Ansel Adams Digital Scanning?

[sanking]

...
I'm considering the Alan Ross way, this is advanced digital masking on film negatives. ...By accurate calibrations and PS one can (laser) print a mask that solves the most boring darkroom effort, while allowing photographer concentrate in the hand crafting of the important details of the print. It is also very cost efective.

It also can be considered what Salgado's team (Amazonas) did for Genesis, and for Taschen... They processed digital shots to be printed in Delta 100 film (8x10, 4 images per sheet) with a Kodak LTV Rhino to later be wet printed with a 4x5 enlarger and traditional agfa paper.
...

In the early days of digital I used to dream about ways to make masks to apply to my ULF negatives for printing in carbon. But by the time I figured out how to do it I discovered that there was vastly more control possible by just adjusting the image file in PS and printing a digital negative.

But it might be interesting even today to make masks and print directly some of the old negatives. In what book or article does Alan Ross describe his advanced method of making digital masks?

Sandy

[Pere Casals]

In the early days of digital I used to dream about ways to make masks to apply to my ULF negatives for printing in carbon. But by the time I figured out how to do it I discovered that there was vastly more control possible by just adjusting the image file in PS and printing a digital negative.

But it might be interesting even today to make masks and print directly some of the old negatives. In what book or article does Alan Ross describe his advanced method of making digital masks?

Sandy

Hello sandy,

Here:

http://phototechmag.com/selective-ma...onal-darkroom/

http://phototechmag.com/selective-di...sking-part-ii/

http://phototechmag.com/an-introduct...asking-part-i/ (not digital)

It only works with diffusion enlargers, not with condenser ones.

Also his web site, http://www.alanrossphotography.com/t...ctive-masking/





Well, for what you do I also think that printing a digital negative is the straighter way, as you contact copy and you may not need the extra blocking power that silver has compared to ink . But if a printed digital negative is enlarged then the print may show pixelization because printers are targeting human sight capability, so enlarging it will be like looking a digital print with a magnifier.

It is possible to print very high quality negatives with a Kodak LTV Rhino, but this is fancy gear. Half of Salgado's Genesis exhibition was made in this way.

But the Ross way is powerful, still very analog but solving challenging problems, and it also has the unsharp masking effect.

The Alan Ross documents (paid) are very practical and proposed workflow has a lot of wisdom. IMHO more LF photographers should consider seriously that trend... it is a way comeback to darkroom.

I'm not saying that printing (contact copy) from a digital negative is wrong, not at all, but printing the original negative (enlarged or not) with the aid of a digital mask is also powerful, you don't need a high quality scan and a basic laser printer is perfect, because the mask itself do not need to be sharp. Sharpness (if one wants that) is provided by the original negative and perhaps by the unsharp masking from the mask.

Lynn Radeka also describes digital masks...

I was aware of that since this discussion http://www.largeformatphotography.in...=1#post1358817 , since then I'm exploring that way, I've to use it in practice !!!

Regards

[sanking]

Hello sandy,
....
Well, for what you do I also think that printing a digital negative is the straighter way, as you contact copy and you may not need the extra blocking power that silver has compared to ink . But if a printed digital negative is enlarged then the print may show pixelization because printers are targeting human sight capability, so enlarging it will be like looking a digital print with a magnifier.....

Regards

Hola Pere,

Or how do you guys greet each other in Catalan? Should remember that because I lived in Barecelona for a few months back in the 1980s. I do remember all those signs advising people to "no pisat a l'herba."

I am not seeing any pixelation on my carbon prints, or any other digital artifacts for that matter. Even when looking at the print through a magnifier the image looks continuous tone. Perhaps it is being blurred slightly in contact printing.

Thanks for the links.

Best,

Sandy

[Pere Casals]

Hola Pere,

Or how do you guys greet each other in Catalan? Should remember that because I lived in Barecelona for a few months back in the 1980s. I do remember all those signs advising people to "no pisat a l'herba."

I am not seeing any pixelation on my carbon prints, or any other digital artifacts for that matter. Even when looking at the print through a magnifier the image looks continuous tone. Perhaps it is being blurred slightly in contact printing.

Thanks for the links.

Best,

Sandy

It is also Hola in Cat, I also was living in BCN, since 86 to 95... as a student and having jobs... Now you would see a lot of changes, the Sagrada Familia alone receives near 5 million tourists... now the city receives some 30 million people yearly, cruise harbour looks dunkirk In winter tourism is less pressing and adds some cosmopolite ambient...

I've just made some preliminary tests with digital laser printed (Brother) masks, when enlarged with the diffuser layer between the negative and the mask pixelation cannot be seen, I suspect that at some enlargement ratio it should be seen if diffuser not in place.


I was amazed when I saw that Ross was using Cyan an Magenta colors form CMYK printers, just like contrast filters... this is a powerful idea !!

[tgtaylor]

Alicia de Larrocha is one of my favorite pianists.

Thomas

[Pere Casals]

Alicia de Larrocha is one of my favorite pianists.

Thomas

... She was discovered by Frank Marshall, who was trained by Enric Granados. 4 grammy as best classic soloist, but this comes short to describe her talent.

this shot ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/125592...posted-public/ )was taken from some 100m to the Gaspar de Portolà home (anyway he was born in a near village, Castellnou de Montsec), discoverer of San Francisco Bay and 1st governor of Alta California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspar_de_Portol%C3%A0

He named San Francisco and many places, now big cities.


World is so small... We have here a monument to him, donated by the State of California.

[tgtaylor]

Interesting - had I known that I would have left the bicycle in Barcelona and took a bus or something over to visit the site:

Thomas

[sanking]

It is also Hola in Cat, I also was living in BCN, since 86 to 95... as a student and having jobs... Now you would see a lot of changes, the Sagrada Familia alone receives near 5 million tourists... now the city receives some 30 million people yearly, cruise harbour looks dunkirk In winter tourism is less pressing and adds some cosmopolite ambient...
.....
!!

Pere,

My grand daughter spent a month in Barcelona earlier this summer and sent me some pictures of her visit to the Sagrada Famila so I am aware that it has become a huge tourist attraction. When I lived there in the spring of 1987 I went there several times on Sunday morning and was often the only person there.

Sandy

[sanking]

There are many abandoned towns throughout Spain, many of them in lovely setting in the mountains of Aragon and Galicia.

One area that I have visited several times is the Valley of Solana in the Pyrenees area of Aragon. Several towns that at one time had fairly large populations are now completely (or mostly) abandoned. Jánovas is one of the more interesting of the abandoned towns, though last time I was there we noticed some signs on renovation of a few buildings.

Also lots of abandoned towns in the mountains of Galicia, particulary in the Serra do Courel.

One of the interesting characteristics of abandoned towns in Spain is that many of the building are still structurally sound. They are mostly built of stone so until the wooden roof beams go the building does not deteriorate structurally.

Sandy

[bob carnie]

Pere,

My grand daughter spent a month in Barcelona earlier this summer and sent me some pictures of her visit to the Sagrada Famila so I am aware that it has become a huge tourist attraction. When I lived there in the spring of 1987 I went there several times on Sunday morning and was often the only person there.

Sandy

Yes but that is the days before you discovered deodorant. Once you saw the Irish Springs Commercials you got it.