Ansel Adams Digital Scanning?

[Deane Johnson]

Sometime in the mid to late 1980's, I was in Ansel's home and he was showing a comparison of two 16x20 prints, one was a typical photographic print, the other was from a digital scan of some sort. I believe it was one of the poster prints. He was pointing out how much greater shadow detail he could get in his poster prints than in his original photographic prints. Given the era, I am assuming he made low contrast photographic prints, then had them scanned for printing, adjusting the contrast prior to printing, but that's only a guess.

Digital scanning was so new at the time, I not only knew nothing about the process, but didn't connect at all with the procedure he was describing. I do remember the remarkable difference in how much better the shadow detail looked in the reproduction than in the photographic print.

Since we have some folks on this forum who were around then, are there any comments on the process, and what does this indicate for those of us wanting to move our work with LF negatives to a digital darkroom.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

It's apples & oranges. What we don't know is what detail is contained in the original negs. I'm sure it is more than adequate, since at least one process retrieved it. Maybe Ansel simply did not print that detail on the particular day he made that particular print. A good scan will get it. But really, what did Ansel want to do with his print?

[Deane Johnson]

I think it was that he was very pleased with the greater separation in the shadow detail with the scanned image. I'm thinking you touched on the issue at hand and that is that it has to be on the negative in the first place, which means if we develop a technique to get that detail into a print, we've made some gain. Holding detail in the lows and highs was an important factor in his work. That's made apparent in all of his writings.

I no longer shoot film, but if I did with the intention of scanning the negatives and doing digital work, I'd probably increase my exposure slightly and reduce my development slightly from what I would have done in the days the negatives were used to print on silver paper.

I guess what was going through my mind in starting this thread, perhaps in the wrong section of the forum, is that are we moving to an era where we may end up with even better digital prints than could be done with silver based papers? I assume we're not there yet.

[Merg Ross]

For the record, Ansel died in April, 1984. He had a long history of working with engravers and printers. For them he made soft full scale prints with gray highlights (his term). I believe Ansel was working with George Waters in San Francisco very early in his career and later with Dave Gardner.The engraver would selectively etch the print and produce half-tone engravings with good scale.

His first experience with laser printing was the publication of his book, Yosemite and the Range of Light in 1979. This may have been around the time you visited him, or perhaps you were a bit later. For the book, he made five sets of duplicate prints and sent them to a like number of printers. He said the results were very different, somewhat related to price, and he settled on NYGS. I have not seen the book for years so will not comment on the quality, but Ansel was very excited with the laser process. He also predicted that electronic images and negative enhancement would be the next advancements in photography. Guess he was correct.

[Deane Johnson]

Thanks for clarifying things Merg. I am obviously a big murky on details. Comes with age.

I often think of how exciting it would be to have Ansel alive today and active. He was always the one to learn how to push the available tools to the maximum in producing an expressive print. It would sure be exciting to see what his work with digital would produce.

I remember his commenting on the video cameras used to film one of the productions featuring him and his work. He was excited to play with some of the camera controls and immediately began to see the possibilities of electronic reproduction.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Deanne, you wrote, "are we moving to an era where we may end up with even better digital prints than could be done with silver based papers? I assume we're not there yet.".

While this is a highly controversial topic, I believe the answer is a big YES, we are already there. I certainly feel I am. The very fine control of all adjustments, the ability to mask so cleanly (and with smooth gradients), and the opportunity to save and recall the exact settings for repeatability, are all huge factors supporting the current state of digital printing as an improvement. Of course, tradition has a lot to do with the way one thinks, and while it has huge historic significance, it also, sadly, keeps a lot of people from ever stepping outside their own box.

[Merg Ross]

Thanks for clarifying things Merg. I am obviously a big murky on details. Comes with age.

I often think of how exciting it would be to have Ansel alive today and active. He was always the one to learn how to push the available tools to the maximum in producing an expressive print. It would sure be exciting to see what his work with digital would produce.

I remember his commenting on the video cameras used to film one of the productions featuring him and his work. He was excited to play with some of the camera controls and immediately began to see the possibilities of electronic reproduction.

Deane, I knew you meant perhaps a few years prior. I can relate to your age comment, as I just recalled that I was at Ansel's family home in San Francisco before he built on the Coast. Of course I was very young. The Carmel house was special, I assume you received a darkroom tour and cocktail.

There is no doubt in my mind, although speculation serves no real purpose, that Ansel would be engrossed in the digital revolution. His appetite for new ideas was immense and you phrase it well, " to push the availabe tools to the maximum in producing an expressive print". He embraced Land with his Polaroid process, learned to photograph in color and lived to see the advent of laser technology. His legacy will rightfully be his accomplishments with the gelatin silver process, but his would be a welcome voice in this period of transitition to a different process. For some, silver remains the preferred choice, myself included.