Inkjet B&W compared to traditional B&W?

[Jay W]

I really love the control of digital printing. The comparison I'm interested in seeing, is if it's worth making a digitial negative for silver contact printing, and comparing that to a straight inkjet print with B&W inks. (Pt is a little expensive for my taste.) So, anyone doing some Burkholder type silver work? Decent negatives out of an inkjet?

Jay

[amilne]

It could easily be that your skill is the defining factor in 'waste my money' and that pt/pd printing by those who are good at is is worth every penny.

Ok, well, you obviously didn't read the details in the post, which is fine, maybe you were in a rush or something, or maybe you just like jumping to conclusions... Here are the details on that particular exhibit:

"There was an exhibit a while back at the Eastman House (not sure if it was travelling) by Craig Barber, called "Ghosts in the Landscape." A very excellent, very emotional landscape show about his Vietnam experience using 8x10 pinholes. There were many platinum contact prints, but there were also inkjet enlargements, often with the exact same image in platinum sitting adjacent, that were absolutely superb. Apart from the size, I saw little difference in tone/color, surface texture, and range."

So, if you still don't understand, my personal skill is irrelevant. This has to do with a comparison of prints done by a professional photographer (or a professional printer, maybe he only made the negatives, I'm not sure). I can't think of too many other purposes for displaying identical prints in different processes except to demonstrate their similarities or differences. Maybe he was getting paid off by Epson!

[paulr]

I'd concur that at least with the process that I use, inkjet is more similar to PT/PD than to gelatin silver. Partly because of the long, straight line section of the curve (actually longer with ink, if you want it to be) and partly because of the finish of the watercolor-style papers you usually print on.

[tim atherton]

"I have seen (the details are in that post) an exhibit at the Eastman House that convinced me the only purpose Platinum Printing serves is to waste my money!"

It could easily be that your skill is the defining factor in 'waste my money' and that pt/pd printing by those who are good at is is worth every penny.

For one reason or another, I have been seeing a lot of platinum prints recently many of them vintage and some contemporary by those such as Arentz and others.

while they do have a very lovely look to most of them, the majority actually look very much like fairly average inkjet prints. And the good inkjet prints by today's best printers on cotton rag paper often tend to look like superb platinum prints

[eddie]

Maybe it's best summed up in the old fisherman's comment that, "it's not the fish -- it's the fishin'" that really counts!

yup, what dick said!

i have no printer, almost zero knowledge skills and abilities for computers and PS so i guess i am stuck. now i am going to turn on the red light andgetto work........

[Tyler Boley]

the fishing does need to be rewarding, but in this case, the prints themselves (the fish) must be the reason. If they don't excel I'll alter the methods and material (the fishin I suppose).
These mono ink prints on beautiful paper present my images in a way only this process can provide. I was never able to achieve this in the darkroom. For others, silver may still be the way.
We have to gravitate to activities and materials we have some affinity for, or we won't get the work done, or it won't excel.
I gotta have these prints, or what comes next that's even better. I've done years of silver, platinum, etc.. I'm so thrilled with this process.
If I want to enjoy fishing, I'll go fishing.
Tyler

[Greg Miller]

{yawn} It is clear that great results are possible with a variety of analog and digital methods. And they all have their own attributes that make them different and similar to others. And different people will be drawn to different methods that appeal to them. That's a good thing. It's too bad that this always has to degenerate into a 'mine's better than your's" discussion. Do oil painters and pastel artists argue about whose medium is better? Can't we all just get along?

[paulr]

Do oil painters and pastel artists argue about whose medium is better?

well ... i wouldn't bet against it.

[Bill_1856]

It's much easier for most of us ordinary/average/irregular darkroom printers to get a really good B&W print with an inkjet, than the B&W that we can turn out with conventional silver papers. And finding suitable silver papers are getting a lot worse.

[Tyler Boley]

{yawn}...

So, you were expecting this particular thread to be the next Bourne thrill ride?
Tyler