8x10 negs

[efikim]

Except I think there aren't just two mediums. I'm pretty sure that the fine art print collectors distinguish between platinum, gum, cyanotype, kallitype, and silver gelatiin.

 

[Jorge]

Yeah, I don't understand that either. If I wasn't proud of my medium, I'd choose another. I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but it seems like some of the digital photographers I know find traditional darkroom work too difficult and esoteric to learn, despite it's superior results, and pin their hopes on the evolution of the digital media. That would account for some of the envy, frustration and coopting of traditional nomenclature by some digital photographers. I know others who work in both media, and they use each selectively for good reasons. I don't let it bother me too much unless someone confronts me directly and tries to sell me their process, reasoning that mine is destined for extinction. I don't think that's the case, and I can make a pretty good argument to support my medium, if they're willing to listen.

One of the arguments that I hear and read from people doing digital output is that they have much more control over the image, yet when you ask them how much time they spent calibrating their paper to their film as they do with their printers and monitors, 99 out of 100 never did it. Is it any wonder that digital "appears" to give greater control?

Those of us who have chosen alt methods have learned to do this to save money, others, like Michael A Smith have done this intuitively, mostly I have found that those who are successfully in making wonderful images are so because they have learned to calibrate their materials and they know how they behave. Since digital requires and forces the user to calibrate before they even make their first print, I am not surprised they think they have greater control than in the darkroom.

 

[Jorge]

Is it a narrow margin of error, or just sloppy work and working on the computer to fix all the problems? I can see where aesthetic desicions might require serious manipulations, but it seems to me a lot of this people spend a lot of time making masks, etc to correct sloppy work when taking the picture or developing the film. I guess the greater "control" means " I can fix my mistakes faster"..no?