Digital BW, The Print

You're right about the larger sizes.  I've got 40 years of darkroom experience.  I find that anything of 16x20, even with the right equipment, is a major undertaking.  You can process in trays or drums, but no matter, big prints are demanding.  Also, consider the cost of a single blown print.  I don't know if there are still labs to do it, but I saw, as recently as 5 years ago, silver prints up to about 10 feet.  They were incredibly expensive.  But, beautiful.  I think they were in the $1000 dollar range, but I'm not sure.
 
Personally, I would not undertake making large prints again in a darkroom even if they gave me the darkroom when all was done.  What would one do with a darkroom now.  Unless, of course you would like to be one of the few people in the world doing that type of printing.  Maybe there's still money to be made there.  
 
I have never seen a 30x40 platinum print.  I suppose someone does that sort of thing, but it would be highly unlikely that a commercial lab would do it.

Tony Caltabiano <calpen1@...> wrote:
Hello group,
I hope the collective wisdom here can help me out.  I have been doing
giclees for a 
client for quite awhile now who does fine art wet plate collodion.  
His smallest prints 
are 16x20 - and are up to 30x40.  He has decided that although giclee
is his main 
medium, he would also like to have the same images printed the same
sizes in silver 
and platinum/paladium for the customers/galleries that would prefer
not to have 
giclees.  
On the digital end I know this would pretty much involve getting
imagesetter negs 
made really big for contact printing/make negs myself on the Epson
9600.  I have 
Burkholder's book, and I am confident that I could get that whole
process nailed 
down.  But I am seriously at a loss on how to handle this on the
darkroom side of 
things.
He has already arranged to BUILD me a darkroom nearby.  While I am a
fine art 
photog myself, I send everything through the epson 9600, not the
darkroom.  I am 
not very skilled at printing the traditional way, and have never even
touched platinum.

I live just outside of Los Angeles, and I can't find a BW lab who can
do anything bigger 
than 20x24.  Platinum printers are hard to find, period.  So I am
having trouble being 
able to outsource it, and I am feeling like I am in way over my head
doing it myself.  

Can anyone with experience with the larger side of printing offer me
any ideas of 
where to turn, or what books to look at?  I would assume that
printing 24x30's and 
larger to hang on gallery walls is not an easy undertaking?

Thanks in advance for guidance.

Tony

Tony Caltabiano
Higher Place Studio
www.higherplacestudio.com


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