Digital BW, The Print

> 
> So are you saying that with your skills you could produce a copy
that would  be the same, or as good as the original?
> I don't think so, and I am also very experienced in studio  photography.
>  
> Richard Massie
 
Richard, I urge you to re-read.

"Studio photography" skills (whatever you mean by that) and technical
photograhy skills are not necessarily closely related.

"Studio photographers" are so rarely called upon to do demanding
technical photography that they rarely acquire the appropriate skills
or equipment (eg flat field large format lens, polarized light sources
etc). They have no reason to bother. Few do photomicroscopy, for the
same sorts of reasons.

Skilled technical copy photography and skilled wet darkroom work could
readily reproduce Adams or Weston originals and make prints that would
convince many buyers that they had originals. The original topic had
to do with fraudulent copies, not with perfection.

Many original Ansel Adams prints, and a few Edward Westons could
readily be copied and reprinted to look "better" than the originals,
while seeming "authentic". (I've seen many bad AA originals, few bad EW.

It'd be more difficult to make a sufficiently funky-looking copy of an
old AA print than to make an exquisite copy of one of his later,
modern-looking prints...hard to fake fade age, easier to fake modern. 

A good copy of an AA print could easily fool an AA enthusiast or
non-specialist curator. Comparing to the original, it might be hard to
tell which was the original, even with a loupe: There need be zero 
detail loss: print paper is not nearly as high resolution as film. 
Tonality would be hard to match, but it could be closely approximated,
and done repeatedly, once approximated. 

It would be necessary to obtain the same paper AA or EW used...that
would be necessary to perpetrate the rip-off we're discussing. 

Evidently you're sure you can't do good copy work. I presumably can't
do the studio work at which you presumably excel. 

We don't all need to acquire the same skills at high levels. I've shot
a handful of weddings...I'm no good at it. You're evidently no good at
copy work. I think weddings are harder.