At Hands-On Pictures we have recently taken pyro developed and other fine
large format negs accommodating very wide brightness ranges, scanned them,
and after adjustment in Photoshop for printing with standard Epson and H P
printers; the end results have been better than could have been obtained
with silver gelatine. In some cases the results could not have been
achieved using chemical means.
The prints wsere made onto unsized Fabriano 5 Liscia. I suppose it is the
combination of ink and paper that gives the prints, up to three feet
square, the look of a very fine Victorian photogravure. The photographs
were on display last week at Focus on imaging at the National Exhibition
Centre. Professional and academic opinion was that the quality of the
images was at least comparable with platinum. If anyone does not believe
this or would like to learn how it was done, we are running weekend
workshops next week and in June with seven subsequent Wednesday evenings..
If there is demand we will run week long workshops.
As to negs with bubble jets, why bother with the acetate as the prepapred
paper negs work perfectly well ? We will be incorporating this approach
into our platinum gum and other workshops .
Terry King.