Paper or Plastic?

[canonetc]

In the world of black-and-white, which has greater value: a silver-gelatin print or a digital print? Or.......?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Chris101]

Hi Chris, I voted fiber, but you asked which has greater value. If you go to sell a print, you will usually get more for the fiber print. It also is much harder to print well on fiber than the other media listed. However in the darkroom, I print about 10 RC prints at for every FB print I make. It just makes sense, since I can make about 5 RC prints an hour, but only one (or less) fiber prints in the same time.

I scan my contact sheets and print them on the epson.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Daguerrotype. How you ever seen them? They are spectacular.

 

[nikon_sam]

GOOOOOOOOOO FIBER PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I do enjoy viewing shots on the ol' computer screen...

 

[nikon_sam]

Daguerrotype. How you ever seen them? They are spectacular.

Gabriel,

I have never seen one in real life...

 

[Uncle Bill]

I print with both fibre and RC and enjoy printng with both. If the print hangs up on the wall, it's fibre all the way. I keep my RC prints in box.

Bill

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Gabriel,

I have never seen one in real life...

I've seen a few collections in the past; the last was about two or three years ago at the Mpls Institute of Arts, at the same time they had a few Ansel Adam prints in exhibit too. They are remarkable. The next best thing is a Platinum print on...heh, I guess it's on fiber paper. 😱

The problem with Daguerrotypes, besides the need to develop them with Mercury vapors (just a slight life-threatening issue by 1800s standards, unthinkable today) is that you have to look at them straight-on, and are typically rather small (it is a direct imaging process; equivalent to shooting slide film...equivalent limitations apply).

 

[nikon_sam]

Gabriel,

While working in San Francisco a few years ago, I visited a small museum that had some Ansel Adam's prints...beautiful, to say the least...you were able to get right up to them and really see the details...

And on a more personal note...I do like your style and eye...nice color too...

 

[RML]

In the world of black-and-white, which has greater value: a silver-gelatin print or a digital print? Or.......?

Depends on who you ask. Digital prints are fast catching up in auction prices. Check out the Sotheby's and Christie's photography auctions of the past 2-3 years and see the for-now-slow-yet-relentless march of the digital prints. I reckon that in 10 years time digital prints are as sought-after and expensive as their FB siblings.

Age counts for even more, as does the print's history. A certified, one-off print by a world famous dead photographer will be much more expensive than the same print done as a cheap run for a magazine's insert.

 

[rxmd]

Slight nitpicking: C-41 is a negative process. The positive process that is used for printing in minilabs is called RA-4.