Relevance of Traditional Darkroom.

[Jim collum]

For the student not standing in the dark and breathing fixer-fumes, it's probably an improvement as well.

i wonder if you could get the inks to smell of fixer...it will be very nostalgic smell.

[Paul Metcalf]

Universitites did not buy new enlargers every 18 months as soon as a new model came out. The cameras are provided by the student and they do not need the 20 Mpixel wonder camera, all they need is one that will give them an acceptable 8x10.

I do admit, I've only limited experience with what art schools provide in equipment. My one main experience involved a shoot at the fort near the Golden Gate bridge. All of the students were using Arca Swiss rail 4x5's with conventional film holders. I don't consider that equivalent to a digital P&S for an apples-to-apples comparison of digital instruction vs. analog instruction and costs. It may be sufficient to use a digital P&S for some education purposes, but for those students at that fort at that time, it would be a considerable setback in instruction quality, in my book. Based on what I've read herein, I'm under the impression that education quality is significantly different with the onslaught of digital if indeed P&S and only 8x10 prints are made (using "cntl-print") by students now. Hopefully they're told to do more than just use "P" mode.

[chris jordan]

If I were in charge of a photography school, I would definitely keep the darkrooms, but for B&W and alternative processes only. I think the silver gelatin process will be around for a long time, and learning the craft of B&W printing is valuable even if you're later going to do color digital work. But for color printing, I think the darkroom is quickly becomming as obsolete as magnetic tape is to the music recording world.

[Al Seyle]

I just donated my color enlarger to a community college that is starting a color printing class(!) this Fall. Yeah, surprised me, too.

[paulr]

... I think the darkroom is quickly becomming as obsolete as magnetic tape is to the music recording world.

wow, if you think we have ridiculous feuds about analog vs. digital here, stop by a recording forum sometime ..

[Doug Dolde]

What's a darkroom? Is that when you turn the lights out?

[Ralph Barker]

If I were in charge of a photography school, I would definitely keep the darkrooms, but for B&W and alternative processes only. . . .

Nah, keep the color stuff, too. Few efforts will make a student appreciate "modern" color processes more than being required to create a portfolio of dye transfer prints.

[David Luttmann]

I don't think that digital darkroom work is easy - In fact I am struggling with Photoshop myself! The sentence was the ease of making digital IMAGES (in other words, the ease with which someone can now snap a photo using ever-present camera phones etc - the TECHNOLIGAL ease, not the skill-set ease, at making digital images, not necessarily even "good" digital images either.)

Yes, I would agree with you there. My camera phone is handy....but that is about all I can say for it. I believe people will be able to do better work with the digital lightroom if they have at least a basic understanding of the principles of the darkroom. It's important to understand other processes to appreciate them. The great thing is that this is only going to get better as time goes on. High quality capture costs will drop....better printers with longer archival ratings (although 100-200 years for carbon pigment is pretty darn good) will make things even better for a lot of us.

[Carsten Wolff]

"Digies" I think are people merely afraid of the dark.....
"Tradies" are afraid of being in part of a race you'll never "win"....

My personal philosophy is based on asking myself intermittendly: Can I guarantee that I get better results by going digital, when I am on what I perceive as being now on the upper part of a learning curve to very fine prints with excellent tonal value control and archival properties (currently I mostly print 16x20" or up depending on format and desired outcome (mainly from 4x5", 6x17cm and 5x7" film)). So far I have to say, no.

There seems nothing wrong with darkroom work.

However, another point I'd like to make is that the critical moment to get to a great print is when you take the photo. There is a limit to what Photoshop, or for that matter your darkroom work could achieve when the image at hand wasn't properly controlled whilst taking it; having learned what I can expect from my film I make my choices there and then....

[cyrus]

...My personal philosophy is based on asking myself intermittendly: Can I guarantee that I get better results by going digital....

But this of course assumes that the end result is all that counts, while people like me appreciate the process of reaching that end result.