Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Nicholas Hartmann 
<POLYGLOT@E...> wrote:
(snip)

> Martin -
> 
> I'm not planning on giving up the darkroom just yet. But I agree 
that
> inkjet output is qualitatively different: last night I scanned and 
printed
> a negative of which I already had RC and fiber prints, and the 
amount of
> detail and tonal differentiation that can be pulled out using even 
a 2820
> ppi scanner is quite amazing. Having figured out (finally) how to 
match the
> monitor image to the printed output, I was then able to make a 
print (using
> the black cartridge only) that revealed aspects of the negative I 
had been
> completely unable to deal with in the darkroom. This indicates 
mostly that
> I have a lot to learn about gelatine silver printing!

Don't give up on the darkroom work.

There is always a more to learn. I would suggest that you go back to 
yesterdays thread from Phil Bard and follow the link to his page that 
shows an image after scanning, silver print enlargement, digital neg, 
etc. I think that at the scan stage of digital you can get more 
information off the negative than you can by enlarging. There is 
quite a bit of loss going from the negative through the lens and onto 
paper. Contact printing onto silver is reported to hold 80 to 100 
lines per mm but enlarging drops that to 20. The point is that there 
is good reason to believe that digital does indeed get more out of 
your negs. Getting that onto a piece of paper is another story.

You can also use digital to make 1:1 transparency masks to sandwich 
with your neg in the enlarger. Another way to combine digital and 
traditional methods.

> 
(snip)
> 
> Given the number of electrons expended on this whole MIS VM vs. 
black-only
> business, I'd be happy to send you a sample print done with the 
black
> cartridge, so you can see what _I_ consider good-looking inkjet 
output.
> You're entirely at liberty to think it's nasty, of course...

I would like to see what you are doing. As the description of the 
groups says it is about ALL methods for getting a B&W print from a 
digital file. I will e-mail my address you off list. If you want to 
send me a copy of your file, I can print it out for you on my 1200 
Piezo system for comparison.

One last thing I have failed to mention in spite of all the time I 
put into it. If you want an air-dried silver look from you inkjet 
prints you can achieve it by varnishing the prints. It takes practice 
but the results are very amazing.

Martin Wesley