Digital BW, The Print

Walker- 
    >> A few questions that I've been talking about with other people are: 
      With new competition how will all of the inks shake out? Who's going 
 to be a loser and who a winner? 
  I don't know. It seems that both Canon and HP are more than willing to compete against and challenge Epson. That makes the consumer the ultimate winner. My hope is the independents, like Cone and MIS, will find their niche market profitable enough to continue innovation.
  
   
 >> I believe there is and will always be a place for true monochrome quad/hex/sept/etc ink even with Canon and HP running quad Ks. 
  I think so, too. At K2 Press we're able to produce exceptional grayscale prints--neutral to tinted--with K3 inks. But, to do this, we run the machine with a ColorBurst rip and impliment a profile authoring process that includes very exact ink limiting and linearization. The software and hardware we use is most definately not in the price range of most average, or even serious, users. Like Tyler, though, I continue to evaluate K3 grayscale printing against Cone inks. This has nothing to do with any technical consideration, it's purely an aesthetic need.
 
 >>#1. Quality control. There's a lot of great stuff coming out but it 
 has a large percentage of error. This has been a problem with silver 
 papers as well but not nearly as much. As the market matures into its 
 second generation, I believe the companies with less quality control 
 will begin to suffer. 
  Yep. I remember, back in the day, when Ilford had quality control issues with sheet film (I loved FP4) and Gallerie paper. It didn't take them long to correct the issues, however. On a similiar note, I've been amazed at how nimble Epson has proved to be.  
 >>#2. An over-focus on method and less of a focus on aesthetic. To a 
 certain extent, not consciously focusing on aesthetic actually helps 
 it grow in a real way... we can't look at this new technology in the 
 same innocent light of photo 1.0. We need to take it for what it is 
 "a new way to print" ... 
  Definately. The technology of the digital darkroom did not evolve from the wet darkroom, it evolved from prepress. Part of the struggle, over the past decade, has "unconsciously" focused on translating traditional wet darkroom practice into the digital domain. This continues to be a very dynamic process. For many photographers, especially those seriously committed to black/white practice, the first serious revelation comes when they realize that the digital darkroom is a color darkroom. Color management, for example, is non-negotable if they want to achieve the same level of print quality they enjoyed in the wet darkroom with black/white materials.
  
   >>#3. ... Although this forum is helpful, we are still just looking at computer screens and not at each other's prints... 
  Absolutely! We're spending WAY too much time looking at, experiencing, and evaluating images behind the glass of our displays. Hooray to you for bring this point up! Thats why I teach and advocate a workflow that takes advantage of Hard Proofing image files (not to plug the book, but this workflow is explained in detail in The Photographer's Guide to the Digital Darkroom). When teaching, either university or workshop classes, I won't evaluate an image aesthetically until it's printed and can be held in the hand. The Hard Proof workflow is perfect for that; quick, easy and reliable. 
  It's so easy to forget that it's about the print. Tyler certainly understands this as well as anyone I know. We can debate technology and technique all day (angles dancing on the head of a pin...), but in the end it's about critical eyes evaluating prints, enjoying the image revealed. 
 Okay, time for me to climb off the soap box. 
 
  Bill Kennedy K2 Press Author of "The Photographer's Guide to the Digital Darkroom"
        
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