Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/02

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Darkroom now digital pluses
From: "bdcolen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 09:28:16 -0400

About repeatability - Sure you may have to fiddle just a bit - but it's
USUALLY - (USUALLY, Austin ;-) ) - a very quick, minor fiddle. But as
Don points out, try to reproduce a wet print that required major work to
begin with. My daughter, who is a "master" b&w printer with a high-end
lab doing b&w book, exhibition, and limited edition portfolio work for
the likes of Gordon Parks, the NYTimes, etc. etc. - had to struggle for
a week to get a single image to 'match' the only thing the
photographer's agent could give her to match it to - a print in a book.
Of course, the assignment was virtually impossible, as you can't 'match'
silver to ink ;-), but imagine if that neg had been scanned and
Photoshoped for repro in the book - Slam! Bam! Thank you - Sir! Next
image please! :-)

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Don Dory
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 10:51 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Darkroom now digital pluses


Austin,
I think you missed my point.  No where did I mention digital capture.
All of my rant was after the film was scanned.  As to repeatability of
prints, it is a definition of standards.  My experience so far has been
that in the Epson world, prints made several years later match prints
stored in the dark.  Actually, so far, they match prints on display.
Have I put a densitometer on them? No, so your point can be argued on
the technical merits.  However, the practical comparison would be an
analog print made several years later in different chemistry, with a
lamp that is at a different point in its life cycle, with a different
batch of paper, and a printer trying to make heads or tails of the
dodge/burn notes on the back of the master print.  Never mind if there
was any localized bleaching, split developers, split filtration, ad
nauseum.  In the inkjet world, pull out the CD, open PS, open the file,
confirm size, optimize the printer to the media being printed on an out
comes an extremely similar print.

Spotting, I use a scanner with no dust/scratch reduction ability which
wouldn't help anyway as 80% of what I scan is regular old B/W negatives
and there is always some dust at 200%.

Really, I am one of those people who enjoy the best of both worlds,
film, and digital.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com

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