Digital BW, The Print

Bruce may have moved on a little from his previous position as
described on his website - http://www.barnbaum.com/thoughts.html  His
article there is at least 2 years old.  I've not seen the article to
which you refer but I have followed his work for many years and know
that he's a master of his chosen medium.  When I first 'went digital'
about four years ago I was quick to turn away from silver printing and
a little too quick to criticise those who couldn't see the 'new way'.
 Now I'm keen to see the best of both worlds - and I have no
preferences as to which is best for the final results, let the
photographer/printer decide.  But I do know that best for me is the
digital darkroom - it's the power I now have to control everything in
the final image that I personally just couldn't achieve in the wet
darkroom.

Steve
http://www.virtuallygrey.co.uk/

It seems it was written

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark"
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> 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