Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Nicholas Hartmann 
<POLYGLOT@E...> wrote:
 
(snip)
> 
> Our opinions on digital vs. silver obviously differ fundamentally.
> 
> I am interested in digital printing not because I think it can 
outdo or
> even equal silver, but because many of my pictures are taken 
specifically
> in order to send prints to my friends and family. My work and my 
life allow
> me one long afternoon a week in the darkroom, during which time I 
can make
> maybe a dozen RC prints. Making those prints involves mixing 
chemicals,
> making test strips, processing, washing and drying prints, then 
taking them
> home and spotting them. I also need to pay rent for the darkroom. 
If I can
> convert that portion of my photographic activity into a digital 
context, I
> can spend an hour or so every evening scanning, Photoshopping, and 
printing
> and come up with prints that are within, say, 90% of the quality of 
what I
> can do on RC paper. I get to do all that sitting down, at my 
leisure, in a
> house whose mortgage I'm paying off anyway, in a room with a better 
sound
> system. The people who receive the prints will probably stick them 
in a
> frame, and from a couple of feet away they will see only the 
picture, not
> the print. We have communicated with one another, which is the 
point.

Nick,

You are exactly at the point I was last fall. Only I had reached the 
point where, due to time constraints, I didn't even have that one 
afternoon a week. I wasn't making any prints at all.

Piezo or inkjet printing simply isn't a substitute for silver but it 
is an excellent medium for making B&W prints. I look at what I am 
doing now as a new body of work, seperate from my silver printing. 
Someday I will have more time, or the technology will advance, and I 
will be making silver prints again. But if I had unlimited time right 
now, I would be doing both and more besides.

I would also strongly recommend that you look at the dye based 
Spectratone Quad inks from Lincoln Inks. If you are working on RC 
paper you might be very pleased with their inks on the Ilford RC 
inkjet paper.

http://www.lincolninks.com/ 

Check out the earlier posts on this and contact them for a sample 
print.

Martin Wesley

(snip)