Why BLACK & White PRINTS!

[Tin Can]

It's like you people are parodies of yourselves at this point.

You are people too

Chill

we need fair winds

[jnantz]

cause I don't even have to develop-out the prints if I don't want, I can make my own SGE in 1/2 hour and cause it's fun .. but to be honest, b+w really isn't b+w at all.

[Michael R]

True. I also should have been clearer - I wasn't referring to your post (or Oren's). It was the rest that read like laughable "artist statements".

Sorry.

You are people too

Chill

we need fair winds

[esearing]

Sadly the members of my photo club think over saturated color printed on canvas is attractive art. Even though most are older folks, they have never held a fiber paper B&W image in their hands or seen a Ciba chrome in person. I wonder if those who paint with oil feel the same about water colorist or color pencil artists ?

[Mal Paso]

I rebuilt my 4x5 B&W darkroom after the fire, I love the Silver process but you can keep RA4. I've printed my own color negative film, maintained a 20" dry to dry processor. Except for specialty printing like Cibachrome, Digital Color left Chemical Color in the dust some time ago. Color Gamut, Color Accuracy, Print Sharpness, the Permanence of Pigment Inks, Digital Wins.

[John Layton]

Was thinking that OP had issues/questions regarding terminology - and was ready to suggest that we dispense with the term "Black and White Photography" and replace this with "Grayscale Photography." Hmmm...sounds kinda boring actually.

[nolindan]

..."Grayscale Photography." Hmmm...sounds kinda boring actually.

It is a specialist sub-genre specializing in atmospheric views of trees and coastlines. Popular along the northern Pacific coast. Often referred to as the "f-who-gives-a-damn-in-this-fog" school of photography.

[Jim Jones]

It is a specialist sub-genre specializing in atmospheric views of trees and coastlines. Popular along the northern Pacific coast. Often referred to as the "f-who-gives-a-damn-in-this-fog" school of photography.

boring, and certainly doesn't do justice to those few who continue to master the Daguerreotype.

[Drew Wiley]

Mal - Digital color has never caught up yet with what darkroom color has been able to do for more than 75 years in competent hands. In fact, the finest digital printmakers I know, among the world's best, did better color work in my opinion back in their darkroom days. No, not as conveniently, but certainly more compelling work.

And although I can legitimately refer to myself as having been a master of the Cibachrome medium, what can be done in RA4 using the equivalent Fujiflex Supergloss medium exceeds even Ciba. You need to look at optimized results, not just routine fare, when it comes to the potential of current RA4 media.

The most accurate color gamut I've ever gotten was from modern C41 internegs generated from extant 8X10 chromes, including necessary contrast masks, then printed onto current Fuji RA4 material. An expensive, time-consuming route, but worth it for special images. The squirrely color gamut of inkjet stinks by comparison, although with a lot of extra work itself, can sometimes be beaten into submission.

Don't get me wrong. Any truly skilled watercolor painter can mix pigments within minutes to create complex neutrals, subtle hues, or even purer colors which are downright impossible to any color photographic media even today. In that respect, I envy them. By comparison, what inkjet is capable of doing with pigments is Neanderthal.

If Rothko had been confined to an inkjet gamut, then his work would be selling at sidewalk fairs for pocket change.

[Andrew O'Neill]

I prefer to call them, monochromatic prints. I like to use several Alt. processes that have their own unique colour. With Carbon transfer, I can make them in any colour I like. Monochrome emphasises shape, form, light, dark better for me, but sometimes I like the look of a tri-colour gum print