Digital BW, The Print

At 09:53 PM 11/29/03 -0800, you wrote:
>I have been doing chemical B & W photography for many years.  Trying hard
>not to be a luddite I decided I needed to become open to digital
>concepts.  I remain open.  Digital cameras have reached a point where I can
>do most of the same kind of things I do with a traditional film
>camera.  The advantage no film processing.  Now we get to the nub of my
>dilemana.  I know I can make photoshop do magical things that will allow me
>to replicate the kind of techniques I do in a darkroom.  The problem for me
>seems to come at the printing stage.  I've been reading along with the many
>thoughtful and highly technical experiments that folks discuss here.  As
>near as I can understand what folks have experienced and what they are
>doing the consensus is: You cannot replicate a chemical darkroom with a
>traditional printer without tweaking many different aspects of inks, ink
>jets etc.  As I read deeper I hear folks talking a lot about trials using
>these inks that involve multiple cleaning of ink delivery jets.  If all of
>this is true, I just cannot see myself switching from chemical to digital
>at this time.
>Am I reading things correctly?  I don't really enjoy mixing chemicals.  My
>joy comes when, as a result of chemical mixing and the magic of the
>projector I create something that hints at what I imagined.  Then I'm in
>heaven.
>Cleaning printer heads just doesn't do it for me.
>So I guess my question is:  Is there a stock off the shelf printer with
>stock off the shelf ink supply in nifty little plug in modules that will
>allow me to come close to duplicating my dark room work assuming that I've
>done a good job in the image capture and photoshop manipulation.
>If the answer is no, I'm quite willing to go back to the dark room and wait.
>Thanks for reading.
>
>
>Derek Hamlet
>Victoria, B.C.
>592-8590

Derek,

First, a reminder that you are likely to see a lot more posts about 
problems with B/W printing than anything else. Many people have almost no 
problems with clogs, etc.

Second, you are fortunate to be making the leap from the dark at a time 
when great advances in the craft have been made - see Clayton's comments a 
couple days ago.  You have at least three excellent and proven ways to test 
digital printing: Black only on a 1280 or 2200 printer,  Piezography - a 
turn-key process, or the Paul Roark (or similar) curves which take a little 
more savvy.  In each case there is a wealth of  expert help and opinion on 
this list, the Epson printer list, and the Pieziography list.

Good luck,

AZ



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