Photograph Exchange

[K. Praslowicz]

This is in no way meant as a way to simply exclude digital photographers,

Well, I guess I'm in luck as I've never once considered myself a digital photographer.

4. The final images must be printed on photographic paper. (This can either be done by using a digital projecter or by having an internegative printed on transparency film aka clear acetate and then contact printed.)

Frontier prints count then? If what I know of the machine is true, I guess that they would be filed under "digital projector."

[Dan Morgan]

must say, I do not know what frontier prints are. But if the image is formed by light and not by direct printing than it should be fine.

[Dan Morgan]

p.s. if you are interested please send me an e-mail with a request to be added to the list. Thanks!

[David Vickery]

Hello, You say that the prints have to be flat but you don't say if they may or may not be mounted (unless I missed it). Should they be shipped unmounted???

[Dan Morgan]

No, they will be left unmounted for cost reasons. I am trying to keep this as inexspensive for the photographers as possible. If someone chooses to frame one of the photos they recieve in the excange I figure they can mount them themselves for the same amount that it would cost them to mount there own.

[K. Praslowicz]

Unless I've been horribly misinformer or lied two, here is how I understand Frontiers work. I give my lovingly prepared image to the lab that has the machine. Many pro labs use these, and so do many non-pro ones(the Wal-*s). They load the file into the machine where the image is exposed onto a sheet of color paper, typically Fuji Crystal Archive, via LEDs inside the machine. Then the paper is processed as a regular color print would be.

From what I can tell by comparing my own works made in a darkroom vs scanned and frontier printed, is that I don't see too much difference within my own volume of works. I'm not the greatest darkroom printer though and only have a year or two of actual experience in it, and currently am only set up to do 4x5 contact prints. I like these idea of mixing the workflow types just to get an idea of how they compare against other techniques done by people with for more experience in the darkroom than I have.

[Brian Ellis]

AFAIK the only way to get a Frontier print is to have it done commercially. So the people who scan their negatives and print them at home themselves aren't eligible to join this group but people who have their prints made at Walgreens or Sam's are. Seems a little backwards to me but hey, it's your group.

[Dan Morgan]

-Brian

K. is sending me a Frontier print to have a look at it and see what it is like, the idea behind the exchange is to have a group of people that are exchanging physical work which usually has more "soul" then looking at the piece on your computer screen. My good friend Ian who is participating in the exchange has been all digital for the past 2 years because it is more cost effective for him, however he agrees with me that a digital print looks like the cover of a magazine in comparison to an actual darkroom print. I do not know what the Frontier prints look like, but am hoping that they will have the same depth and soul as a darkroom print because they are printed on photographic paper and not simply printed on the surface. Another option he just brought up to me last night was digitalmonochrome.com which takes your digital images and then exposes them on film which they send back to you undeveloped. The isn't entirely about whether it is digital or traditional, but more of the quality of the print and whether or not it will fit in with the rest of the prints in the folio.

[adrian tyler]

does this mean that lf forum favorie joseph holmes cannot participate?

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've had Frontier prints made from smaller formats. They look like (and are in fact) conventional color C-prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper. For smaller print sizes, it's not a bad way to go from digital to C-print. For bigger enlargements, LightJet or Chromira are a better choice. I just ordered some Chromira reprints from West Coast Imaging from an image I previously had done in Lightjet, and the color is a bit cleaner with the Chromira.