Digital BW, The Print

-----Original Message-----
From: George Hartzell [mailto:hartzell@...] 
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 3:40 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] lambda BW - again!


 <snip> 
Does anyone have any experience with black and white prints from a
Lambda, a Durst [sic?], a LightJet, a Frontier, or any of the other
"paint the image with light on real photo paper" type systems?
 <snip> 

I had a wedding not long ago where the bride ordered a lot of B&W prints
from me.  The originals were color negatives, scanned by my lab and
printed via their Frontier.  The lab is owned by a wedding photographer
and they do the best job of any lab I've used.  Their color prints are
fantastic.  The B&W prints from the Frontier were (IMO) just OK.  They
were good enough for the bride and family, but nothing like the
traditional optical silver prints I make on fiber.  They had an obvious
"dye" look about them and there was no glow or beauty to them.  The
black was acceptable, but not deep enough for me.  The gradations were
smooth but the midtones seemed to me to be suffering a little in that
there was not enough separation and they appeared a little "muddy".  I
would not hesitate to order them again for most clients, but you and I
know there are much better B&W options, whereas most laypeople really
aren't as picky.  On a scale of 1-10 where an original Ansel Adams print
is a 10, my silver prints on fiber are a 7 or 8, I'd give these about a
5.5.  But then, remember this was from an original Portra NC color
negative (not much contrast), with no local manipulation in the printing
process either.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com <http://lightandsilver.com/>  





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