Bruce Barnbaum’s claim — 20 months later

[vinny]

http://www.icingimages.com/

Case closed.

It should say "archival inkjet icing"!

[Robert Hughes]

"Develops in your mouth, not in your hands!"

[Brian Ellis]

Really? Then why are we having this discussion?

I would love to see an actual comparison, maybe a few high resolution scans of two prints. I'd do it myself but I don't have a printer. I do have a drum scanned 4x5 negative that I could offer up (It has a scratch and I am planning on having a digital neg printed). Brian, Rick or anybody else, I'll send you the file and my traditional fiber print if you want to try and match it with an inkjet print and send it back. I will then scan the prints and post the results.

Any takers?

I was responding to your statement to the effect that you didn't believe digital prints could duplicate darkroom prints just yet. I disagreed and said it was easy to duplicate "a" silver print. I didn't say that I could duplicate every silver print that anybody chooses to hand me (though that probably could be done too if one was willing to spend the time to do it, which I'm not). In other words, I meant that I can make a print digitally that's indistinguishable from a print made in a darkroom (when placed under glass so that the paper surface isn't a give-away). You apparently don't think that's true. Which is why we're having this discussion.

I spent about 15 years in the darkroom and I've spent about 7 years printing digitally. I've taken four weeks of darkroom workshops from John Sexton and another two weeks from Phil Davis. Which doesn't mean I was a great darkroom printer but it does mean I was very serious about making excellent darkroom prints. So I think I'm in a good position to be able to compare the two methods of printing. What's your background in digital printing, i.e. how much have you done and if you haven't done any significant amount what digital prints by which photographers have yous seen? In other words, what's the basis for your opinions about digital printing?