I have several books by large format photographers (Jack Dykinga, Joe Cornish etc) and I've just taken delivery of George Tice 'Urban Landscapes'. I am astounded by the print quality of these books which exceed anything I have printed using drum scans, lightjets, inkjets, cibas etc. I have been interested in the process used to produce these books and performed a little research. I understand that the images are probably drum scanned, stored as CMYK, computer manipulated, output to plates, and then printed using offset lithography.
My question is (taking 'Urban Landscapes' as an example - would the original B+W negs have been scanned and then computer manipulated or would the B + W prints themselves have been scanned? It's just that I would have thought it a little soul destroying to have produced such beautiful prints using all the traditional techniques required, e.g. dodging, burning, masks etc, only to have to go through the whole process again once the neg had been scanned in order to produce a book. What is the general method, and can anyone explain the printing process used in more detail?
Thanks
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