Digital BW, The Print

John-
 
 Good to hear from you, and thanks for the book plug. Much appreciated. The book was a real labor of love, written to be a resource for photographers venturing into the digital darkroom. As I note in the preface, it owes a huge debt to the people on this list who've always been so generous with their time and knowledge (Paul Roark is a contributing author).
 
 Incidentally, if you're using the book in the classroom and have any questions, or feedback, please let me know. It's gone into a second printing and I'm anticipating having to do some kind of update at some point. I'd appreciate any feeback I can get, especially as to how the instructional stuff can be made simplier or more clear. This goes for anyone on the list, by the way. Just email me directly and we'll strike-up a correspondance.
 
 Teachers of digital photography are still struggling with very basic issues. I was on a panel at the SPE conference in Portland, and was surprised to learn that most photography programs--ranging from high school to major universities--are still trying to solve the implimentation problems (facilities, equipment, staffing, budget, getting tenured faculty to make the transition...). It's mainly about expense and attitudes.
 
 The real work, in my opinion, lies elsewhere; with creating new curriculum that takes advantage of digital imaging to move photography forward as a means of expression and communication. This thread touches on that in several important ways. Your Frederick Sommer reference hits the mark perfectly. Digital capture and the digital darkroom present far more choice and demand that photographers, truly interested in craftsmanship, know more about their materials, equipment and processes than ever before. Color management is probably the best example. This changes the way photography has to be taught. How do we teach all this stuff and still keep our eye on the real objective, the realized image?
 
 Many photographers do not know that the ability to make photographs with ink on paper is actually less a "new idea" or development, and more the completion of an historic process. Niepce's heliographs were made on recycled engraving plates. He wasn't trying to invent what we now call "photography"; he was essentially trying to create a better engraving process. One that would allow us to capture information directly from nature, removing the subjective hand of the engraver. His intention was to produce images made with ink on paper. We finally have the technology to do that. This technology isn't as transparent, yet, as the technology that supports film capture and the wet darkroom. But its getting there really quick. By analogy, I'd guess that most of the people on this list are transitioning from the wet to dry plate era. We're building a usable vocabulary, ironing out the kinks in the processes, and approaching standardization. The digital ideal of "plug and play" is the equivalent of "you press the button, we'll do the rest".
 
 The new "photo" inkjet papers are exciting and I do anticipate more development, just around the corner. K2 Press has experimented with the Crane stock, and was disappointed by quaity control issues. Lately, I've seen prints made on the Innova stock that looked really promising. Ink formulation technology by Epson, Canon, and HP, has taken huge strides, though I still haven't met anyone who understands more about ink than Jon Cone. His inks are beautiful.
 
 Bill Kennedy
 K2 Press
 Author of "The Photographer's Guide to the Digital Darkroom"
 
 
    
 -----Original Message-----
 From: deanwork2003@...
 To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 1:48 PM
 Subject: Re: [Digital BW] the times, they aren't a-changing
 
     
 
 Hi Bill,
 
 Shouldn't you be K7 press now?
 
 I bought a copy of your book on Amazon. It is really useful for all us
 teachers out there. If list members don't know about it - here it is
 -http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Guide-Digital-Darkroom/dp/158115433X/sr=8-1/qid=1163359461/ref=sr_1_1/104-6945385-1520718?ie=UTF8&s=books
 I really liked your clear approach in it.
 
 I am finding myself agreeing with both you and Tyler. I still see the
 PiezoTone as the defalt standard for monochrome output, both for the
 tonal quality, but now also for their super ease of use and lack of
 clogging, in even the old 1440 dpi machines, of which I have 4 now.
 This is a realatively low cost solution to extremely beautiful
 consistent results. I just ordered the sepia set on Friday. I hope
 they are around for a long, long time.
 
 .....And, I am simultaneously interested in what is happening with the
 thermal technology of HP and Canon, but right now more in the realm of
 color, and specifically glossy color. Now the thing to watch is what
 WILL happen in regard to glossy monochrome. The HP is doing a very
 good job with the internal gloss optimizer channel and an onboard quad
 set up. Personally I don't think the glossy fiber inkjet papers are
 100% there yet, but they will be eventually. Then I'll probably want
 to offer that too. As Rumsfeld described - But there are also unknown
 unknowns, 
 The ones we don't know 
 We don't know.
 
 As far as my own art work goes I don't see me leaving the excellent
 matte rag papers with Pizo, but I never say never.
 
 We do appear to be moving into a situation where there will be
 multiple fine approaches and systems out there and depending on what
 kind of work it is we want to produce for a given situation. The
 danger in all this is that we'll totally buy into the notion that the
 technology makes the art, which it doesn't. I think Frederick Sommer
 said it very well 20 years ago when he said that in terms of
 technology, photography will be come amazing, but our biggest concern
 should be maintaining an attention span long enough to use the
 potentials of what we have. And, not constantly looking over our
 shoulder at what we don't have. Not only that... it's expensive as hell..
 
 john 
 
      
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]