Digital BW, The Print

I agree with you about the amount of personal expression that goes 
into our images we produce, but without the skill (technical) side of 
the equation; I can't produce the image I see in my mind's eye. Often 
I take a picture with an idea of the resulting print and fall short 
of reaching that goal because of my inadequacy of technical skills. 
QTR is removing one of those shortcomings in my skills by allowing 
the resulting print to more resemble the screen image. Now I need to 
learn more about the screen production that shows my idea of the 
resulting image. This requires my learning more of Photoshop and also 
curve production in QTR. Towards those skills, I am looking at an 
inexpensive (?) densitometer that will allow linearization of the 
tonal range that is displayed in the print. Behind all this is the 
desire to express my feelings at the time of exposure, and the reason 
I felt compelled to make the image.

Your friend in Photography,

Johnny


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Djon" 
<westsidemaurice@y...> wrote:
> 
> These sound like good books...back to Amazon!
> 
> But IMO 75% of the posts on this Forum seem more to suggest 
education
> in NON-technical aspects of B&W, most especially
> "pre-visualization"...a skill that's almost never mentioned on 
digital
> forums...there's a blind spot. 
> 
> This blind spot is an obstacle to progress when we forget about the
> photograph and forgo personal visual skill development and become
> obsessed with monitor calibration and soft proofing. 
> 
> It probably has to do with the derivative post-card tendencies of 
the
> "fine" photos we see most often online: minds occupied with 
technique
> rather than eyes and heart involved in images. 
> 
> 
> ---  "Digital Black and White Photography: A Step by Step Guide to 
> > Creating Perfect Photos", by John Beadsworth. I use this book all
> the time. It is a very good 
> > "how to" on digital black and white. I also have Eddie Ephraums'
> book which is a good 
> > reminder to keep it simple.
> >