Re: [APML] Adding contrast to prints

["Joseph O'Neil" <joneil@multiboard.com>]

>Except for old times sake and the thrill of doing it yourself (which wears 
>off when the drudgery sets in), I don't know what the point of a home 
>darkroom is anymore.

-snip-

Hi Chuck;
         Commerical viability - in *some* caes.  Our fmaily switched over 
form a lead type set printing press to desktop publishing over 15 years 
ago, so I am a wee bit ahead of the rest of you in the digtial vs analog 
game.  Much of the current issues in film vs digital issues all you guys 
are or have been going through,  faced 15 years ago in lead set type vs 
desktop printer.  :)

         Three thoughts;
         1) our prining poress was over 100 years old, worked 
fine.  Printers, scanners and related computer hardware  - for *commercial 
* use - I am not talking about home hobbist - you need to replace about 
once every three years;

         2) since it seems every ten year old kid in North America has a 
colour scanner and a colour printer, the "percieved" value of your work by 
the general public is very low - at least what it used to be like say 15 or 
20 years ago.  Not sure if any of the new people to publishing & printing 
know that anymore;

         3)For what it is worth, a year ago, at my local well  stocked 
newstand, there used to be one magazine devoted to collecting traditional 
B&W prints.  Just yesterday, downtown to pick up my monthly copy of S&T, 
there are now THREE different magazines devoted to collecting fine art 
"tradiational"  B&W photographs/prints.  Hmmmm..., could there be a trend 
here?  :)


         Do not get me wrong, for commercial use, digital is the way to 
go.  Period.

         But after all day in front of a computer monitor, I go into the 
wet darkroom the same reason my mother still uses a spinning wheel and 
spins her woll by hand.  One - it is very relaxing; two - you can still do 
certian jobs by hand a computer or a machine will never reporduce (be it 
furniture, photographs, hand sewn quilts, etc, etc), and three - when you 
actually sell the stuff - what do you think goes for more money - a hand 
sewn quilt or a machine ewn one.  or in this case - " a hand archivally 
processed silver rich gelatin print" or and injet print?

         Yep, sometimes it's all how you label it and package it.     All I 
can tell you is I bust my but in Photopaint for an hour and a half to bring 
out an image to it's best, and and sometimes people just shrug and say 
something to the effectwhy isn't it nicer, or my kid could of doen the same 
for less money, etc, etc.

         I do a traditional print in the darkroom, even one i basically 
sleepwalk through, and people go -wow, look at that."  Like I said, go figre?
joe



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