Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm sure there's a joke here about photos waiting for restoration
being in some kind of quantum state, but it's just not coming...

Anyway, I'm curious about what you do recommend for darkroom output --
is there, for one thing, any digital black and white output you do
like?
  

    

After you answer (davadam) I have a question for you, Ctein:

What's next? Any new writing projects in the works? Any fascinating
assignments you're looking forward to tackling? Any new subjects you've
always wanted to explore that you're finally making time to delve into?
  

    

Oh, and also, I want to thank you for joining us these past two weeks! It's
been a treat to have you here, Ctein. Though our virtual spotlight has
turned to a new guest author, this topic will remain open for additional
questions and responses indefinitely. If you're able to stick around, please
feel free.
  

    
yes, thanks. this particular discussion topic got a bit too technical for
me, but the book is not and i really look forward to having some time to
play around with what i'm learning reading it!
  

    
(replying to <51>) 

Well, it kind of depends on how much money you're willing to spend and
how big prints you want to make.  Frankly, one of the very best B&W
printers I've seen if you want prints that look like a genuine darkroom
photographs is the HP Designjet 130. Is more expensive than your
typical home printer, running $1,300-$1,800, depending on whether you
buy the whitewall tires and the air conditioning, but it prints up to
24 in. wide, which makes it incredibly cheap compared to anything of
comparable size.  It's relatively compact for a 24 in. wide printer; it
will fit on a large desktop.  Its B&W prints really do look like
darkroom prints; HP long ago mastered the art of printing on semi gloss
and glossy  papers without getting annoying gloss and reflection
artifacts.  That's something Epson still has problems with.  

If you're more interested in matte-surface prints, I think very highly
of the Epson Stylus R 2400.  It does really nice looking B&W matte
prints, and it's got some extremely elegant controls for altering the
exact tone (hue) of the prints.  


                                 pax / Ctein 
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] 
  

    
(replying to <52>) 

I've been contemplating doing a book for O'Reilly and Associates on
the art (as opposed to the craft) of doing really fine quality digital
printing.  This would be a much more compact book than the one on
Digital Restoration, so I could undertake such a project without making
my head explode.  Problem so far is that I've been too busy to write
up the proposal to send them.  But that's what I would like to be next
on my agenda.  It would be a manageable topic.  Sort of " Ctein's
personal approach to making really good digital prints. " 

New areas of exploration? Well, nothing that is really jelled.  Mostly
what I'm mulling over is what I mentioned previously, about becoming
more interested in digital printing and less in dye transfer printing. 
That might produce some big changes in what I'm doing over the next
year or three, but right now the ideas are only one-quarter baked. 
It's very hard to say where it will lead me.  It's a sufficiently
different direction for my art that I imagine a lot will change, but I
don't really know what that will be like.  


                                 pax / Ctein 
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] 
  

    
(replying to <53>) 

Thanks! I am planning on sticking around indefinitely.  The level of
traffic (a couple of posts a day) is not so high that I can't deal with
it, and I'd be happy to continue to answer people's questions about
doing restorations as long as they want to ask them.  Or, of course, 
any other things they want to ask me about.  It's really
audience-driven.  

As long as people what to make inquiries of me, I will be happy answer
them.  

This is also as good a place as any to stick in a plug. I sell
autographed copies of my books directly. DIGITAL RESTORATION can be
ordered by going to this page: 

http://photo-repair.com/DigiRestBook.htm

 The reason I mention this is basic economics.  If my publisher sells
a copy of my book, I make about 5% on the cover price.  If I sell a
copy of the book myself, I make about 45% of the cover price.  Each
copy of the book that I can sell is worth as much to me as nine copies
the publisher sells.  

Nobody should feel like they're obligated to buy from me to, but I
thought they ought to know why I push my book sales.  


                                 pax / Ctein 
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]] 
  

    
(replying to <54>) 

My apologies for the times when the conversation got too geeky.
Writing for an audience like this, I never know what level to place my
responses on.  Also, I'm trying to be brief (for me!) and that tends to
make the writing denser than usual.  A big reason that DIGITAL
RESTORATION has 30% more words in it than I planned, was to insure its
readability.  I could have edited out enough superfluous wordage to
bring it down to the target word count, but then it would have read
like a graduate level textbook.  

Always, please feel free to ask me to explain something in simpler
terms if what I say isn't being clear.  As a writer and teacher, it's
my responsibility to explain things so that you can understand them. 
If you don't, it's not your fault; it's mine.  


                                 pax / Ctein 
[[ Please excuse any word-salad. ViaVoice in training! ]]