Digital BW, The Print

I'm not taking sides here, Bruce and Paul's views are both correct and
realistic.  Bruce's technical points are right on.  However, I fall in
with Paul on the reflection issue.

> For me, reflections are the enemy -- 

I've tried most of the fiber glossy papers and, like most of us,
practically drool over the blacks.  But I have yet to be movitated to
switch, mainly for the reflections.  I have totally fallen in love
with the non-reflective matte surface, and it's almost painful now to
have to twist and turn a print to avoid reflections while looking at
it.  I'm just not willing to go back to that.

Like Paul, I've had the experience of comparing the same image in
silver and matte/ink, framed under glass side by side, and from a few
feet away couldn't tell the difference (and neither could the customer
who admired the original silver print and wanted one).  And also agree
that the lighting makes a huge difference and some images reflect the
difference more than others (pun intended <g>).

Back to practical reality, what's actually happening in my real world
is that my prints look beautiful to me and to the people who admire
them and buy them.  That's all that counts and I'm a happy camper for now.

>>We clearly still need, as we have for a decade or more, 
>>a good solid black. 
> 
>I totally agree. 

Amen!  And I have hope we'll get there (or at least closer).  Just
look how far we've come just since 2005 when K3 appeared, followed
shortly by Silver Rag & others.  Look at the latest digital sensors
(have you seen the D3X samples on dpreview? wooooooh!).  We've come a
huge distance in a short time. This technology is not going to
suddenly stand still.  The glass is more than half full.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
I-Trak 2.1   http://www.cjcom.net/itrak.htm