Digital BW, The Print

I started following this list a few months ago because I was considering a
digital darkroom.

After a 20+ year hiatus from darkroom room, I had a company request to buy
some prints I had printed in college.  I was then "forced" to build a
darkroom in my house to produce these prints.

Regarding the luminescence of a print and Della's shadows, I found that my
tastes in printing have changed in the 20 years and the prints that I have
produced recently are far better than anything I had done and exhibited
while in college.  Back then I aspired for the deep blacks and the white
whites and didn't pay much attention to what was in between.  Now I have
discovered and am printing the silvery midtones which lend to the overall
luminescence of the print, which is difficult to describe.  It's like jazz,
you get it or you don't.  I also have the blacks and the whites.

I know I am talking about wet chemical process, and I am delaying my foray
into digital black and white printing until I think I can get the same
degree of satisfaction from it.  There seem to be too many complexities at
the moment; like there aren't complexities in a wet darkroom ;).  Meanwhile,
I will continue following this list and learn from the innovative people who
are active here.

Jesse