I’ve been shooting and printing digital for years and before that scanned film to digital. However, I’ve recently become increasingly fascinated with silver gelatin prints and notice that it accounts for the majority of what I see hanging in galleries. They seem to have a certain “magic” to them that inkjet almost, but not quite matches. Platinum and palladium also interest me.
Is there a process for getting from digital capture to traditional analog print making? My attempts to search for information on such a process have come up empty. Perhaps I just need a proper keyword to search for.
I could see myself someday shooting film again in some cases just for fun or as a way to get in to medium or large format, but I can’t imagine giving up digital for the bulk of my photographic capture.
Any help appreciated.
Keith,
I have 30 years experience as a drum scanner operator. I made my first darkroom print in the mid-1950s and have printed every kind of analogue image from small negative B&W and color through medium format and large format B&W, cibachromes, dye transfer and lithography processes up to 300 line screen halftones (negatives up to 24x30").
in the early 1990s I got my first Iris printer - essentially the beginning of digital inkjet printing as we now know it. From that time, combined with drum scanned film (and digital camera images) I have used (high-end) ink jet printers to the exclusion of darkroom "wet" prints. That first Iris print was a watershed event and felt like liberation from the limitations of the darkroom. Good riddance to that wet, usually cramped place. (I will admit I still have a strange fondness for the smell of film, developer and fixer!)
Digital printing offers far more control and image quality than was ever obtained from analogue printing methods. Looking back at the best we could laboriously do in the darkroom just pales in comparison to the quality (in every parameter) that digital methods almost effortlessly produce today.
If you see something in gallery (analog) prints that has "certain 'magic' . . . that inkjet almost, but not quite matches," it's probably the photographic skill of those photographers and has nothing to do with the fact that the prints are silver based.
There has developed (pun intended) a cult-like "true believer" following that insists that silver-gelatin prints are the holy grail of photographic printing. From this photography veteran's perspective it's all just silly hype. (That's my polite response)
Ansel Adams, one of the finest analog printers in photographic history, in my opinion would have given up all his darkroom equipment for a copy of Photoshop and a large format Epson, Canon or HP printer. If he were alive today, I think he would be the leading proponent of digital image making.
For nostalgia's sake, good luck with any efforts you make in using film again. I still use my Pentax 645N and a Sinar 4x5 view camera but I scan all film images they produce. They're old friends, and it's interesting to show them to people who have actually never seen a film camera. But I'll permanently retire the 645N this year when I get a Fujifilm Digital MF. And the 4x5 will see very little additional use. In fact, I will probably fit the DMF to it as a "digital back" for its swings and tilts.
Rich
