Re: filmscanners: BWP seeks scanner

[Nicholas Hartmann <polyglot@execpc.com>]

>The trouble is that there's a degree of ineffability about trying to match
>your expectations with a final digital image and the best route to get to
>it.

Tony -

I do understand that as I learn more about the entire processing chain
(scanning, manipulation, output), my expectations will change. Everyone who
takes up a new artistic medium starts out trying to make it do something
familiar: look at all those "painterly" early photographs! As I gain
experience I will undoubtedly find new things to do that were inconceivable
in the darkroom.

>Inkjet printing also adds its own layers of distortion, or alteration.
>There are so many variables here that they drive me crazy - have a poke
>around Jon Cone's www.inkjetmall.com for a glimpse of the intimidating
>breadth of choice.

No kidding. I thought I'd had a tough time deciding on one fiber paper and
one RC paper, and now I find an Internet stuffed to the gills with glossy,
semi-glossy, luster, photo, bright white, matte, semi-matte, etc. papers,
not to mention CIS, CFS, dye-based, pigment-based, hybrid, chip-defeating,
archival, etc. etc. inks. As a sop to my sanity, I plan to stick with
Epson's own papers and the much-deprecated easy way out of printing B&W
using color inks, just until I get some early idea of what the medium can
do. This is such a dynamic area that I'm sure whatever I decide on will be
superseded in a matter of months anyway...

>I'm just a bit worried because if you really, really like your toned FB
>prints, whatever you get out of the end of this process will be different.
>I have certainly seen beautiful B&W digital prints, but they are on their
>own terms, and in their own way as different from toned bromide as
>platinum or cyanotypes.

I like my FB prints because they are the pinnacle of what _I_ can achieve
in a conventional darkroom. I _expect_ my digital output to be different,
indeed I would be disappointed if it were not, but because I know that
toned FB was my ne plus ultra in another medium, it has to serve as an
provisional target. I certainly hope that by the time I develop some skill
in digital print-making, those fiber prints will look a bit pathetic.

-- Nick

NICHOLAS HARTMANN                                +1 (414) 271-4890
611 N. Broadway, Suite 509                  fax: +1 (414) 271-4892
Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA                       polyglot@execpc.com

Technical and scientific translator:  German and French -> English