On 23 Jan 2005 at 23:26, William Robb wrote: > Rob, digital imaging does, most certainly, impose a noise/transfer > fingerprint. > We bitch about parts of it from time to time with things like RAW > converters leaving rough edges. stairstepping, and weird edge > effects. > We complain about not enough pixies, and how this introduces > artifacts when we overmagnify the image.
Practically speaking I don't have problems any longer, I use a RAW conversion process that doesn't create unwanted edge effects, I manage my post processing such that I avoid creating gross errors and I don't print to a magnification that would make individual pixels apparent. I keep within the limits of the medium. > The way to remove much (all, to a great extent) of a film's > noise/transfer fingerprint is to treat it in as direct an imaging > method as possible. Apparent grain can be eliminated this way but still the transfer response remains relatively non-linear leading to un-natural colour and contrast irregularities relative to a basic calibrated digital work-flow. > This means large film and contact sheets. > > In the 1970s. Playboy magazine used triple truck sized sheet film > camera for their centerfolds. > Not sure if this is the correct term, but the centerfolds were made > from contact printed Ektachromes. > I have it on good regard from one of Pompeo Posar's former assistants > that the centerfolds were not airbrushed, although the models pretty > much were. > > The image quality is pretty astounding, especially for a magazine. > Apparently the Ektachrome originals are beyond gorgeous. I'd love to be proven wrong but I suspect the prints you speak of though resolute would look pretty bad up against prints produced using studio MF digital work-flows these days. In a regular analogue print system contact prints or not you still end up with at the very least colour non-linearities and contrast errors. Using a digital work-flow with a (now) US$1k 6MP camera anyone with a little skill can produce 12x18" prints with satisfactory resolution and very accurate colour and contrast for very little cost on the print side. Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
