Digital BW, The Print

LOL love the statment about the red light, maybe you have hit on a 
way to turn a profit from the old darkroom!!

Seriously, I am a commercial photographer (originaly from London) now 
working in Sydney Australia. I am a master B/W printer and have spent 
more time in the darkroom than I care to admit. A year or so ago I 
tried out Cone's piezography, while there are some issues with the 
product, i.e. changing colour in the midtones to a brownish tint I 
still think that the process is a lot easer and the end results are 
better than most of the prints that I produce in my darkroom. I have 
images that i have never got great prints from in as much as the 
feeling of the print did not convay what I felt when I took the 
picture. With the inkjet prints they look wonderful. You have so much 
more control over the tones and where they print.

I know what you mean about not using the old equiptment any more and 
it does seem a shame to throw it out, but ask yourself do you want to 
splash around in nasty chemicals under "a red light" or sit in a 
comfortable chair and see exactly what you wil get before you print?

Anyway just a few thoughts for what ever they may be worth.

Bruce


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Euphy" <euphy@e...> wrote:
> Hallo, I work in a big city library (newcastle), and have recently 
had an
> opportunity to delve into its depths, discovering a fully equipped 
darkroom
> with all its fittings (real posh, enormous, but non-digital beseler 
4x5
> enlarger, big format 17x22" kit throughout, all double-doored, 
ventilated,
> safelighted, temp controlled setup). I knew such a thing existed in 
the
> bowels of the building, but didn't think it was still servicable. I 
asked my
> boss about whats done with it, and since they're on something of a
> best-value kick at the moment, I suggested it might be coaxed back 
into
> service. The local studies reference section of us has a big b/w 
archive
> photograph collection that people regularly buy prints from. This 
involves
> us asking the council "city repro" section to make the prints, and 
city
> repro seem to charge an pretty high fee (though I'm pretty sure 
they use
> their standard machine processing, which can't really cost that 
much, though
> I guess they are consistant), and we don't really get much except
> administration costs from it.
> 
> Does anybody have a suggestion on how I might be able to capitalise 
on the
> darkroom, apart from just selling the bits off. I'm not an expert
> print-maker by any means, but I know my way around with the red 
light on,
> and have learnt not to waste materials and supplies, and more to 
the point,
> I know people who are more than qualified to work in such a place, 
if there
> was a few quid in it for them.
> 
> Conversely, and more topically, has anybody been in the situation 
where a
> new in-house digital/inkjet solution has replaced and/or improved a 
wet
> processing solution (prints more-or-less limited to A3)? I wonder 
if buyers
> would be as happy with an on-demand (or one- or two-hour) inkjet 
print (city
> repro makes you wait.. they made some "errors" last week and 
everybodies
> prints are another fortnight late) made on a hot-as quad/hex tone 
printer. I
> guess the glossy/tactile photo factor is involved.. sell them 
framed, so its
> not so instantly obvious?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any ideas, commments, thoughts, greatly appreciated. It breaks my 
heart to
> see that gear going to waste. The room is being filled with obsolete
> computers as time goes by. In my delving, I bumped into a stack of 
286s and
> just 86s, I almost cheered (a stack of a more than a dozen 
computers that
> couldn't even do together what the enlarger next to them could 
replicate, if
> it was photoshop on a modern machine.. if that makes sense er... 
you know
> what I mean..)
> 
> 
> 
> sandy @ www.euphy.co.uk