Print !!!

[willie_901]

I would rather give up photography than own and use an inkjet printer.

Me too!


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[bluesun267]

There may be a few photographers reading this thread with some amusement, to whom screen vs print, inkjet vs optical, is not even a consideration. Who? Those who’ve chosen transparency film and project their images.

As with Polaroid images, with transparencies you either have the exposure correct or you don’t. Likewise, each image is unique; it’s a one-of-kind original, unaltered, consequence of the photographer’s exposure. For better or worse. These photos are also conveniently stored. As we all know, the disadvantage is they need a projector and a good screen in order to be viewed properly. I’m sure there is also concern about repeated projections affecting the longevity of the image.

Even so, I wouldn’t be surprised if many slide film aficionados chose to scan and even print from their collection.

As well as doing traditional B/W printing when I can, I prefer this attitude (and practice) for color, both for stills and even motion pictures. Digital is certainly in the mix for practical reasons but has little to offer me aesthetically.

But the primacy of the original, one-of-a-kind object, is coming back in a way. There seems to be a cycle of renewal in the understanding of photography/cinema, and a need to re-experience the visceral newness, and now-ness, of these mediums, which have just barely been born in terms of human history. This trend will undoubtedly wax and wane and we'll go onto another period of fetishizing the new and jettisoning the old. I don't see this sense of renewal nearly as strong in cinema as in still photography right now, which makes sense given cinema lagged about a decade behind still photography in terms of digital's total domination of it.

I've seen all my favored ways of getting duplicates of color reversal original disappear over my lifetime--from 16mm reversal print stocks, Cibachrome, and plain old Type-R paper. But realistically I don't know if I'll ever have the motivation to develop another analog method. Not even sure I want to at this point. It's better to concentrate on the original. A 21st century magic lantern aesthetic if you will.

 

[SausalitoDog]

I use Innova papers for digital. Their fiba range for semigloss and soft textured natural white for matte. I use their cold press rough textured if I want some tooth. I try to avoid papers with optical brighteners. I’m not sure if Innova papers are available in the US. They are very reasonably priced in the UK.

In the darkroom I use Ilford multigrade for normal prints and a range of papers for lith prints (mainly Foma).

mark-

I was using Innova paper for a while but was forced to give it up because it curled so much sitting in the box. Do you have that problem? Do you know a cure for it? It was much more pronounced than they Hahnemuhle HFA papers or even Epson ones.

thanks,

tom

 

[Bill Clark]

When I was in business I soon discovered that the amount of time I would spend getting a print order, that time could be better utilized for my business. So, much to the chagrin of many photographers, especially the older ones, I used, as negotiating tool, the jpeg files. The number of files, photoshop work and file size were tools I used, especially at the first interview.

And it worked.

There were other tools I used to sign up customers but the items I just mentioned were important.

What would you rather have, a $500.00 print order or a $5k wedding? And to get the wedding took less time than the print order.

 

[mrtoml]

mark-

I was using Innova paper for a while but was forced to give it up because it curled so much sitting in the box. Do you have that problem? Do you know a cure for it? It was much more pronounced than they Hahnemuhle HFA papers or even Epson ones.

thanks,

tom

Hi Tom,

No I don’t generally have a problem with curling on Innova. Maybe it’s an environmental thing? I live in a generally cool damp environment whereas I guess you live in a hot dry one? I have had some issues with curling paper occasionally but not with Innova which has been one of my go to papers for many years. The worst offender was Harman fb paper which was practically unusable (this was a well known problem at the time).

I now also have a printer with a vacuum feed (Canon pro 1000) which also helps. I get far fewer head strikes with this printer than my old Epson 3880.