ART OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING
"The negative is ... the composer's score, and the print the performance." Ansel Adams had it so right, and it's still right today with the negative's replacement, digital capture. In the Zone System Adams attempted to solve the one big problem that haunts us yet today. How do you take a scene with 20 stops, record it on film capable of only 12 stops, and then print on paper with only 8? More simply, we still cannot reproduce the stunning visual world that we see with our eyes, but we are getting closer in the digital age.
Each fine art print in my galleries is made from an image maximized for the print's full potential. If desired, detail is retained in the darkest shadow and the brightest highlight. This makes for a full, rich tonal scale. Some images require a great deal of technical expertise to realize the wealth of color and tone, especially without turning the image into a cartoon of itself. Takes talent to identify tonal trends of an image, and even more so to identify what does and does not work in a print. An image reads entirely differently when printed than it does when viewed on our mobile and DT screens.
Your Benefits Acquiring a Print:
- A print will always be there - it lasts a lifetime, possibly longer
- A print doesn't need a screen to be enjoyed
- A print separates the snapshooters from the photographers
- A print has a higher value than the digital file
- A print is an investment with perceived value
There is nothing more exquisite than holding in one's hands a well printed image made on fine paper. It is indeed the "performance."