Digital BW, The Print

> Does anyone know a plug- in or another way to
imitate/emulate 
the slightly irregular black border that is
tyoically around black 
and white prints that come out of the darkroom?

>Bernard,
Caution -- you are seriously messing with your
photo karma if 
you go using one of the fake-black-border
software programs. 
This is dangerous territory. Cartier-Bresson is
not dead yet, but 
still his ghost will rise to haunt you. The ghost
is haunting 
anyone who's not using a Leica and Tri-X and
traditional 
darkroom anyway, but if you cross that
fake-black-border line, all 
bets are off as to the repercussions.

I'm sure you experienced a bit of that similar
ghost the first time 
you used the clone tool to put a third eyeball in
the middle of 
someone's forehead; but the black border ghost is
much more 
angry.

Beware. You're on thin ice now.


Bernard,
If you're willing to tempt the Photo
Gods(ignoring Mark's warning) and come over to
the Dark Side as I have, here's what works for
me. 
Like you, I've always liked the rough edge you
can in the darkroom. It seems like the ones I've
seen from the plug-ins look contrived and
unnatural. What I did was scanned a silver print
with an edge that I liked. Then in PhotoShop I
dragged my new image onto the one with the good
edge, sized it to fit and blended the two with a
layer mask. Simple and easy. 
I recently had a few prints in a group show at a
local gallery that used this technique. Everyone
assumed they were silver prints. (OK, Mark, so
maybe I won't get into Photo Purist Heaven, but
do I get points for still using Tri-X? )

Alan



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