How many prints can you make in a day using digital printing technologies? Now consider: how many GREAT prints can you make during that same time? Hybrid Artist Stephen Schaub discusses the pros and cons of printing fast vs slow and provides useful information on how to achieve optimum results with your printing platform.
Author: EveNSteve
What Makes A Good Printer Profile
What is a printer profile? What is a good profile? Why do you care? This dynamic audioblog by Hybrid Artist Stephen Schaub gives a good foundation for the understanding of digital printing technology. Discussion includes gamut compression, profile neutrality, tonality and a description of different types of profiles and PSR (Print Surface Resolution).
Camera Arts Christmas Wish List 2007!
Tis the season for surprises…The Figital Revolution Book has made the Camera Arts Christmas Wish List for 2007 (who knew they loved us so!)
Which is Harder…Digital or Traditional?
Yes, this is quite the stupid debate but it seems to be raging as strong as yesterday’s argument about which was sharper or more archival, digital or traditional. So buckle your seat belt and prepare to have your opinions challenged as I give you the correct answer…consider it my gift for the holiday season!
Scanner Resolution and Real World Numbers
Master Printer and Hybrid Artist Stephen Schaub explores many of the myths surrounding scanning film, both negatives and transparencies. How much resolution is really necessary? Oil vs dry mounts scans? 8bit vs 16bit and more. This informative audioblog provides a great general understanding regarding the process of scanning and it also provides tips and starting points for making YOUR best scan.
Print Surface Resolution…A Proposal by Stephen Schaub
Ever wonder how much resolution (dpi) is possible on a print? Not printer resolution, but rather Paper or Print Surface Resolution. This audio blog lays out a proposal by Hybrid Artist Stephen Schaub on a new approach for determining just how good your prints can be on a specific paper.
Plastic People
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Stan Lee, From the first issue of Spider Man
These words should be branded on photographers world-wide.
Why do I say this?
I just received the current issue of “Professional Photographer Magazine” today (I’m not quite sure why I receive this magazine) and noticed that almost all the images of people in the magazine- articles and ads alike- were not… real. These poor folks had been retouched out of existence…morphing into Zappa-esque “Plastic People”. I had to do a double take on more than a few of them to check to see if they really were photography, rather than CGI (computer generated imagery) …and the scary thing about that is that on more than one I’m still not really sure.
But we’d be lucky if this phenomenon were limited to the pages of one crappy industry rag. Just go to your local bookstore and check out the magazine stand and you’ll see the magnitude of this travesty…WARNING: it is so scary that I would only recommend it to photographers over 18 years in age due to the shocking and graphic nature of the visual insanity. How could we as photographers have forgotten that it is the human element in an image that counts and that the quest for the perfect print/ perfect model/ perfect everything is doomed to perfect failure? That the quest for Perfection in the wrong hands can kill a photograph? A true master photographer knows to when to stop. You the photographer with a click of your mouse and perhaps the wave of your wand have the full capacity to squeeze every bit of life and passion out of even the most amazing image…so just don’t do it. Yes your computer is amazing and yes your skills at Photoshop are fantastic but don’t feel like you need to use all of them at once on every single image…for the love of god, man, step away from the computer!
So where do we go from here? I for one am taping the quote from Stan Lee to my desktop and the next time I am tempted to remove just one more wrinkle I will read the quote and recall with a shudder the insanity epitomized by “Professional Photographer Magazine.”
The Tipping Point
Sitting in my studio with my Mentor Student Bill during our regular weekly class we decided to work on a new image Bill had made this last week. The image as described by Bill was not a “great image” but it had elements that he wanted to work with and explore. Cul.
I always give the advice that if you only work with your best images you are really missing the learning opportunity that other works you make offer. Working with images that are not quite 100% for one reason or another really releases the creative juices and allows you to take chances you would not with your precious perfect images.
