Digital BW, The Print

At 06:15 PM 12/28/03 -0600, you wrote:
>There are a couple of digital myths here that I think need to be
>clarified.
>
>On Sunday, December 28, 2003, at 03:32  PM, Alan Zinn wrote:
>
> > As a digital virgin - having just gotten a Canon A70 from Santa I'm
> > having
> > fits simply trying to get a candid picture with the freaking digital
> > lag
> > time!
>
>The lag time is usually related to the fact that you are using a
>consumer model point and shoot camera, a comparable point and shoot
>film camera would have the same problem. Many people blame this
>incorrectly on digital when it is a function of the autofocus system.
>With some cameras you can get slow write times to the storage media but
>usually only when trying to shoot bursts.
>
> > They have a distinct digital look when examined closely.
>
>I hear this often and it is almost always an issue with how the image
>was processed in the computer after it was shot. Many photographers do
>not understand Photoshop and others get carried away with what they can
>do. You can easily get the same look from negs if they are over
>processed in Photoshop.
>
>I have asked this in other forums and have never gotten a real answer,
>what is a "digital look?"
>
> > Did anyone see the current N.G.. aviation issue?  It was their first
> > all-digital shoot. Check out the actual mag.. Tell me if I'm full of
> > it,
> > but I swear every image had a distinct "outline" effect around
> > adjacent large tonal
> > areas. I'm probably not describing that well, but take a look.  Is
> > that an
> > artifact of the camera or reproduction?
>
>This is most likely another problem with not knowing Photoshop, it
>sounds exactly like bad Unsharp Mask settings.
>
>If you want a "film look" you can set up a work flow to get that from a
>digital camera, and if you are scanning negs you are already doing some
>of it. The biggest issue isn't how the image was captured but rather it
>is handled between capture and print. And that part is the same whether
>you shoot digital or shoot film and scan.
>
>Cort
>
>--
>Cort Anderson
>Training Wheels, llc
>www.trwheels.com
>620-488-2960
>620-488-3196 fax

Cort,

While I believe you have cleared up some "digital look" issues regarding 
less than optimal work-flow skill,  I still think there are and has to be 
some characteristics that are unique. The adjacency thing must be near to 
impossible to eliminate. I haven't studied ink-jet digital compared to 
laser/chromogenic printed images which may be more like conventional prints.

One way to look at it is to think of the apparent increased sharpness one 
gets from contrast and grain from TX v. softer films. Digital gets a huge 
perceived sharpness boost from the way the data is processed in-camera and 
later in PS. I scanned 8 x 10 TX negs and made 8x 10 piezo prints for a 
view camera buddy.  It drove him a bit nuts trying to figure out why the 
piezos looked so sharp until we began thinking about the extent that the 
neg was literally re-built silver grains-for-pixels.

RE shutter lag, the A70 has manual controls and I hope that reduces the 
problem. The camera performs quite well in all respects - enough to make a 
believer out of me.

AZ

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