Digital BW, The Print

Craig, it's worth remembering that this is a printmaking Group: some
participants are much more interested in the technology than the images. 

It's worth remembering that "stick and rudder" landed us on the moon,
each of us has more computer power on our desktops than those guys had. 

As well, back in wet darkroom days, the color craftsmen serving  top
commercial photographer and art director clients relied upon their
eyes, only using technology to monitor chemistry/emulsions and when
forced to knock off cheap prints without tests. Video color analyzers
were never necessary except for cheap wedding/portrait packages, and
nobody with fully developed personal skills relied upon color analyzers. 


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Craig Snyder"
<forum@...> wrote:
>
> Right on, Clayton!
> 
> Stick and rudder.
> 
> I have a high-understanding of technology as a former IT Admin person
> for several major publishing companies, but when it comes to
> print-making I like the seat of the pants approach best.
> 
> Afterall, why as a traditional photographer in the 70s and 80s do I have
> all these 35mm negs and contact sheets but no prints. Because that was
> about as much time as I could stand in the darkroom. I wanted to be
> outside, shooting, not bending over trays of chemicals in the dark for
> unknown hours. Neither do I today want to be messing with a bunch more
> things like various pieces of software, hardware, etc. Like you, I
> prefer to go from A to B, rather than pass through the alphabet to get
> to the end.
> 
> Stick and rudder is a very appealing descriptive approach. I too,
> watched this forum and followed the comments and techniques of its
> users, and mostly two people the most, which is you, Clayton Jones, and
> Paul Roark. You phrase clicked with me. All this time I've been bogged
> down processing the information on how to get good prints from this
> forum. Now I realize, you perspective is really my perspective too.
> 
> I've got modern technolgy at hand (1280, R220), and I'm still not making
> prints. I'm in the middle of writing several books so I really don't
> cherish lost hours at the computer trouching up negs and making prints,
> which lack consistancy.
> 
> That's one thing about stick  rudder I must add, and that is:  it must
> work, be consistant, in order to be valid.
> 
> By example, I was doing BO prints of one neg the other week for a
> charity event. I got one print finally to my liking. Then my G4/1280
> started choking on the print, only printing the top 15% of the image.
> Didn't matter if the print size was 11x17 or 5x7, it choked in the same
> exact spot on the image. I did some voodoo, and I also reinstalled new
> print drivers. That wasn't smart, the new R220 print driver messed up my
> 1280 print driver and ALL settings. I reinstalled the 1280 driver. I
> finally saw my old presets and I finally got it to print the whole
> image. But now, get this, the tone, contrast and even hue changed on
> this BO print!? It was unusuable and nothing like the first print out of
> the machine. I cleaned heads, etc. but didn't seem to help. A real
> mystery. It meant starting over. Well, I dropped the novel idea of a
> quick print for some friends and went back to writing my book.
> 
> One day I'll get back to it, and one day, when there's money, I'll get a
> 2400 and just see how much easier my life might become.
> 
> Simplicity is best. Technology is what got us here today, but who's the
> master? Is it technology--or us?
> 
> thanks,
> Craig
> 
> --
> Craig B. Snyder
> Writer and Photographer, www.thecraigsnyder.com
> <http://www.thecraigsnyder.com/>
> A Secret History of the Ollie  www.theolliebook.com
> <http://theolliebook.com/>
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
> wrote:>> Hello Eugene,> I'm currently using a 2400 with K3/ABW and am
> still happy with the> stick and rudder non color managed approach.
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>