Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, BKPhoto@... wrote:
>
> Bellis wrote:
>      
>  "I don't make a conscious effort to duplicate the look of a gelatin
silver 
>  print but my aesthetic sense of what any given b&w print should
look like 
>  was formed by many years in a darkroom and I think it's natural to
carry 
>  that over to ink jet. In fact I don't think I could change it even
if I 
>  wanted to." 
>  
>   And there is no reason to. All the skill and knowledge a
photographer brings from the traditional wet darkroom to inkjet
printing is valuable....


Bill, I think your post and Bellis' points are valid and even wise.
But I think you are talking about craft and Bruce was talking about
materials.
In fact, many people with a strong traditional print background
(silver, platinum, or whatever) would know the futility of trying to
make one process mimic another without even going there.
I spent weeks trying to make a UCK3 SilverRag print look like an old
Portriga print. Superficially they are nearly identical, but
ultimately they just have different qualities and it's not just the
paper. My time would have been better spent working on making the SR
print excel in it's own way.
A Strat will never sound like a Les Paul but both sound great...

Tyler