me considering in the long term! Thanks for suggestion

Thanks Justin, yeah, I might be over expecting - I've actually not seen sublimated slates in person apart from those that I have done myself (I don't think), so very much going by how other images and tutorial videos look online to benchmark how I'm doing.

I'm using an Epson ET-2720 and Sublinova Inkset for now. One thing I did think about is that I've not been setting the printer driver to 'Grayscale only', as I had read elsewhere this can play mishaps with the ICC profile. I'm now wondering if that will be worth a try; I'm also going to try a different B&W image I think.

I'm happy with them, I just didn't want to think 'ok I've got my settings for this one', to then later find that somebody with a bit more experience is like 'Noo, they're definitely over pressed'. I'm pleased that neither of you have looked at them and thought 'wow what a mess, they're completely off'

Appreciate your help so far, thank you