Paper specifications can only take you so far, and, realistically, the vast range of inkjet papers currently available is beyond anyone’s ability to thoroughly test. With that in mind, PHOTO Techniques asked some of our regular contributors what their favorite inkjet papers are. The answers, not surprisingly, depend largely on their needs and tastes. Michael Reichmann Ilford Galerie Gold Fiber Silk (GFS) is part of a new generation of papers that are made of real paper rather than plas- tic (see “Second-Generation Papers,” on page 30), but which allow the use of photo-black ink. Ilford GFS has become my current Read more »
Good news for photographers who want to make inkjet prints on high-quality papers
written by: Uwe & Bettina SteinmuellerThe future is looking great for inkjet printing—and the present is quite strong too—as new fiber-based inkjet papers continue to appear regularly. It wasn’t always this way. Until about 2005, inkjet printers had two main categories of photographic fine-art papers to choose from: satin, luster, or semigloss resin-coated (RC) papers; and matte cotton or wood- fiber-based fine-art papers. Both had advantages and disadvantages. RC papers RC papers (I’m excluding the ultra- glossy papers here because they are rarely used for fine-art prints) have a good densest black (Dmax) of 2.2 or higher on current pigment-based print- ers by Canon, Epson, and Read more »
A digitally produced negative can mean better, easier darkroom prints
written by: Dan BurkholderRecently I was invited to address a regional photographic organization on the hows and whys of digital negatives. One participant—a film-based photographer who didn’t use Photoshop—was puzzled as to why you’d want to make another negative if you already had one from the camera in the first place. I fumbled through multiple attempts at explaining how I’d exploited digitally produced negatives for the past 16 years, using them to print on materials ranging from silver gelatin to cyanotype to platinum/palladium. I could see that I wasn’t getting through to this fellow for whom photography and computer had nothing in common. After Read more »
A Shortcut to Better Digital Prints
written by: Dick Dickerson & Silvia ZawadzkiIn the July/August 2009 issue of PT, we discussed the Ideal Tone- Reproduction Curve, a product of research conducted more than a half century ago that identif ies, for a scene element of any luminance value, the shade of gray (ref lection density) at which it is “best” reproduced in a black-and-white print. We also raised the question of how readily this ideal tone-curve is achieved in a purely digital workf low—the subject of the present article. With the magic of Photoshop, any kind of tone reproduction can, of course, be realized with exacting precision. But what is inherent to digital Read more »
written by: Dan BurkholderI’m not sure who said it first, but the advice, “When you think you’ve found the best shot, turn around and look behind you” was the wise counsel that left me with a keeper during an early morning shoot in the Catskills. I’d stopped to photograph a waterfall from a stone bridge when a cloud blew in silently but with amazing swiftness. Suddenly, the friendly upstate New York mountains felt more like a spooky English moor. The mist was so thick that the waterfall below the bridge utterly disappeared in the haze. Thinking that the best shooting for this location was Read more »
written by: Paul SchranzI just took my first trip to Point Lobos on California’s west coast since I transitioned to digital several years ago. Before that I had always shot with a medium- or large-format camera. With digital tools at my disposal, I decided to produce a photograph using the extended depth-of-field capability of Photoshop CS4. I selected a relatively small image, with sufficient distance between the rocks in the foreground and the wet glossy plateau on the rock at the back of the image. I made three exposures, each focused differently, and imported the resulting images into Lightroom, which I use as my initial Read more »
written by: Uwe & Bettina SteinmuellerLenses are not ideal. Most of us have ended up with images in which the corners of the frame look too soft. This is not important for all pictures, but matters when the main subject covers the full frame and focus falloff is obvious. In such cases, post-capture fixes present an opportunity to save the picture. Of course using more appropriate lenses in the first place is the best solution, but it’s too late once you have taken the photo and cannot go back. I’ll show my technique for improving a photo with lens falloff in the context of a full Read more »
