I shoot film and my print is digital...'

[DREW WILEY]

Although most mini-labs are switching to high-volume digital snapshot printers, some machines are still in use which use traditional light exposure. It's all highly automated anyway. The most popular film for both types in this area is Fuji Supreme. But it's an entirely different ballgame than making big custom prints using an actual enlarger. Nowadays the time constraints on workflow dictate drum scanning the original and inkjet printing it to larger size, or else using a big laser printer on RA4 Fuji paper, and then processing it just like an enlarger-expose print. I only do true optical enlargments; but I'm not on the clock - I'm my own client, so can take as much time as I want to get the best result.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Although most mini-labs are switching to high-volume digital snapshot printers, some machines are still in use which use traditional light exposure. It's all highly automated anyway. The most popular film for both types in this area is Fuji Supreme. But it's an entirely different ballgame than making big custom prints using an actual enlarger. Nowadays the time constraints on workflow dictate drum scanning the original and inkjet printing it to larger size, or else using a big laser printer on RA4 Fuji paper, and then processing it just like an enlarger-expose print. I only do true optical enlargments; but I'm not on the clock - I'm my own client, so can take as much time as I want to get the best result.

For big color prints I have always had a custom shop do the optical enlargements.

 

[Nikon 2]

For big color prints I have always had a custom shop do the optical enlargements.

You seem to be very serious on attaining the best …!

 

[awty]

The reason for using film is the DIY aspect of making your own pictures by hand, cant see any other reason for using it.

 

[Nikon 2]

This just in…!

 

[RalphLambrecht]

When I send my 35mm film to a lab for processing the end results is a digital image!
What’s wrong with this picture...?

everything. If the file print is the word print, do use film. If however, the final print is a digital print, use a digital camera to start with.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You seem to be very serious on attaining the best …!

For 20"x24" and 24"x36", that is serious.

 

[Sirius Glass]

This just in…!

I have swamp land in Florida to see those that believe that. How does one dodge and burn at one of these high speed production lines.

 

[DREW WILEY]

There nothin' better than real home cookin', the slow way. Going digital, any portion of the workflow, would be a backwards step for me, in terms of final print quality.

I agree with Ralph that if your endpoint is a relatively small digital print, might as well start with digital capture. But as you scale up in size, the typical digital camera just can't keep up with the scale. Even pro so-called MF digital only has lumen capture area less than 645 format.

But Siriusly, Mr. Glass, you never know about those too good to be true land deals. My Grandfather fell for one of those - bought 22 acres in So Cal as an alleged orange grove investment around 1910, without ever seeing the property in person. But absolutely nothing would grow on it - hardly even sagebrush. And when he was dying of TB a few years later, he couldn't afford to pay the modest property taxes on it any longer, and relinquished it to the State. Well, there's a reason nothing would grow on it. The soil was pickled with something. A few years later, around 1918, it got named Signal Hill - where the US Naval oil reserves are! And instead of us becoming the Beverly Hillbillies, we remained just plain hillbillies! - not exactly. But my parents did have to live in a car going between Federal dam projects in the 30's. At least it was steady work.

 

[Sirius Glass]

There nothin' better than real home cookin', the slow way. Going digital, any portion of the workflow, would be a backwards step for me, in terms of final print quality.

I agree with Ralph that if your endpoint is a relatively small digital print, might as well start with digital capture. But as you scale up in size, the typical digital camera just can't keep up with the scale. Even pro so-called MF digital only has lumen capture area less than 645 format.

But Siriusly, Mr. Glass, you never know about those too good to be true land deals. My Grandfather fell for one of those - bought 22 acres in So Cal as an alleged orange grove investment around 1910, without ever seeing the property in person. But absolutely nothing would grow on it - hardly even sagebrush. And when he was dying of TB a few years later, he couldn't afford to pay the modest property taxes on it any longer, and relinquished it to the State. Well, there's a reason nothing would grow on it. The soil was pickled with something. A few years later, around 1918, it got named Signal Hill - where the US Naval oil reserves are! And instead of us becoming the Beverly Hillbillies, we remained just plain hillbillies! - not exactly. But my parents did have to live in a car going between Federal dam projects in the 30's. At least it was steady work.

