Digital BW, The Print

I am a photographer in Perth Western Australia. I  am a medium format 
user using traditional Printing methods in my Portrait studio. Nearly 
everyone in Perth, if they are using digital files, will output to 
Pegasus or Lamda. Practically no-one that I know of actually sells 
portrait work on inkjet to the general public.

Our sessions typically last a half day. The negatives are printed 
onto slides for the client to order from. (slide sessions are a pain)

A typical print order from a client would be 7-10 8x10's and between 
1-4 larger prints ranging from 16x20" to 20x30". The larger ones I 
vacuum glue onto textured acid free rag mattes that I import. The 
texture carries through the resin coated paper.

So my questions are -

Has anyone here made the switch, not for expo stuff, but to sell to 
the general public portrait or wedding?

How do the 8x10's manage reasonable handling without protection. 

Is the process of inkjet printing, scanning etc. very time consuming 
as compared to traditional methods.

Is the only difference between the 7000 & 7500 epson that the 7500 
can use epson pigmented inks.

Ideally I would like to shoot digital, but the medium format digital 
backs for hasselblad are a bit pricey here ($50,000 by the time you 
upgrade the blad) and the next step down is to 35mm maybe a Nikon d1X 
(I think) but I can't see the subjects expression big enough through 
the viewfinder. I need to see exactly what the eyes are doing so that 
I can choose the moment to click. This was a big dissappointment when 
trying 35mm digital for portrait. Subject expression is everything  
in my stuff.

I am really trying to avoid having to scan film (the time factor)

Anyway, anyone who has been through a similar transition, your 
thoughts will be appreciated. 

As a new member, I am not putting much back into this, as I am but a 
babe in the woods in this field, but will do so when I know more.

Yours truly

Garry Sarre

www.sarre.com.au

Garry,
I am doing some tests with A&I Color Lab here in Los Angeles that could
completely change my way of working.
If it works out the way I hope it will, I will still shoot conventional film
on 4x5 to 8x10 film; it will then be scanned by the lab and we will
digitally retouch it at the studio then back to the lab where they will
print this file on a LightJet. We have done a test with a 40x60 inch color
print and were quite impressed by the quality. We did a test with a B&W
outputted to a LighJet and were disappointed, no deep black and overall an
RC print feel to it. So now I am exploring the piezo/quad inkjet solution
and I am very encouraged by what I see. A friend of mine here just got a
7000 and we are planning to print the same B&W neg. By then we will have the
same neg printed  30x30 on fiber and on a  LightJet and a 24x24 on the 7000
. All color prints we deliver are lacquered (Suregard Clear Gloss) and we
did lacquer some piezo prints on EAM and it removes the "fragility" factor
of the upper layer of those prints and deepens the blacks beautifully.
If you are interested I will be glad to share the results as we progress. 
And btw, incorporating in my daily routine the attentive reading of this
newsgroup has been extremely helpful. 
Benoît
http://studiocharis.com

                    
   Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 14:07:39 -0000

   From: "Garry Sarre" <gazzzzperth@...>
Subject: Attention Studio Portrait Photographers

I am a photographer in Perth Western Australia. I  am a medium format 
user using traditional Printing methods in my Portrait studio. Nearly 
everyone in Perth, if they are using digital files, will output to 
Pegasus or Lamda. Practically no-one that I know of actually sells 
portrait work on inkjet to the general public.

Our sessions typically last a half day. The negatives are printed 
onto slides for the client to order from. (slide sessions are a pain)

A typical print order from a client would be 7-10 8x10's and between 
1-4 larger prints ranging from 16x20" to 20x30". The larger ones I 
vacuum glue onto textured acid free rag mattes that I import. The 
texture carries through the resin coated paper.

So my questions are -

Has anyone here made the switch, not for expo stuff, but to sell to 
the general public portrait or wedding?

How do the 8x10's manage reasonable handling without protection. 

Is the process of inkjet printing, scanning etc. very time consuming 
as compared to traditional methods.

