Originally Posted by
john borrelli
I recently made a 4X5 inch digital black and white print to compare to a contact print of the same image my Lab had made. It is hard for me to see any differences between the two. If your goal, like mine, is to make 11 by 14 inch prints or smaller, frame them, and put them on your wall for display it will be real hard to see any differences between them and analogue prints. Of course larger cameras translate to larger print sizes. In fact my 11 by 14 inch digital prints, using an ordinary Epson 4990 scanner and an Epson 1800 printer are getting closer and closer to the 11 by 14 inch prints my Lab is making and this is an analogue, black and white only lab. Lately I have been taking 11 by 14 inch digital prints to them as proof prints, the last time I did this the printer said "I don't think you need me anymore." A nice compliment indeed! Here are some of the differences I see in the two types of prints when looking side by side in frames and on the wall. The analogue prints are overall sharper. With the digital prints I am able to alter exposure, contrast, etc. to smaller parts of the scene without affecting adjacent areas which my lab just can't do. This gave one of my digital prints less distracting highlights in some areas in between tree branches where the sky light was a little too bright. However, in favor of the analogue prints some of my digital prints have tints that can be hard to control and in fact I sometimes give up on some of them and have only analogue prints made of those images. I guess what I am suggesting is that for me, I found a system which involves using both analogue and digital processes to reach my particular, artistic goals.
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