On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:19:49 -0600, David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@xxxxxxxx> wrote/replied to: >> 1. is there a narrower tonal range possible with digital than with film, as >> I have heard from some other photographers; I have done a preliminary test >> which suggests that this is the case. > >No, certainly not. A digital file can drive the printer (often using >conventional photo paper) to the full paper white or maximum black of >the materials. > >> 2. is there poorer tonal gradation with digital than w/ film? again this is >> something I've heard but haven't yet experienced > >I have't felt that way, but I haven't performed any sort of careful >test. I worked with traditionally made Cprints for over 30 years and now getting prints made on a minilab's Fuji Frontier, the Cprints I'm getting equal the best traditional negative prints. What's more though is that this quality is much easier to obtain and consistant. In most cases the digital far surpasses what a negative would have printed. Only under the optimum conditions of lighting and exposure control can a negative come up to this standard. Does it make photography too easy? No, nothing can make it 'too' easy. It frees the photographer up to concentrate on making images instead of twiddling with equipment and hassling with a lab to get the image to print. The Fuji system at the Lab where I go tends to be a tad contrasty and prints overall a bit light in the highlites, but very very good and very close to what the images look like on my monitor. I usually keep the contrast a bit low and make them a tad dark and it works out perfectly. And I don't have any fancy expensive calibrated monitor. Frontier prints using sRGB and Fuji Crystal Archive paper. It's very important though that one tells the printer to make NO AUTO OR MANUAL ADJUSTMENTS when printing. This way, the photographer has complete control over the image. I often crop a small part of the centre of some images and have the lab make 10" by 15" prints. Quality is fantastic. I could never hope to crop and print this size from any negative I've ever seen in 35mm. Notes: Do not resize any image. The Fuji digital printer does a super job of it. Find the right amount of sharpening to apply for the size of print. Include a small amount of bleed on all edges, as a small printer crop is done for borderless prints. Forget inkjet printers. When you add up the cost, real photo prints are a bargain. I use a CF card to take my images to the lab and they have a machine I can plug it into and make up an order myself. It also takes CDs and all kinds of memory cards. Digital rocks! Sorry traditionalists, film is dead. -- Jim Davis, Nature Photography: http://jimdavis.oberro.com/ Motorcycle Relay Kits: http://www.easternbeaver.com/
