Shooting chromes for artwork reproduction

[Lenny Eiger]

Jeez, Lenny, your color memory must be pretty accurate to remember the hues in a painting after it's gone to its new owner. And your digital camera must be pretty accurate to provide the person making the scan an accurate notion of the color. Must be a better digital camera than mine--I carefully and accurately dialed in the color balance on mine but still had to make significant adjustments to align the colors.

And when I got the colors looking right on the IT8 target, shazzam!, they also lined up on the painting I used for a reference. Just like magic. Don't know how I would have lined up colors for paintings no longer in my possession without having included the color chart. But, as I said, maybe your color memory is better than mine.

Rick "it's always easy to guess" Denney

Well, my color memory is excellent, it always has been. When I was printing color in the darkroom, in 1973, I used to put my hands on the dials of the old Beseler color head and dial it until I saw what I wanted at on the easel. I could easily beat the analyzer to the first good print. I also have somewhat of a photographic memory when it comes to images. I can usually tell you by whom and when a photograph was taken, for any photographic book I have read through.

I am also informed by Art History. While getting my masters in Photography, I had to take 6 years of Art History. I start by understanding what the artist was trying to accomplish. This is a large part of it.

And to be fair, I do my best to hold on to the painting for as long as I can to let the colors seep into my brain, and whenever possible, keep it until I am done printing. (Or borrow it when I am ready to do the final.)

Lenny

[Drew Wiley]

Then there's a whole other skill level ... the guys who translate the photograpic image into
the world of halftone reproduction. I've got some of those early Eliot Porter books - first
editions with the varnished pages (now somewhat yellowed). Contrary to what many people think, those reproductions of Glen Can etc weren't made from dye transfer prints
but from the chromes themselves. They'd polish and etch the plates in such as way ... wow, what a skill level, all pre-scanning.

[rdenney]

I have one of those early Porter editions ("In Wildness...") and it's everything you suggest. It's by far the best book of color photography I've seen from before about 1990.

Rick "who first saw Porter in a showing of his dye transfer prints at the University of New Mexico in the early 80's" Denney