There is nothing like holding a good black and white photograph in your hands, but getting a print that does the image justice is harder than it seems.

Most printers are built to print high quality images in color and to print rough quality text in black and white. For this reason, they will deliver higher quality images when set-up for color printing than for black and white. The answer, then, is to print in full color mode, but if you do so, you run the risk of obtaining a final image with a color cast, or a slight background tint.

This is easily corrected, however, by adjusting the printer’s color balance, which is usually manipulated through a range of sliders controlling Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow output, located in the printer settings menu.

One issue that has been raised in relation to inkjet prints, such as is used by most home computers, is the archival lifespan, or rather, the length of time that the print will last before the ink starts to fade. In recent years there has been tremendous progress made in this respect, but if this is a consideration, make sure that you buy the very best inks and papers, as some of the cheaper combinations can start to fade, literally within a matter of months.

An alternative method of obtaining a high quality photograph is to print the traditional way, with open plate chemicals in a black and white darkroom. To do this, you will need a computer printer that can print on clear acetate. You will then print a tonally inverted image on the acetate, and use it as a negative to print a positive in the darkroom as you would when shooting on film. This gets around all the problems of archival quality, whilst still allowing you the creative freedom offered by manipulating the image on the computer.

Now that you know nearly all there is to know about black and white photography, why not have a look at the secrets that Ansel Adams, one of the undisputed masters of photography swore by, namely the zone system, and how it relates to histograms.

You may also be interested in our flash photography section, which may give you some ideas on how to light your black and white photographs.

Or, if you're in the mood for something different, have a look at our Environmental Portraits section.