Digital BW, The Print

Hello Peter,

>Maybe not YOUR naked eye, but I can see the 1280's dots
>just fine! 
>we're photographers and many photographers, including me,
>DO examine prints close up.  So it depends.

I agree with you, the dots can be seen without a glass.  When I first
began trying BO printing I was both relieved by finally being able to
get good prints and dismayed by the dots.  I went through a long
anguishing process but finally came to accept the dots for what they
are.  I'm not excusing them, or denying they exist, or saying they
look just as good as whatever, or anything else.  I simply accept them
and see BO as simply another way of making prints.   That acceptance
removed the emotional element and I am much more at ease about it.

If I was a pen-and-ink artist and created identical pics by
laboriously making millions of tiny dots with a pen I'd be famous,
would be in the G. book of world records, my pics would be in museums
and sell for big money in galleries, and others would marvel at my
pointillist technique and be trying to emulate it.  The point is that
BO prints are simply pics made with ink dots, no more, no less, and
they can stand on their own as an art form.  Some artists think
acrylic is inferior to oil, others don't.

One of the things that helped me reach the point of acceptance was
showing a small scrapbook of about 20 4x5 BO prints to several
photographer friends, one a 4x5 color guy, one a serious 35mm BW guy
with years of darkroom experience, and two BW techies in a local lab.
 All I told them was that they were inkjet prints, nothing about BO or
dots or anything.  None of them examined them with a loupe, but all
looked through the book close up with great interest.  NONE of them
said anything about them looking dotty or grainy.   All were impressed
with the sharpness, tonal gradation and shadow detail.

It helped me realize that the emotional content and quality of the
images were coming through in spite of the dots, and that if these 4x5
prints could pass muster with these guys then BO printing was an
acceptable place to hang out while deciding what to do next.

Besides making me feel better about it, this experience brought home
to  me that a big part of my anxiety was from worry about what others
would think.  I thought of past artists who broke out of the mold and
were scorned by their contemporaries, only to become famous and be
copied by others later.  I remembered that as a true artist the only
thing that matters is if _I_ like my work and find it fulfilling.  

When I brushed away all the emotional junk and anxiety I realized that
I like my BO prints very much.  They have a wonderful luminance to
them, especially when printed on PR.  I have them hanging in my work
room and around the house and am enriched by their presence.  
This was the last step I needed to fully accept them for what they are
- prints made with ink dots and they are beautiful.  

When I began sharing them with other photographers in the forum the
responses were extremly positive, with "stunning" being the most often
used term in the replies.  When I show my prints to non-photographers
without saying anything, they like them and have no clue they are even
inkjet prints.  Now that I'm offering small prints for sale
on my web site I'm getting a steady trickle of orders.  If one needs
validation from others, how much more than this is required?

It isn't necessary to carry on about it.  If it's not acceptable then
don't do it, but please recognize that some people like BO printing
and they aren't lesser photographers or have lower standards because
of it.   They simply like it.  I have been photographing since I was 8
(am now 56), and have done fine art zonie BW printing for over 18
years now.  I know very well what a fine silver print is and do not
claim that _any_ inkjet prints look the same.  They can and often do,
however, look _better_ than silver prints, in certain ways (sharper,
for example), even BO prints.  

I think it's fine if BO printing is not acceptable to you.  But I was
trying to point out in a previous reply in this thread that we simply
aren't where you want to be yet.  I think you need to decide if you
want to get on board now or wait until later.  I, too, would like the
technology to progress more rapidly.  I can't speed it up, but in the
meantime I realize I can make use of the time by improving my
Photoshop skills.  Continual griping in the forum isn't going to
change anything.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm