The secret to a good black and white print is controlling the dynamic range. The dynamic range is the range of tones, from the blackest black to the whitest white in an image. In a black and white photograph you want to make full use of the entire dynamic range. The problem is that, when printing, the printer usually hits the limitations of its dynamic range long before our eye (and camera, and monitor) stops differentiating detail. As the printer lays down ink to create your black tones, there will be a point at which you can no longer differentiate the detail in those blacks anymore. The same is true with white – every printer has a point where white simply becomes “paper white” and you can no longer see any ink at all. And if that’s not bad enough, this “black point” and “white point” will be different for ever printer/paper combination!
