Hybrid Film and Digital - Your Approach?

[Frank Petronio]

I like digital shooting too, I did one of the first catalogs using a digital camera in 1994, blah blah blah....

But nowadays using film is unique, a marketing point, a better experience. I make no claims that film is "better" than digital - I just enjoy the process more, and my portrait subjects respond well to the different pace of shooting film.

Heck a $100 point and shoot digital probably has better purely technical quality than my 35mm Leica film and grainy Minolta Dual Scan IV files - but I really like the look I get with that combo, so why not enjoy this window of time while we still can? In twenty years most of this stuff will be gone or so laborious to do that it will change the dynamics of shooting.

[tgtaylor]

Legitimate to what? A good print is a good print. To clarify, it's a scan of a Vandyke and then printed via inkjet? Or just a scan of the negative and then printed via inkjet? The inkjet print (either way) may not be a Vandyke but if it looks great to you that should be all that matters in my opinion. What it's classified as doesn't change how the end product is viewed for me. Call it whatever you want! Good is good and I don't really care how it gets there.

I've used Lenny's scanning service which is fantastic. I'd love to try a few prints through you as well! I usually send out for my prints to the various labs like WHCC, El-Co Color, Bay photo.. etc. I really like the results and couldn't imagine doing it any other way. I haven't yet tried a fine-art inkjet print but have a few images which I think would work better that way compared to Kodak Metallic or Lustre papers.

It's a scan of the print.

My scanner is the now lowely and ancient Epson 3200 which can scan negatives up to 4x5 and not larger. However it is able to scan larger reflective media which in this case is a sheet of 9x11 Craine's Platinotype with the 9 inch side barely fitting on the scanner bed.

As far as trying "a few prints through (me)" well...thanks for the compliment but I am nowhere near the competency of Lenny and the others you mentioned. In fact I'm a newby to printing digitally having reserected my printer (Epson 2200) only a couple of week back and still have a tiny amount of Cyan ink remaining in it from 2004 (I bought it new back then and never used it). But it's fairly easy to learn to print digitally and I would recommend that you look into getting a digital printer. They are not that expensive.

I have given some thought to the "honesty" of scanning an alternative print and printing it digitally and think it is valid as long as the digital version is not represented as an alternative process. So in the above case I wouldn't call the digital print I made yesterday a Vandyke.

Thomas

Thomas

[Riccis]

My first thought was to buy an 8x10 enlarger and print in my darkroom but my travel schedule does not allow me this and I am not a great printer.

My workflow consists of the following:

-Shoot
-Send all the negatives to Edgar Praus for developing and contact printing
-Scan contact prints in crappy flatbed for web viewing only
-One or two keepers of each subject are drum scanned by Lenny

Cheers!

[mlatterich]

I typically shoot a variety of B&W emulsions, Velvia 50 and Portra 160. I develop all B&W and C-41 in my darkroom, and outsource E-6 to North Coast. I scan everything with an Epson 750 for cataloging and archiving. I do all my b&w printing on silver gelatin papers. If I want any color prints, I send out the Portra and Velvia for drum scanning and printing on Fuji paper. Wish cibachrome was still readily available :{

[David N Docherty]

My Approach to Hybrid:

I scan my chosen negative, usually one that is less than perfect, then I experiment with burning/dodging in Adobe Lightroom. Once I am content with the effect of the manipulations I then return to the wet darkroom where I will print the image on silver gelatin, having worked out where to manipulate and how much time to give or take away from the print. It saves paper and allows the computer to assist my photographic efforts, rather than the computer taking over the craft. I am in this for photography after all - not for something to do on a computer!


Silver is a precious metal,
Digital is transiently ephemeral.

[federico9001]

The hybrid system allows the highest quality of control+quality, especially shooting LF and ULF and scanning on an excellent drum scanner.

I do drum scans for many international artists photographers.

Take a look at this Massimo Vitali's dyptich restored by me and printed at Grieger Lab, Dusseldorf:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/castors...n/photostream/

[Gary Samson]

My hybrid process:
Kodak Tmax 400 or Ilford HP5+ 4x5 film processed in PMK Pyro or Pyrocat developer
Film scanned on an Epson V750, 360 dpi for a 20x24 inch print
Edited in Photoshop and printed on Canson Baryta Photographique paper with an Epson 7900 printer

[SeanEsopenko]

I print 6x7 and 4x5 using RA4 in the darkroom and have been pining for a good scanner for a while now so I don't have to spend time masking. I scan with a V700 and use the included 4x5 holders for not-bad sharpness. 6x7s don't look very good from it. I scan at 6400 dpi then downsample to 2100 and work with that.

I print on a pro-sumer level R3000, usually 11x14s. I'd like a 3880 or some other 17 inch inkjet but this will do me for now. I've gotten to really enjoy hahnemuhle baryta. I used to think that people would prefer darkroom prints when displayed in the gallery but most people have thought my darkroom images were digital when they look at them. It kinda sealed the deal and made me think I should just move to a strictly digital or at least a hybrid workflow.

I've been playing with a Coolscan 9000 ED that's on loan in exchange for some darkroom printing I'll be doing for the fellow. I'm really liking it but unfortunately I won't be able to afford an flextight or the likes for probably a decade and at those kinds of prices I might as well get a MF back and a digital view camera. From playing with this 9000 ED I've come to the conclusion good scanner coupled with half-decent software is so much nicer to colour balance compared to the results I get with both Vuescan and Epsonscan with my V700. It makes me feel as though I'm hammering nails with a frying pan when using my current equipment.

[IanMazursky]

I shoot everything from 35mm, 645, 4x5, 5x7, 8x10 if i ever get one and my 12x20 Korona (my favorite format).
I use Kodak, Fuji and Ilford Color and B&W film which i process in my Jobo ATL 2300.
Mostly HP5, TriX, RDP3, E100G, Pro160s, Portra 400... HP5 and 70s vintage TriX in my 12x20.
B&W i process in PMK Pyro (scans extremely well) and TmaxRS. E6 in Kodak E6AR and C41 in Kodak FlexiColor.

I scan pretty much everything (even the 12x20s) on my Howtek 7500 and Aztek Premier drum scanners.
Then its off to Photoshop for spotting, retouching and color correction.

I will output some to my Epson 9880 but more lately to my LVT Rhino and LVT 1620 film recorders.
I use those negatives to make enlarged and contact RA4 and B&W prints up to 20x24 in my darkroom.
I can build in a lot of the major color and selective color work right into the LVT. It lets me do things that i could never do from a camera neg.
When i shoot chromes, which i like a lot, i will make an LVT neg. That lets me make really good RA4 prints and avoid CibaChrome!
Im also attempting Carbon printing…keyword “attempting”. Nothing much to show yet but its fun to try.

For larger darkroom prints or if i need a bunch, i will send them out to LTI in NYC. They also do lightjet prints when i need them.
I really like the LJ quality. Since i cant print over 20x24 in the darkroom, it’s a great alternative.

I occasionally mount small prints here with a fussy ancient seal hot press but i like to send them out for framing.

[ic-racer]

Is this the new digital forum?

Forum: Darkroom: Film, Processing & Printing
Traditional film, film processing, lab processing, chemistry, paper, traditional printing processes and conservation.