Is the only difference between the 7000 & 7500 epson that the 7500 
can use epson pigmented inks.

Ideally I would like to shoot digital, but the medium format digital 
backs for hasselblad are a bit pricey here ($50,000 by the time you 
upgrade the blad) and the next step down is to 35mm maybe a Nikon d1X 
(I think) but I can't see the subjects expression big enough through 
the viewfinder. I need to see exactly what the eyes are doing so that 
I can choose the moment to click. This was a big dissappointment when 
trying 35mm digital for portrait. Subject expression is everything  
in my stuff.

I am really trying to avoid having to scan film (the time factor)

Anyway, anyone who has been through a similar transition, your 
thoughts will be appreciated. 

As a new member, I am not putting much back into this, as I am but a 
babe in the woods in this field, but will do so when I know more.

Yours truly

Garry Sarre

www.sarre.com.au

Benoît,

By all means keep us all posted on the project!

Great website by the way and a wonderful collection of B&W portraits.

As the resident coating guy I have to ask how you applied the 
Suregard Clear Gloss to the prints?

Thanks,
Martin



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Benoit Malphettes 
<Benoit@s...> wrote:
> Garry,
> I am doing some tests with A&I Color Lab here in Los Angeles that 
could
> completely change my way of working.
> If it works out the way I hope it will, I will still shoot 
conventional film
> on 4x5 to 8x10 film; it will then be scanned by the lab and we will
> digitally retouch it at the studio then back to the lab where they 
will
> print this file on a LightJet. We have done a test with a 40x60 
inch color
> print and were quite impressed by the quality. We did a test with a 
B&W
> outputted to a LighJet and were disappointed, no deep black and 
overall an
> RC print feel to it. So now I am exploring the piezo/quad inkjet 
solution
> and I am very encouraged by what I see. A friend of mine here just 
got a
> 7000 and we are planning to print the same B&W neg. By then we will 
have the
> same neg printed  30x30 on fiber and on a  LightJet and a 24x24 on 
the 7000
> . All color prints we deliver are lacquered (Suregard Clear Gloss) 
and we
> did lacquer some piezo prints on EAM and it removes the "fragility" 
factor
> of the upper layer of those prints and deepens the blacks 
beautifully.
> If you are interested I will be glad to share the results as we 
progress. 
> And btw, incorporating in my daily routine the attentive reading of 
this
> newsgroup has been extremely helpful. 
> Benoît
> http://studiocharis.com
> 
(snip)

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Garry Sarre" 
<gazzzzperth@y...> wrote:


> Ideally I would like to shoot digital, but the medium format 
digital 
> backs for hasselblad are a bit pricey here ($50,000 by the time you 
> upgrade the blad) and the next step down is to 35mm maybe a Nikon 
d1X 
> (I think) but I can't see the subjects expression big enough 
through 
> the viewfinder. I need to see exactly what the eyes are doing so 
that 
> I can choose the moment to click. This was a big dissappointment 
when 
> trying 35mm digital for portrait. Subject expression is everything  
> in my stuff.
> 

Garry,

I am not a portrait photographer, but I shoot a lot of kids for 
advertising. Because I seldom have to do extreme enlargements, I 
don't need to shoot medium format. I DO have to see the eyes, so 35mm 
just doesn't get it for me.

Lately I started experimenting with digital camera equipment. I'm 
waiting for the dust to settle a little before I invest any real 
dollars into equipment. In the meantime I got a Nikon 990, just to 
fool around.

A neat feature that I didn't know about is the video out port. I can 
mount the camera on a tripod and hook up a regular TV as a monitor. I 
took this setup to a shoot and halfway through the shoot, turned the 
monitor around so that the kids could see themselves. I worked great!

I can get a very respectable image from the little camera in full 
TIFF mode, but the refresh rate at HI setting is just too long (about 
45 sec.) to be used for serious work.

I mention this because you MAY want to consider something like the 
D1H or D1X (very fast refresh rate, much higher quality output) with 
a video monitor, just to get your feet wet.

David Brugge