Digital BW, The Print

In the past I always wished for better paper choices in silver
gelatine. There were good papers for gloss but I never could find much
pleasure in the majority of matt and textured papers available. The
native color casts of most of them just didn't suit my own tastes. 

That is what drew me to the pigmented inkjet print. The variety of
rich surfaces is terrific and very pleasing to me. Not to mention the
fact that I can sit in an easy chair in a comfortable and lighted room
and work the magic myself without muss or mess. There have been some
papers that do a fair job of emulating the gelatine gloss papers but
they don't necessarily have the longevity qualifications most look for
or are difficult to work with, take a year to dry, require coating etc
etc. Till recently, if I needed anything over 13x19, I simply made a
proof and sent it off with the file for Fuji Cristal on a Lightjet.

Today the ordinary Sally/Joe can even mix her/his own special blends
of pigments, print it on virtually anything compared to the darkroom
days and still have it look photographic in detail and tonal
transitions. How hard is that to take?

Regards
Duane


> Unfortunately, from what I observed, most people come to B&W digital
> printing with the wrong attitude, they think it is a technology meant
> to copy or clone traditional silver printing, which it is not. Also
> unfortunate is the fact that most efforts are put in the same
> direction, how to make a digital print look like what it is not, a
> silver print. And I must say, some have been very successful, though
> on the wrong track.
> There is a paradox, most people acknowledge the fact that an image
> from a scanned negative (grain structure is different) or one taken
> with a digital camera (shadow detail, sharpness, grain structure,
> etc.) looks different then what one would get from a negative enlarged
> with an enlarger, still they expect the prints to look the same with
> the ones coming from a process involving an enlarger and chemical
> processing.
> Besides, the best paper (IMHO) for digital printing is Hahnemuhle
> photo rag which has a texture and feel and color with no equivalent in
> silver printing papers that I know unless you make you own.
> What I'm trying to say is, use each technique for its strongest
> points, take into consideration the specifics of a technique and use
> them to your advantage. The B&W print 'look' that we all know and like
> and are nostalgic for, has its power and its magic because over time
> we learned how to take advantage of that technique, not by trying to
> copy another.
> 
> 
> Andu