Digital BW, The Print

Occasionally on the various forums I read there is the inevitable Digital
vs. Film debate that occurs.  One of the aspects that fascinates me is the
issue regarding the "value" of the final result, the print.  Value in money,
or value in other terms.  The argument is that in darkroom printing, the
print contains part of the work for that print.  The printer did all of this
dodging and burning magic, and probably went through a ton of paper to get
there.  The argument then continues to say that because digital printing is
automatically reproducible, the prints it produces are of a lesser value.

It's certainly the case that you also get through a lot of paper with
digital printing.  I've gone through boxes and boxes of the stuff - digital
printing right now is a world of delight for the tinkerer and it's certainly
NOT easy!!!  However, I've now got the MIS VM printing on my Epson 1280 to a
point where I run my PhotoShop action, apply a Roark curve and hit print.
Sure, I mess around with the digital image for hours and hours, but the
printing itself is now automatic.  So, is it now the case that the digital
file contains all the value, and the print may as well have "34/3000"
written in pencil (or perhaps a Photoshop layer?) on it?  I could spend days
and days making an image and then print 1000 identical copies.  If I spent
days and days painting a picture with oils, the resulting work is certainly
worth more, because there is only one.

There seems to be a lot of people on this site that sell their digital
prints.  How have you rationalized this in your mind?  Do you sell a limited
edition of an individual print?  Once you sell out of a popular print are
you tempted to hit "print" again and make more?  It would be easy wouldn't
it?  :)

What does everyone think about this?






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