About 50 years ago, shortly after I moved from the east coast to Los Angeles [It was just after "Easy Rider" had come out.], I was motorcycle riding around the southern Los Angels and into Signal Hill. I saw a bunch of motorcycles on the dirt parking lot of a bar. Not taking the time to look at the other motorcycles with high handle bars, sissy bars and colors. I walked into the bar. [dumbass!] As soon as I entered I knew that I was in trouble. It was filled with a motorcycle gang, and not of the Jay Leno crowd. [Hell's Angels, Mongols, ...?] All the eyes were locked on me. The bartender was in front of two sink tubs full of dark gray water, one with a few soap bubbles on the edges. He was taking several mugs in each hand dunking the mugs once or twice in one sink and then the other. Then he put them on the counter next to the beer taps.

I said, "Gimme a beer."

The bartender growled, "Its 25 cents a beer and a nickel extra for a clean glass."

I said loudly, "Are you gonna gimme a beer or are we gonna fuckin' talk all day?" throwing a quarter down on the counter.

I downed that beer pretty damned quickly and got my ass out of there. I have been more careful since.

 

[MattKing]

I said, "Gimme a beer."

The bartender growled, "Its 25 cents a beer and a nickel extra for a clean glass."

I said loudly, "Are you gonna gimme a beer or are we gonna fuckin' talk all day?" throwing a quarter down on the counter.

I downed that beer pretty damned quickly and got my ass out of there. I have been more careful since.

Did he look up at you and ask:
"You remind me of Sirius Glass on Photrio - is that you?"

 

[DREW WILEY]

Ha! Sirius - the Hell's Angels used to ride right past our place every 4th of July weekend doing all kinds of stunts on a short straight stretch - standing up on their seats 70mph, handstands on their handlebars, wheelies of course, no helmets then - until one of them skidded and broke his neck on a barbed wire fence post. That stopped that for good. And back then they had a deserved reputation for raping girls around the lakefront resort, so some of the locals posted signs that if they left the campground, they'd be shot on sight, and meant it. Then they had a falling out with the local Indians when they decided to become a white only biker club. Several of them got knifed to death in the local Indian bar, and another was burned out of his cabin and killed. So they stopped coming around altogether. Later, the son of the bar owner would hang out in our yard on the other side of the River. Nobody in that family would even enter their own bar during business hours - too dangerous.

That's was also the time of the Mongols splitting off from them and the long war between the two gangs. The funeral of one of the original Hells Angels founders, killed in that bar melee with the Mongols in Winnemucca Nevada, involved hundreds of them going down the freeway here, then across the Bridge to the Colma Cemetery. I was one of the commuters who had to work my way through that. Plenty of motorcycle cops too, watching their every move and on the lookout for Mongols. Now the Mongol logo is officially banned in most Western States; and the Hells Angels have had to hire PR lawyers in order to become a legitimate proper meth cartel. They've expanded internationally in that role, and largely control the central Calif. meth trade. But hey, they also do Christmas toy drives for needy kids ...

Nobody was allowed to chop a Harley when the Hells Angels were around or they'd go after them. One could ride a dressed Harley; or the high school kids would chop Triumph motorcycles instead. I once had a Hells Angel living across the street in this area. He was accountant by day and a thug just on weekends. Nice yard with flower boxes, mowed lawn, nice wife. The big pseudo-thug Harley rallies over in Bridgeport on 395 each summer forbid any actual Hells Angels or Mongols from attending - only the make-believe kind. The town cops hand out plenty of citations for boob exposure or guys urinating on the side of the road; but all the fees go to the local school. They typically get there over Sonora Pass - a darn cold ride late in the evening.

Can't comment much on Easy Rider with Peter Fonda. There is just so much in that classic movie that could have hypothetically been true. I've met a number of exactly those types, during that era, bragging about their dope smuggling tactics from Mexico; and some of them met a similar fate in an unwelcoming rural area, or due to some shady Sheriff who didn't appreciate the competition.
If people knew what really went on in some of those small "Boss Hogg" towns .... One had its own mountain airstrips specifically for the Sheriff's dope flights (he's now deceased).

