Digital BW, The Print

Not sure how to do this...anyway here goes..  To all of the posters that participated in this group of posts .. it was a true pleasure to read this thread.. It was informative, professional and meaningful.. I found it very pleasing to be amongst professionals that could maintain a focus. Thank you.. the pleasure was all mine..


jimbo
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: john 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 10:49 PM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Re: New Aardenburg Imaging fade tests posted


    
  That is absolutely true. 

  Skills do trump technology, no question about it. Big time. And when the most refined technology for a particular outcome is carefully matched and mixed, and finessed to the photographers needs, as is evident in Tyler's personal work, you have something that does not come out of a corporate workflow, it comes out of a labor of love.

  He sent me some prints a couple of years ago from a portfolio of nudes that were printed with a blended Studio Print controlled, Piezo inkset specifically designed for that particular portfolio and never used again. This is the kind of thing that Cone excels in. They were even coated with a hand mixed unconventional varnish technique to seal and augment the spectacular hues and tonality of the work. In inkset designed specifically for that body of work. I've never seen anything like that - K7 at it's best. No technology created that, a great craftsman did. But this craftsman wanted and needed the unique tools and inks to make it happen. It comes from decades of study and hard work and is not something that comes out of a box made by any corporation, as useful as that corporation may be becaue of their own innovations.

  If people seem a little over protective of the need to have this variety of unconventional tools and materials available to them that don't come out of a box from the local photo store it is because they see the value in that uniqueness. If they didn't need it they wouldn't waste their time clinging to it. Not everyone needs or wants that option, most don't, but there are plenty of us still alive that do want it. I hope we can keep it all and have enough variety to go around and satisfy us all. And, I hope we can make the prints last as long as possible.

  john

  . Yet all of these technologies have poor practioners too. Technology does not trump skills. Technology does make better prints, printers make better prints.
  > 
  > This time, respectfully,
  > 
  > Shilesh
  > 
  > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Bruce Watson <bwyg@> wrote:
  > >
  > > shileshjani wrote:
  > > > Bruce,
  > > >
  > > > I ask this respectfully: Are you going to participate meaningfully in this rather interesting discussion, and do some bruising of your own? Or act as a cheerleader on the sidelines, and not risk getting bruised? If letter, let see you donned in a short skirt, waving pomppoms, please.
  > > >
  > > > Shilesh
  > > > 
  > > 
  > > Doesn't seem terribly respectful, but that's OK.
  > > 
  > > I know enough to know that I'm not at Tyler's level. I'm certainly not 
  > > at Jon's level. I don't have the resources or the time, or quite 
  > > frankly, the talent.
  > > 
  > > But that doesn't mean that I don't recognize it in them. I had the great 
  > > good fortune of spending a few hours with Mr. Boley last summer. He 
  > > showed me a number of prints. I was just amazed. I've never seen B&W 
  > > prints like that. Over the years I've held quite a few prints in my 
  > > hands to see them without glass -- old masters like Adams and Weston, 
  > > current masters too many to mention. Something to shoot for in my own 
  > > prints even if I'll never get close. But I've never seen any as 
  > > beautiful as Tyler's. I don't have the vocabulary to describe it. He's 
  > > able to make the print subservient to the image, yet support the image 
  > > in a way that makes it just shine. But in the way that individual image 
  > > needs to shine. It'll grab your attention from across the room, yet 
  > > whisper in your ear at the same time. Incredible.
  > > 
  > > So am I going to enter the discussion? Probably not. I don't have 
  > > anything to say that Tyler and Jon can't say better than I can, and with 
  > > more authority. I've got plenty of bruises already -- I was one of the 
  > > first people to get Piezotones running on a 7600, using StudioPrint. I'm 
  > > just sayin' that bruising is not an issue, and that I know where these 
  > > guys are coming from, and what they are trying to do. I'll always 
  > > support people trying to push and extend in a fight for excellence. 
  > > Those are the people from whom we get progress.
  > > 
  > > You don't like it? Too bad. Find a way to adjust.
  > > --
  > > Bruce Watson
  > >
  >



  

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