Digital Silver

[Deval]

Hi, searched the forums, didn't find exactly what I was looking for so here goes a new thread.

Has anyone used Digital silver imaging or related services. I can do daylight developing at home, but don't have room or the equipment for enlargements(one day I wish), and there isn't a public one closer than 3 hours drive. After seeing a couple of silver albumin prints up close, I want to print some. I ran into digitalsilverimaging.com and carbromac.com. Does anyone have any experience with such services. Anyone know where to get them at a better price? Any opinions on this type of printing

[vinny]

Elevator Digital does it and they process the print by hand.
A&I does? (did in the past)

[bob carnie]

My lab was the first laser exposing lab to do silver gelatin fibre murals... all other labs followed suit when Ilford designed the paper we now use... I made these fibre prints on Agfa Classic fibre base paper.

Many labs did the RC version before me, using roller transport. but we were the first to put fibre base paper in the lambda. Vinny is right I do this porcess in large trays, all the other vendors worldwide use roller transport.

A&I no longer offers this service... many labs in New York, London and Paris as well.

Elevator Digital does it and they process the print by hand.
A&I does? (did in the past)

[Four Terriers]

I am most definitely still a novice with film, but I've had several images printed with both inkjet (AdomaraPix for example) and with DSI. Without a doubt, the DSI images are superior in tonality depth and overall quality. The darks are very dark, the lights near white, and the tones in between are smooth.

What I can definitely tell you is DSI's customer service is outstanding. I ordered a mounted 16x20 print for a show and sale, but it arrived damaged with only a few days until show setup. One call to my contact, and the order was resubmitted and rushed to me in time. I couldn't have been happier.

DSI used to have a deal where they would print two 8x10s of one image on RC and fiber for a really great price, so you could compare the papers. I suggest you try that to see if it's what you are looking to achieve in your prints.

Hope this little bit helps you.

[Thom Bennett]

I'm a bit confused. If shooting film, wouldn't you want an enlarger made print? Why the extra step of scanning?

[Deval]

I don't have access to an enlarger. Also for reproductions or art sales

[Thom Bennett]

I'm not trying to take anything away from what Bob does at Elevator as I understand he does a fantastic job and I think the hybrid technology is wonderful. My question is in the broader sense; why wouldn't one use a traditional printer who uses enlargers so that the light passes directly through the negative and onto the paper? Why scan negs when you can still have a print made traditionally? Seems like it is adding an extra step unnecessarily. There are labs around the country that offer this. (perhaps Elevator offers this? Looks like they are putting together a new website so I don't know) If one is going to use Bob's DSI, wouldn't one simply shoot digitally? I want to be clear, I think what Bob offers is wonderful. I could see someone shooting a wedding digitally and then having beautiful black and white silver gelatin prints made for an album. A great use of hybrid technology. But, if shooting negs, why not have someone print them traditionally?

[Kirk Gittings]

Simply because not every negative prints its best without the extraordinary controls available when you manipulate a file.

[vinny]

Scratches, lots of dust, uneven development are the reasons I cannot enlarge plenty of my negs w/o the resulting prints looking like shit. Of course, all those defects only happen to my favorite negs. Now do you get it?

[Oren Grad]

...Bob's DSI...

Just to be clear, "Digital Silver Imaging" isn't a generic term for digital printed on silver, it's the name of Eric Luden's lab, near Boston:

http://digitalsilverimaging.com/

Bob Carnie's lab is Elevator Digital, in Toronto:

http://www.elevatordigital.ca/