And I still have earlier childhood memories of motorcyle gangs riding Indian cycles, with them all lined up in a row outside seedy bars, ala The Wild One with Marlon Brando, based on a true event in Earlimart in the San Joaquin Valley. I forget who took the shots of that which made their way into life magazine and inspired the movie itself. I still have a small burn scar on my leg from a tipped over Mustang cycle, a sort of low-slung chug-chug version of the single-cylinder Indian, when it slipped crossing a creek.

 

[mtjade2007]

I develop my own films, scan with a Minolta film scanner then print with a Canon Pro-9000 or Canon Pro-100 inkjet printer. I tried wet print long time ago and realized I wasn't good in having to get my hands wet to get the print (actually I was very poor in doing it that way). I even invested in color analyzers (many of them) and a RCP-20 in addition to a decent enlarger with a color head. I am pretty happy with my inkjet prints now. The two Canon inkjet printers were cheap to begin with. I learned to refill the ink cartridges with inks made in America. Can't be happier ever.

 

[Nikon 2]

Does anyone understand the last sentence, “The image was later converted back to film”…?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Does anyone understand the last sentence, “The image was later converted back to film”…?

They photographed the digital print, then used that film to produce the printing plates, lithograph? etched? ...

 

[faberryman]

Film recorder.

 

[Nikon 2]

They photographed the digital print, then used that film to produce the printing plates, lithograph? etched? ...

Makes sense…!

 

[koraks]

Film recorder.

Bingo.
There's a thread on this forum about the ProPalette, which is one of those machines, and some people are still trying to get mileage from them. Many types were around; I think most used CRT's to expose the film.

Btw, note that the photographer mentions 'pigments' in color film; I wouldn't take the technical side of their comments too seriously.

 

[faberryman]

Btw, note that the photographer mentions 'pigments' in color film; I wouldn't take the technical side of their comments too seriously.

Note also the reference to a Macintosh computer. That name was retired in 1999 and replaced with Mac. That also was around the time Nikon introduced the Coolscan, which was referenced in the quote. So the quote would appear to be from about 20 years ago. Maybe Nikon 2 can tell us where he found the quote and the name of the photographer.

 

[Nikon 2]

Note also the reference to a Macintosh computer. That name was retired in 1999 and replaced with Mac. That also was around the time Nikon introduced the Coolscan, which was referenced in the quote. So the quote would appear to be from about 20 years ago. Maybe Nikon 2 can tell us where he found the quote and the name of the photographer.

Yes, it’s an old quote...!

 

[koraks]

Yes, it’s an old quote...!

Yeah, I guess we figure that one out. In the past 15 years nobody in serious pre-press would have followed that particular approach. The combination of techniques puts it quite firmly within one particular decade, and not even all of that. 2004-ish, I'd say, +/- 3 years at most.

 

[faberryman]

I was thinking that in the interests of transparency, we need to develop a SPARS code for photographic prints. A photograph that is from a film negative, not modified or modified using traditional darkroom techniques, and wet printed would be designated AAA. A photograph that is from a film negative, scanned (or scanned and edited in Photoshop), and printed as a C-print with a Noritsu or equivalent machine would be designated ADA. A photograph that is from a film negative, scanned (or scanned and edited in Photoshop), and printed as a inkjet print would be ADD. A photography that is from a digital camera, unedited or edited in Photoshop, and is printed as a inkjet print would be ADD. Those descriptions and designations may require some refinement. For example, you could have a DAA or a DAD if you used a film recorder to transfer a digital image to film.

 

[koraks]

I like that thought. It would enable me to cull my non-existent collection of photography to include only AAA works.

 

[faberryman]

I like that thought. It would enable me to cull my non-existent collection of photography to include only AAA works.

Non-existent collection of photography? Surely you have more than one photograph.

 

[koraks]

Well, not every chaotic pile is a collection, in my view.