Carl Weese (cjweese@wtco.net)
Wed, 20 Jan 1999 16:18:11 -0500
Judy,
While technical details like focus are easy to determine from the
negative (better than from the proof in fact) I don't find I can "see"
the picture in a negative, not reliably anyhow. I've frequently been
sure that negative A was a superior picture to negative B only to find
the exact opposite when actual positive proofs are made. Working in
small format I'd usually go through two steps: a proof sheet from which
I would pick promising pictures and make 5x7 or 8x10 workprints at a
rate of about 30 per hour and then study those to see which pictures
were worth final printing. Don't have to do that with big negs, of
course.
Your tip that VDB matches the platinum contrast range is very
interesting. I haven't tried VDB but using it for proofs is a promising
thought.
As for "proofing" for gum, I'd suspect that PhotoShop in skilled hands
could offer a vicarious exploration of the picture, as long as you're
familiar enough with gum printing to know what to allow PShop to do and
keep it in the range of possibility for the target medium. But then
you'd run the risk of falling in love with exactly what you got in
PhotoShop, and then you'd have to have an Iris print made...
---Carl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:43