Digital BW, The Print

Bruce Barnbaum has an article in the latest (September/October, 2005) Photo
Techniques magazine entitled, "The Future of Traditional Photography."
While he thinks both media will co-exist quite nicely, he does prefer the
traditional approach.  He likes the solitude and process of the darkroom,
and he dislikes what he sees as "instant decisions" that tend to be made
with digital capture -- seeing the image on the LCD, etc. and deleting
images too quickly.

The article struck me as a thoughtful piece rather than a dogmatic reaction
of a silver theologian.

Frankly, my view is that the skills of making a good B&W print are quite
transferable between the wet darkroom and the computer.  Most of the content
of the articles Barnbaum writes about working up a print could be talking
about digital tools rather than the darkroom analogies.  

Digital B&W technology is at a sufficiently high level now that it's the
image and skill/"eye" of the (human) printer that distinguishes the good
ones from the mundane.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com