Sure would like to see results of your "digital lith" efforts.
Rgds
Patrick
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I've been thinking about some questions related to the digital grain
thread to which Shel and Juan have been contributing. In particular,
I've been working with some Photoshop techniques that yield results
similar to Lith printing. The techniques give shadow and dark areas a
gritty, rich look and maintain (rather than blow out) the highlights.
It is easy to criticize this work as "fake Lith" and say "get thee to
a darkroom and do it the hard way!" Rather than take that viewpoint,
I prefer to view it as a legitimate technique for obtaining a
rich-looking print with a certain dark-area grittiness and highlight
tone. In fact, Lith printing itself can be used to take a smooth
negative and add a grainy look that isn't present in a straight silver
print. In this view, Lith printing and Photoshop techniques provide
two different ways to get a similar effect--one through chemistry, one
through computer power.
On another note, I've seen several articles in different places (e.g.,
on the web, print magazines, etc.) that show how to place darkroom
artifacts (ragged borders, emulsion-like edges, etc.) into digital
images. In one article, the author scanned a Polaroid type-55
negative and used the edges as a border for a different image. This,
I would say, is "Fake" in the sense that it misrepresents the origin
of the image. It is also pretty easy to make an image look as though
it was contact printed on Platinum or Palladium through clever
addition of borders. I've decided (for now, anyway) not to pursue
this kind of effect even though it can yield attractive results.
Anyway, I hope this provides a different perspective and maybe some
food for thought. If anyone is interested, I'll try to make a couple
of my "digital lith" images available on the web tonight.
--Mark
P.S. Regarding Rob's excellent image, I like it very much as it is.
The smooth tones and crispness give it more of a grainless
"large-format" feel to me. Adding grain would give it a different
look that may or may not work--I'd have to see it, I guess.
