Digital BW, The Print

I am new to this list I decided to relearn B&W after I retired this fall obivously the enlarger and all my trays and my Nikons will do me little good since everything has gone digital. I am doing a school photo organization project for a historical society and some of the photos from the 1880's to 1930s are in poor condition and need to be restored and reprinted on an archival medium. I have emailed Paul Roark about the project and he suggested the Carbon on Cotton Eboni 6 Epson 1400 as this is what he uses for a museum project. He also suggested this list so if this is too much off topic you can blame him for inviting me to join. In reading the archives for over a week I feel I know some of you due to bits in your posts over several years. So in order to save you time I put it all here.

I am not new to digital getting my first camera in 1995 but continued shooting film until 2006 for important pictures. Up to now I have used Sony because of the Ziess Optics. I have an Epson Perfection V500 Scanner and have restored some of my dads B&W photos from WW II. My wifes hobby is genealogy so I have shot many a headstone and visited many a relative with a HP all in one to copy old photos using black ink only and a camera for capturing old B&W photos at reunions and funerals.

I have the old Photoshop 5 no CS so know a little and have used it to restore older B&W photos with tears and scrapes and one where the top of a womans head was broken off and lost. I am also using Elements 8 and have added plug ins to allow it to add some of the photoshop capability I need. I suspect with a bit of care in selection of plug ins many of which are free most of the capabilities most often used could be added and some of these improve on what photoshop has to offer.

I am signing up for a digital photography course at the college us codgers can take 2 classes a semester free. This will let me buy an academic copy of Photoshop for around $200. They also offer 2 photoshop courses that I may look at enrolling in PS intro in the fall and advanced in the spring.

I am looking at a Fugi Finepix HS20 super zoom since this is one of the few that will output RAW files and it uses AA bateries. I have also looked at the Cannon Rebel since it will with an adapter take Nikon Lenses and I have a dozen of those. And an add on battery pack takes AA's. I had the charger for my Sony smoke in England and there was no way to replace it so I want something that will take AA's. But I really have no desire to haul a camera and 3 or 4 lenses around anymore. I do not need the super zoom I seldom use much of the Sony's zoom I always prefered the wide shot and while in England for 3 months a while back I used mostly a 20 MM but had a 43 to 86 just in case but probably only used it a dozen times. But for me RAW was a requirement and the Fugi has it.

Not sure of the exact year early 60's but a local Museum gave my dad a case of 2 1/4 color slide film and we went to Moab and some of the accessable areas then being opened up for Canyonlands park and he took photographs which were printed and shown at the museum when the park opened. I remember at the time thinking how large the photos were many 3 X 3 feet and larger. It really impressed me my dad gave a talk and then stood at a table where people bought smaller copies of some of the pictures from the museum and he signed them.

I learned on an old Argus C3 "Brick" and a Weston lightmeter when I was 8 and which I still have I was later given one of my dad's older Contaflex cameras which I sold in 1967 to buy a 43 to 86 mm zoom for my new Nikon Ftn.

I went out today and opened up the Darkroom, years of dust greeted me, and dug through boxes and found these titles but did not find my Ansel Adams Books he was way beyond me but the pictures were great to look at. My dad visited his shop while on vacation but I was fairly young and did not realize anyone could make a lifetime career from photography. My grandfather had done so for several years prior to WW I photographing people at the beach in Texas and Florida and formed a partnership with another photographer in St. Cloud I have a photo of their horse drawn wagon. Also photos of parades and hunting trips and of several of the entertainers of the wild west show which wintered near his fathers orange orchards. He had hundreds of prints in a cedar chest but when my grandmother died it vanished a neighbor or a relitave took it and we never saw the photographs again. My Dad and his younger sister had taken some and I scanned hers before she died and I have the few my dad had taken after my grandfather died.

The Books (Finally)

Better Black and White Darkroom Technique   Bob Casagrande

First Lessons in Black and White Photography   Michael Simon Dennis Moore

Basic Book of B&W Darkroom Techniques   HP Books

The Essential Darkroom Book    Tom Grill  Mark Scanlon

Black and White Printing    George Schaub

I know these are late 1970's and early 1980's but are any worth keeping I assume First Lessons would be a good refresher the others are all wet process so not sure if anything would transfer to digital. I am reading the Archives and keeping a list to buy after the grandkids finish bankrupting me with never ending and always changing gift lists.

Just drop a note if any would be worth while reading in December since I am broke also suggestions on good digital titles are always welcome. After Taxes in Jan I will put together a list and post it for feedback on what I need beyond the printer. In the mean time I am at Jan 2008 in the archives and reading and saving tips and linked papers that I think will be useful to the hard drive.

Bill Lewis