[Leica] Q & A on digital

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

I've been curious about contact printing. Why send out a "digital negative"
for printing vs. printing it oneself on a suitably equiped Epson printer?

Scott

Douglas Nygren wrote:

> Why didn't I fall in love with the digital prints if they and the 
> silver gelatin were both printed well?
>
> They didn't look as good. When I got closer to them, they lost 
> whatever magic they had whereas the silver gelatin didn't. I was 
> giving a lecture on the exhibit which had a mixture of old and new 
> printing techniques. There was digital, traditional silver gelatin, 
> tintype, palladium printing and some others as well. Silver gelatin 
> had an immediacy that was missing from the digital. Digital color, I 
> won't even go there.
>
> The palladium printer is noteworthy. He begins with a negative, scans 
> it, edits it, prints to disc which he sends out to have yet another 
> negative made from, but this time to a size he will contact print 
> from. He prepares special rice paper with platinum and then takes the 
> returned, touched up and reshaped negative and makes his print. The 
> effect is stunning.
>
> I like his approach. He has brought the mediums together. He uses 
> digital to do the work he would otherwise do with the enlarger, has a 
> negative made and then prints. This allows him to make duplicate 
> copies of his work, which he sells. He' taken some of the work out of 
> the darkroom, but not all.
>
> I also suspect that the availability of platinum materials will 
> continue and he will be able to make photo paper at will.
>
> Best--Doug
>
>
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