Quote Originally Posted by Jim Noel View Post
Inkjet prints do not have a wider tonal range. In fact, most people print them with more narrow range. Masking is another simple darkroom process which was incorporated into the digital imaging process. I have been doing it for 60+ years.

I have seen quite a few prints made by people who claim they can match a platinum print.They shut up when their print is laid beside a good Pt/Pd print.
This question was brought up at a workshop a few years ago where Stephen Johnson and I were both making presentations. He told the group he couldn't match my prints and if they wanted to make a print like mine they would have to learn the processes I use. His expertise is enough for me and I certainly appreciated his remarks. If he can't match my prints on a computer, I doubt seriously that anyone can.
Oh, please. I do my best to give everyone that likes darkroom prints the respect they deserve. Everyone is welcome to like what they want. However, every time we have one of these conversations it always boils down to a bunch of bullies who insist that darkroom prints are great and inkjet is crap. It's tiresome and it destroys community.

Just a month or two ago it was claimed that a darkroom print was the original, "photographic" process. I had to remind people that it wasn't, that other processes we now call "alternate" were the originals. In fact, a few of them are far superior to darkroom printing; platinum, carbon and gravure, easily. You want a really dark black? Get yourself some black ink... and learn how to ink a plate. OTOH, if you have the right RIP, paper and printer, you can also slow the printer down enough to puddle the ink on the paper and get any kind of black you want. Of course, a solid black is not the only thing a print requires. I think its probably the least important factor, but that's just my opinion.

I may not have been doing this for 60 years, its only been 53; many years of my life in the dark. I have printed professionally since the early 1980's. At one point, my work hung right next to Ansel's in the window at Photography West in Carmel. I have done both darkroom and inkjet at the museum quality level. I have done a pile of different alt processes as well, altho' some just for a few quick tests. In fact, when I discovered platinum in the mid 80's, I never wanted to go back to the darkroom again. That's my personal preference. In fact, for the kind of work that I want to do its either alt process or inkjet. You couldn't make the kind of print I want to make, and that I do regularly, in a darkroom. Not even close.

Stephen Johnson is by no means the expert you imagine. I don't need to diss anyone, him included, so we can leave it at that. Inkjets easily have a wider tonal range (at least one and a half times), and much smoother tonal shifts between zones. Given the right materials and expertise, they are richer and more velvety than anything that can be accomplished with silver bromide paper. And there's no distracting gloss. And yes, I have one image where I have made an inkjet look exactly like the platinum print, sitting there side by side, regardless of Mr. Johnson. You wouldn't know the difference except that the inkjet has more separation in the shadows.

Now, if what you want is something that looks just like a darkroom print, by all means engage in that kind of printing. And be happy. And the lot of you should stop trying to bully everyone.

Lenny