OT: Wet darkroom prints from a digital file (San Miguel Lab)

[adnan]

Anyone tried out their services for B&W prints? The method sounds

really interesting. From what I gathered from their website, it looks

like they exchange the film carrier on an enlarger with a clear LCD

panel that acts as the negative (and light can be shined through it).

<p>

Can anyone tell from experience if the results are indistinguishable

from conventional wetroom prints?

 

<p>

From their website:

<i>"We hand-print digital b&w prints directly from digital files using

the DeVere Digital Enlarger. No inkjet, no interneg. Your files are

printed directly onto the same silver-rich traditional photo papers

that we use for making prints from negatives. This means you get the

same fantastic print quality you were accustomed to getting from

negatives before you went digital. Crisp clean whites, velvety grays,

and deep rich blacks. No gray on gray..."

<p>

"Three: Yes. We use real photo paper. It is not inkjet paper, or

any kind of special paper. We are printing digital files

directly onto real honest-to-gosh silver gelatin fibre base & RC

photo papers. In fact, we didn?t even have to buy any more

paper when we installed the digital enlarger. We just started

using the same paper we?ve been using all along. After

fibre prints leave the enlarger base board they are still

hand-processed in trays.

<p>

And... Four: No, we?re not kidding. This is the answer to your

prayers."<p></i>

 

<a href="http://www.bestlab.com/sanmig14.html"> website </a><p>

[saotome_genma]

Sounds interesting.

[dan d. chang]

I scan the b/w film to digital file and upload to Adorama's website. The print looks fine.

[streetlevel]

Sounds good, but so much depends on the resolution of that small LCD panel...I don't know how good that would be at larger enlargement sizes.

 

Is there anyone here who's used the service?

[kajabbi]

I have used San Miguel for many years and as recently as last week. Their service is outstanding. many years ago I made Exhibition prints in the darkroom so my standards are very high. Their final prints make mine look very amatuerish.

I highly recommend any of their work.

Besure to download the best scan you can make and include a digital print showing what you want their "wet" print to look like.

[abufletcher]

A great many fine art photographers are now turning to "digital enlargers"

which project a digital image onto traditional photographic paper that is then

souped in chemical "just like mom used to make."

 

Fine art landscape photographer, Galen Rowell (before his untimely death)

switched to digital enlargers because they allowed him to fine tune his prints,

the way all master printers fine-tune their prints, and then make as many

prints from this digital master as desired and each would be the same. His

huge prints are now selling for several thousand dollars so he must have

been doing something right.

 

I've used the online service PhotoAccess for prints and this is the process they

use. These prints blow away the shabby results of even a top of the line inkjet

printer -- and good luck getting anything this nice even from a custom lab

without a lot of back and forth. And at around $3 for an 8 x 10 (and you can

print full-frame if you wish) mailed to your doorstep in about 3-5 days, I doubt

if I'll ever have a print made in any other way.

 

I haven't tried them for B/W but I would imagine it would work just the same.

They were just print as if it were a color image. You might also want to

explore the duotone options in PS to get even richer blacks. Ansel Adams

has said that duotone printing (for books) was the only way to approximate

the tonality of a fine print in published form.

[doug herr]

See <A

HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id

=0071Hf" target="blank">this thread.</A> I'm still very happy with

San Miguel's service.

[adnan]

Thanks guys, I'm going to send some files out later this week to them. They're going to be off a 10D (I imagine files from a digital camera are the main intent for this process?), and I'll report back.

[jorge]

For what it's worth; some months ago I started making digital negatives for contact printing using Dan Burkholder's methods. First I got his book and got into a quagmire, then some weeks later I noticed on his website a downloadable automated workflow that along with the proper materials (Pictorico film) allowed me to make excellent negatives from finished digital files on the first try.

 

While so far I've only used this method to create silver/fiver portfolios along the lines of the ones sold by the LensWork magazine, I've found this quite useful for handling digital negatives that used to require complex printing maps using the traditional enlarger projection method. Now I can tweak a negative scan to my heart's content and then do an adjusted digital negative for contact printing as many times as I want. No longer the dreary one-and-a-half hour per copy workflow.

 

To this moment, my only gripe with this method is the cost of materials and the ultra-careful handling required of the negs.

[jorge]

>> silver/fiver <<

 

Oops! meant siver/fiber of course. Running a bad flu.

[doug herr]

Adnan Abbas wrote:<I>"I imagine files from a digital camera are

the main intent for this process?"</I><P>

Not for me. There are many advantages to working with a scan

of a silver negative.

[l.dwight_horricks]

The Devere 504DS or at least the technology behind it looks to be way of the future...I spoke today with the head office of Devere in the UK and there are now two projection units abailable...they now have an LED version which is more compact. They also hinted that in the not so distant future they would be making the digital projection units and everything that goes along with them (pentium processor and all the elctronics) to be sold on their own for retrofitting with a variety of modern enlargers on the market. The digital unit itself is made by a company in Germany and I cant help but think that it wont be too long before most major enlarger manufacturers are making these units to be swapped in and out just like enlarging heads are now. I am sure that eventually they will even be reasonably affordable...at 25,000 Euro, however, the 504DS is still a bit steep for the average person I would say. I am going to the UK next month to have a go with one of the enlargers and see for myself what they are all about...I am seriously considering purchasing one...the perfect Hybrid solution for being shoot on film or digital > work in photoshop > and then work with traditional silverprint techniques, on the papers we all love to work with...and I am convinced I can pay for it in custom printing work (here in Prague) within six months.

 

I also have to wonder about the overall future of inkjet printing and systems like Jon Cone's piezography...when digital enlarging technology becomes common in every custom and even mini-lab...and they become affordable enough for individuals...who is going to want an inkjet print when they can have a silverprint.

 

I'll report back when I return from the UK...

[adnan]

Just an update. Sent an unedited jpeg file shot at ISO400 on my Canon 10D to them. Specified fibre paper, selenium toned, and matting. Results? Wow. I'll be very proud to give this print to the people I'd shot it for.