Digital BW, The Print

> Hi Tim,
>
> > Fist, photography always has and always will be about artificiality and
> > manipulation (it's two dimensional for goodness sake - how real and
> > true is that...?).
>
> I certainly disagree with that.  A LOT of photography is about accurate
> reproduction of a scene.
>

That's close to the old "Photographs never lie" myth Austin - almost every
photograph does, and is an unreal representation of what it tries to
present. Even Scenes of Crime photography requires the testimony of the
photographer to authenticate it - it doesn't and can't stand on it's own.
(having spent my early photographic days doing just that). Becuase the
Courts are very aware of how easily photography lies - even the choice of
viewpoint makes a difference.


> > Secondly - it takes just as much skill, expertise and experience to use
> > Photoshop well as a photographic tool as it does be an excellent
> > darkroom technician. Differnet skills, but just as rare in both cases.
>
> Absolutely BS.  How many did USM in the darkroom?  How many of
> you even know
> that USM is a chemical darkroom technique, and know how it's
> actually done?
> Not many, I assure you.

I did, for one, and plenty of it...

And I think you missed the point - I said it is as much a skill to master
Photoshop as it is to become a good darkroom technician - I said nothing
about how easy or hard it was to do things in PS as compared to the
darkroom. Some things still work better and are easier in the darkroom,
others in PS.

> I think the ease of using PS is FAR FAR FAR greater than doing the same
> thing in the darkroom.  It takes FAR less skill to do most anything in PS
> than in the darkroom.  That has no bearing on the ability to get
> the result
> you want, mind you...but the technical skill to do USM in the darkroom is
> far greater than that required to do it in PS.  Does it matter?  Probably
> not in reality.

A really skilled user of Photoshop is still as rare as a really skilled
darkroom craftsperson - most people's Photoshop work is pretty clumsy - but
then so is most darkroom work.

tim