The tipping point in this image was the initial crop. The monument was not the subject of the scene, in fact it hurt the image as it separated the scene into two distinct parts…the snow and color on the mountain was the subject and something which could be explored. Bill confessed to me after an hour of water boarding and general CIA approved questioning techniques that his initial instinct was to just shoot the mountain with the snow and color but he decided that the Monument would maybe make it better…(Bill will be forgiven for this lack of self confidence after he has read the Figital Revolution Manifesto 20 times as a penance.) So, after an hour of editing and working with color and local contrast the final image conveys the energy Bill was looking for in the first place.
What does this mean?…don’t discard an image too fast….the process of making an image can be very rewarding in itself and it is a great learning tool with regards to understanding your work and developing style.
Now go dig out those dusty negatives and digital files and get to work!
My thanks to Bill for help with this post…to view more of his works please visit: billguild.com
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah!
Have you ever logged on to a photo web site and heard photographers argue about the merits of one film over another? This 100 speed vs that 100 speed. XP2 Super vs REAL black and white films. What a bunch of #$@$%!
One of my favorite arguments I recently came across online was one in which a handful of “photographers” (they sounded more like a bunch of old hens) clucked on and on about Kodak and the “crappy” quality of BW400CN. Ok, this film is new to me so I decided to try something novel…
I’d test the film myself! There’s a thought.
So having now done a quick and rather unscientific test here are my blah, blah, blah thoughts.
1. Fine grain when scanned on our Imacon scanner (oil mount) (professional processed C-41)…I don’t know about wet darkroom printing from these negatives and don’t really care as I am not heading back into the dark any time soon.
2. Not quite as sharp looking as say XP2 Super (smoother grain tho) or some other black and white negative films (REAL Black and White that is) or films processed using the very cul dr5 process but acceptable and perhaps ideal for portraits.
I just made using my in house workflow (oil mount scan, PS, ect…) a 16.85″ x 24″ print that is simply amazing. The grain is fantastic and at any “real” viewing distance the print has the sharpness one would expect from an analog process and not that hyper-digital sharpness crap. Oh, yeah…this is 35mm!
So what does this mean? First, stop kicking Kodak in the face. They make some good films (not all) but most problems photographers have with Kodak are the same problems other photographers have with Fuji and Ilford. Rather, we are a bunch of prima donnas(who me, YES you) that can’t get out of our own way and we want what we want now(I hear the hens clucking)! This demanding position of total excellence is fine from time to time but we need to be careful about spewing random meaningless talk that does nothing to help promote/ enhance our medium. That is not to say that Kodak and these other companies (The Photo Industrial Complex) don’t deserve 
to get kicked in the ass now and then but most of the talk I read on the web is meaningless and based on personal issues and not real photographic observations.
I have attached a sample image made using the BW400CN for those of you who need to see it to believe it (I’m in this group myself). The first is full size, the second (crop) is a crop from the full sized image (16.85″ x 24″)….very cul! This is 400 speed 35mm film!
Which process do I use (film)…when I can dr5 with FP4 or HP5 or if time is tight and the lighting is unsure XP2 Super or now BW400CN.
"It" Takes Great Pictures
It? Who- or what- is this “It” anyway?
How many times have you said this: :”Yeah, It takes great photos“? But what does this really say about our relationship to our technology?
You are the photographer- right?…the camera is just a tool. Some of the best works ever made were made with not-so-great cameras, and, as we all know, give a camera to a good photographer, ANY camera and they can produce good work. Give a camera to an inept photographer- even the BEST-MOST-AMAZING camera- and can you reliably expect phenomenal results? Not so much.
The upshot? It ain’t the camera stupid.
Sure, the Photo Industrial Complex loves it when photographers pile on all praise and gratitude to them, ie: their products. And YES, there are some really good lenses and camera systems made that can enable you to get a shot or explore possibilities not possible with other equipment, but it is worth remembering that these tools are useless in the hands of an idiot… and yet marvelous in hands of a talented artists. The gear- or IT- is just a tool.
So the next time you are about to give credit for your vision, talent and hard work to the Photo Industrial Complex/your camera manufacturer- remember that, actually, you deserve the credit… after all, they already got their reward when they swiped your credit card.
Figital Revolution 