Digital BW, The Print

On 26 Mar 2009, at 6:56 AM, Jon Cone wrote:

> So for me, dMax without all the wonderful detail leading up to it is  
> imitative. I think as we move the medium further that the bar should  
> also be raised.  I don't think it's enough to say one is almost as  
> good as silver print, or as good as silver print... I prefer to try  
> and make processes that become their own level, and that necessarily  
> means adding something that is not familiar. And also, may not be  
> everyone's cup of tea.

I'm glad you wrote this.

I had an interesting experience recently where a tight deadline for an  
upcoming show plus a failing black channel led to me to simply  
reprofile the working 5-tone, black-less inkset (Eboni6 on a 7500).   
By treating the darkest channel (cyan, if I recall) as "black," I  
ended up with quite a wonderful set of calmer tones.  Certainly the  
contrast was lower, but given the natural warmth of the ink, plus the  
additional warmth of the underlying Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper, I thought  
the prints were quite nice.  So did the folks who saw the show.

--John