RE: new alt process--gelatin silver

Dan, you mention the Epson Picturemate and I can use advice: The Picturemate
takes only JPEGs. I shoot in RAW and the Picturemate is great for those 4x6
JPEGs of neighbors and office parties, etc, that don't warrant more than a
snapshot, on the same card with images that I will want to retain. Any ideas
for easily converting the RAWs to JPEG for the Picturemate and still keep
the RAWS? Joachim

-----Original Message-----
From: FDanB@aol.com [mailto:FDanB@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 5:14 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: new alt process--gelatin silver

>The problem with digital anything is it does not really exist. It is a
>series of bits and bytes; ones and zeros, existing only as data that is
>subject to problems; now, or down the road. Or possibly never, fat chance.
>I am certain that more than a few people have lost years of work due to a
>computer problem.

The problem with anything non-digital is that it exists. More than a few
people have lost their negatives (how many people duplicate negs and
store them in different locations) to fire, water damage, fungus, pests,
etc.

> Magnets do not affect my slides and negatives. I have plenty of
>Kodachrome slides processed by Technicolor. Many have turned funky colors
>and faded. I can recover the original glory if I want to spend time and
>effort. If a digital file fails, there is no guarantee I will be able to
>recover the files.

Water and dirt and many other environmental influences do not affect
digital data. The digital camera chip that survived the Tsunami testifies
to that. The camera did not survive, but how many film cameras would have
had recoverable images after weeks of submersion? Like everything else in
life, there are plusses and minuses to both digital and silver-based
media.

>Digital has advantages. but in my view, one should never depend on digital
>files for LT storage of our history.

I agree...some. One should never depend ONLY on digital storage if
possible. On the other hand, if you have color negs or prints, better get
them scanned before they fade irretrievably. Lord knows only a bit of the
world in the past 40 years has been recorded on tried and true black and
white silver negs.

>What concerns me is the use of truly cheap digital media. Many people use
>those 5,000 for a buck forty nine CDs, and in my opinion, this is a big
>mistake.

Agree. This is an area in which education is needed. Hard drive redundant
storage is so cheap now (under $0.30 per Gigabite of space) that it's a
good way to go, especially if you're producing monster amounts of data to
store. It's fast and easy to duplicate. And of course, as media standards
change, yes, we have to be aware of migration issues. Nobody is saying
digital is without its problems, just that it's worth the hassle. ;^)

Lewis Kemper made a really good point about how digital imaging
represents the end of the "shoe box." He was referring to the box of old
prints of family events and family members. His point is a good one.
Sure, we are making more images than ever but who knows if our
descendents will a) be able to read the media and, b) care enough to
bother. Prints are so much more approachable because we all have the
operating system down pat: pick up the print and look at it!

I think having a simple, one-trick pony like the Epson PictureMate is a
good idea because no computer is needed to make handsome 4x6 prints from
digital files. And, the prints will last 2-3 times longer than any lousy
photo lab color print. Now there's something to put in that shoe box!

Dan

www.danburkholder.com
www.TinyTutorials.com
Received on Fri Apr 8 20:39:58 2005