Kenny Rogers 8x10 to 4x5

[Ron Bose]

I was recently told about Kenny Rogers (the country singer) and his accomplished work in LF. The link below shows some of his work.

http://www.entertainmentgalleries.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?page=1

My question relates to why his 8x10 negs, were scanned, retouched, then re-photographed on 4x5, before silver gelatin prints where then produced for sale.

Is this a common commercial practice ?

Would he have been better off shooting a 4x5 neg in the first place ??

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's not such an unusual practice to make master prints with burning, dodging, retouching and other hand work, then dupe them to make negatives that can be printed straight by a lab or an assistant. Ansel Adams used to do this to make high-quality, low-cost prints available for those who couldn't afford the ones he printed himself.