Pros and Cons of Optical vs Digital Printing

[wiltw]

It's very debatable if the Costco prints will have better permanence than a modern inkjet. In fact, they likely won't. Firstly, minilab as you'd find (*I imagine) in a Costco store has no wash bath to speak of, which means the prints are quite prone to yellowing with age as a result of incomplete removal of blix. Moreover, since they're rapid access machines, the blix process may not be complete to begin with and residual silver levels can be quite high, resulting in darkening of the whites over time.

And then we're not even starting on the question whether modern inkjet pigments (lakes) in a modern inkjet application (i.e. microporous RC paper) are more or less prone to fading and/or shifting than the dyes in RA4. This is virtually uncharted terrain and there's really no way of telling, other than that we know that chromogenic prints do fade, especially when subjected to UV light and free radicals (ozone). We can expect pigment inkjet will do the same thing, but we don't know at what rate.

Then there's the business of unused dye couplers remaining present in an RA4 print and over time they will turn to a colored state, resulting in further toning and shifting of the whites. Inkjet of course does not have an equivalent to this, but may or may not have other issues, for instance due to aging of the microporous RC coating (although I'd expect this to be fairly inert) or yellowing of a topcoat layer in case this is applied.

All considered it's an insanely complex issue and I wouldn't even think of making a statement along the lines of RA4 prints being of better permanence than modern inkjets. We just don't know.
One thing we do know is that dye-based inkjets are iffy business in terms of permanence, but nobody in their right mind who is concerned with image permanence would opt for dye-based inkjets.

Valid uncertainties expressed. And in this day and age, with the disappearance of film shooters and the decline in the numbers of quality processing labs with excellent process controls, the uncertainties are not lessened.

 

[MattKing]

FWIW, when Costco was doing RA-4 prints around here, their printing equipment appeared to be more like the equipment I used to see in small to medium size labs than minilabs.
They did not offer film development.

 

[DREW WILEY]

You get what you pay for. Costco no longer offers snapshots from film in our area, and when they did, they were just marginally better than what drugstore minilabs provided. But they handled much higher volume, of course.

Wilt - As you probably already know, in the Bay Area there are still a number of serious labs with excellent process control. But since I do all my own printing, I only use them for C41 and E6 film processing.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You get what you pay for. Costco no longer offers snapshots from film in our area, and when they did, they were just marginally better than what drugstore minilabs provided. But they handled much higher volume, of course.

Wilt - in the Bay Area there are still a number of serious labs with excellent process control.

The Hollywood section of Los Angeles still have a number of high quality professional labs about. When I need a large print, I will often go to one of those custom labs to get the print made. It is import to keep those places working.

 

[MattKing]

You get what you pay for. Costco no longer offers snapshots from film in our area, and when they did, they were just marginally better than what drugstore minilabs provided. But they handled much higher volume, of course

I used to get reasonably priced 11"x14" and 12"x16" RA-4 enlargements from digital files from them. Their printers were calibrated and (publicly) profiled, and you could use those profiles in a colour managed workspace, so they were exceptionally good value.
You were even able to take advantage of that with the small prints - great for Christmas cards .
I wish they were still offering their service.

 

[Carnie Bob]

I go through this all the time with my custom shop. I do both enlarger and digital inkjet and digital inkjet neg to contact print. We have prices for all
and a lot of time the decision is based on the clients budget and as well their skill level with original capture on film . ( I assume we are talking film source)

Enlarger- Silverprint

I charge more for enlarger base prints , based on some simple facts that are relevant in my life. 1 - am getting older and to do excellent exhibition prints in
my darkroom I have to stand all day long, cleaning the negative , preparing the enlarger for the type of negative aspect ratio, mixing the chemicals and then doing
the test prints and finals. In a given day I feel I can do a range of prints at 12 x 18 inch size of about 6 negatives, this includes all the steps involved.
2- At this point clients want me to do the printing as I have a lifetime of enlarger experience and to train someone to do this would take about 6 years where I would feel confident in their ability to print
for my client base.
3. The state of the originals is another factor, if the work is all over the place in exposure and development and mixed formats we are cautious with are approach
4. The age of the original negatives, it is common now for us to be working on negatives that are over 50 years old each week and must be concerned about this fact.

Digital - Inkjet

Today many of my client are well versed in PS and can bring an image to me dodged and burned the way they want with minor work by me to prepare the digital file.
If its an inkjet print , I must make sure of a nozzle check and I send to the printer via PS or Quadtone rip a good profile , bit size and then press the button and I can sit down and watch the printer or go do something else like walk the dog.


Digital neg - Silver print

Minor prep work is done which takes minutes and a neg is produced on the same printer , just with different profiles.
The negative is then consistent to the last settings and my assistant exposes the print by contact on the enlarger and she then
does all the process steps while I sit on my fat ass and have a tea or scroll the internet.
When she is ready in wash after the development she calls me and I get off my fat ass and walk 20 ft and look at the print and give her
instructions on what to do next and we continue on all day. We are able to do easily 8-15 12 x 18 range of prints a day.


I like doing all three methods of working and we price accordingly to what we can accomplish. It is very rare that we find any photographer who can tell
the method that we worked , the systems are so well blended these days.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I understand that. It's been a long time since I accepted other people's negatives or chromes to print; but they insisted on me doing it, even though I charged hundreds of dollars per print. Working with damaged antique negs or prints needing salvage duplication could involve several days back then, prior to digital restoration options. Still, a handmade print has its special look, worthy of a nice custom made frame, which I also made myself and charged a premium for. It was all fun, but quite time consuming.

For personal work, it's typically just six prints per daily darkroom session for black and white images. Big color prints, only one or two per day - I strictly limit my exposure to RA4 chem.

"Pushbutton" printing doesn't interest me at all. I prefer being on my feet in a quiet calm darkroom.