Digital BW, The Print

Thanks Bruce and everyone else. As someone stated earlier, a photograph 
maps an reality in four dimensions into two. A photographer  has to 
address reality through the lens but the final print is how the artist 
perceives that reality or how that reality is used to express a message 
about a larger context, e.g. man's inhumidity against man.

So photography is a mapping of four dimensions (space and time) into 
three - the third being emotion. The controls of the emotion dimension 
are contrast, brightness (local and global), grain or lack there of and 
the one I find most important - tone.  Take for example Dorothea Lange's 
"Migrant Worker's Family." That image printed in a warm tone pulls you 
in - you share with her the concerns for her family. The same image 
printed on a cool selenium tone tells a larger story - the story of the 
toll of the people in the depression. In this print she will become a 
symbol rahter that the subject. Neither interpertation is right or wrong 
- it's the same negative but a different meaning.  Very subtle 
differences in tone can project very different meaning.

I don't have anything per se against warm tones - they have their use 
depending on what you want to say.  I do tend to print more cool tones 
because most of the images I take need cool tones to present the message 
I am trying to convey. In the dark room the control of tone was simple - 
concentration of and time in the toner.  It was also an "analogue" 
process where you have almost infinite control of the tone.

I haven't decided yet other than the 1280. I will probably start out 
with the MIS and master that first and then try the piezo. Changing 
carts seems like a pain.

Thanks everyone
Truman



Bruce wrote:

>
>
> Oh yes, you "need advise".  I guess I advise the piezo software, but of
> course, it just my opinion.  If you've got the money and time, try em all!
>
> -Bruce