Screw Film Being Dead- It's The Paper Stupid.

[Ade-oh]

To be honest I don't really miss using traditional papers. I think that in terms of quality, inkjets are right up there with silver prints now, especially if you are taking about consistancy of quality from print to print. I can't tell you what a relief it is to finish working on scan or digital file and know that I can print as many as I want and they'll be the same and I won't have to spot each one. I can understand how silver prints may have more perceived value from a fine art point of view, each being more unique, but they are not really better in quality, and the way inkjet technology is moving, soon they may be notably worse.

No question, they are very good. I've recently tried out the Harman matt fibre-base warmtone inkjet paper and it does give lovely results. It still doesn't look like silver-based paper though and it's just as expensive as the traditional stuff (and probably more per print if you add in the cost of ink).

 

[sepiareverb]

... I can't tell you what a relief it is to finish working on scan or digital file ...

Well I never want to work on a scan or digital file again. I like the darkroom, on your feet, moving around, not sitting in the same chair for hours on end.

 

[Toby]

Well I never want to work on a scan or digital file again. I like the darkroom, on your feet, moving around, not sitting in the same chair for hours on end.

Well, just get a really long USB cable for you printer 😀

 

[Benjamin Marks]

how long can you keep non rc paper?

It used to be that if you froze it, paper kept quite a while. But then, I hear, the use of the toxic metal cadmium was banned in paper production and the time-to-fog was reduced to around three years frozen. I have some three year old Ilford multigrade in a chest freezer that I am going to thaw out this weekend. It's around three years old, so I can let the group know the results.

The compound benzotriazole can be used to reduce fog in old paper and to make print tones a little colder. It is still not as good as fresh paper, IMHO.

Ben Marks