How to learn lambda printing/museum quality digital prints

[gerald_lastarza]

I'm blown away by the quality of Lambda C-Prints being made by places like Laumont in

NYC. How does one learn this kind of digital printing and what kinds of software, aside

from photoshop, do these places use? Are there any books or magazines to study? I was

actually thinking of trying to work for free for a service bureau on the weekend that does

this kind of printing just to learn what's out there. Any other ideas?

[scott_eaton]

Lambda/LightJet printing is no different than printing a digital file to an ink-jet printer. The Lambda/LightJet type printers simply write to photographic paper via lasers vs spit ink on paper. The quality of your final print is mostly determined by the quality of your source file.

 

In other respects, I've yet to see a difference in an 8x12 produced from a Fuji Frontier or LightJet/Lambda, except the former is usually a lot cheaper.

 

Producing a good digital file is the key for producing a good digital print, this can either be from direct digital capture or a film scan. When done properly, you'll never be able to distinguish a LightJet/Lambda print from an optical print.

[hique]

I guess there isn't much to learn about it. You only have to learn how to operate the machine, but if you won't be working in a lab you just should send them the file.

 

You need to learn about color and proofing if you want to be able to predict the output.

[mangydog]

What about the other variables in the chain, like the skill of the Fuji Frontier operator?

[emre]

Just get a new inkjet, like a Canon i9900, and be envious no more.

[scott_eaton]

The Frontier operator has little bearing on the equation if you are submitting files.

 

I'll stick to the LightJet/Frontier/Lambda over glossy ink-jet, thank you.

[hique]

"Just get a new inkjet"

 

I guess inkjets just don't have photographic quality, because of the technology used. It may even seem really good and close to a photographic-process print, but it simply isn't.

 

I also stick with Frontier/Lambda

 

About the skill of the operator of the printer, I guess lambda's print usually don't suffer correction but Frontier print's often do (at least at the lab I work for).

 

We have a master operator in our Frontier. A really big source of knowledge about darkroom, color and quality. The good operator makes the difference in any minilab. I guess not with lambdas, though.

[4marty]

Sorry. I'm a little late in responding.

 

From my experience (and from what I've researched), Lightjet printing is of much higher quality than any injet system could ever be.

 

"Since the LightJet is a continuous-tone photographic printer there is no dot pattern. Inkjet printers are never free of dots, no matter how high the resolution." Proulx Brothers www.proulx.ca

 

I've had prints made from a lightjet process and they are incredible.