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HOW–TO
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Get The Best Prints From Your Lab
A pro photographer and master printer talk about what it takes to get the highest levels of print quality and consistency
By Robert Glenn Ketchum With Terrance Reimer |
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For more than 30
years, I printed almost exclusively on Cibachrome. My hesitation
to move away from Cibachrome to digital output was because of
my concern that prints on new digital papers wouldn’t look
as good as on Cibachrome. I never felt that inkjet prints could
produce the kind of results that I’m accustomed to from
true chromogenic paper.
My breakthrough into digital was the result of several things
coming together in Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper. First, it
offered the longevity I needed to have credibility in the art
sales market. Second, I wanted the look and subtle qualities
of the traditional color print and, in as much as Fujicolor
Crystal Archive is a chromogenic paper, I was able to achieve
that.
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Lastly, this paper and the associated
technologies are a breakthrough in the fact that they use almost
no water or chemicals. Due to environmental and health concerns,
there’s a diminishing future for Cibachrome because it’s
a much more toxic process. Now that equivalent or even better
products are available, I didn’t want to be left with a
dinosaur product and not be able to move forward into a new
generation of printmaking. It was time to look seriously into
taking the digital leap, and Fujicolor Crystal Archive was the
complete solution for me.
At trade shows and NANPA conventions, I learned about many of
the top labs and service bureaus that were offering new digital
services, from printing to scanning. I’ve worked with a
lot of the best labs to learn who’s doing what and how
they’re doing it—A&I, Calypso, Nancy Scans and
others. The lab that really stood out for me, with whose work
I was most impressed and who was working with photographers
whom I admire, such as Bill Neill, was Rich Seiling’s West
Coast Imaging (WCI).
WCI gave me something that other facilities didn’t. Not
only would they scan and print my images to my satisfaction,
but they also offered service bureau solutions essential to
my business. For example, they’ll deliver guide prints
and configured files to publishers. I simply call WCI and tell
them what a given publisher or magazine needs.
West Coast Imaging takes it from there, working with the individual
publishers and managing the process for me to ensure that my
work is printed at the highest standards. I’ve been amazed
by the remarkable reproduction results. Both of my two newest
books, Rivers of Life and Wood-Tikchik, were prep-scanned
at WCI. Dummies for the books were created from their guide
prints. It has been terrific working with WCI, and I recommend
that all photographers who want to use a lab for prints establish
this kind of close working relationship with the lab of their
choice.
I demand proofs of every image WCI scans for me. Several proofs
often are necessary, especially when printing an image at multiple
sizes. WCI makes relatively affordable 8x10-inch guide prints,
and this is part of what a photographer like me considers an
essential asset. Guide prints are critical not just for working
with publications, but as a point of reference for yourself
and the lab so that everyone is on the same page.
When you’re making big prints or large volumes of prints,
you simply can’t afford to work without guide prints. It’s
the master to which everything should be matched in order to
reproduce the same results every time, even when platforms and
output devices change.
I’m now printing exclusively on Fujicolor Crystal Archive
paper; I have the same feelings about it that I had with Cibachrome.
No matter what type of output you choose, I recommend you pick
one that meets your needs and stick with it. It’s important
if you expect to have a reputation as a printmaker and to look
a client squarely in the eye and say, “This is the best
there is and there is nobody that can do it any better than
this.” If you jump around with your materials all the time,
you’re really bringing a tremendous weight down on yourself
because it’s difficult to expect to thoroughly know how
to print in multiple materials.
I feel that just learning one material and knowing every nuance
within it is an effort unto itself, and that’s one of the
reasons I printed on Cibachrome for 30-plus years. My Cibachrome
printer, Michael Wilder, and I learned how to do it in the ’70s,
and we only improved upon that. It made us masters in our delivery.
The Cibachromes that we put out over the years were perfect
in my consideration as a printmaking photographer.
I needed to have that same cache with my digital output if I
was going to maintain my reputation, and that’s why I’ve
embraced Fujicolor Crystal Archive. I want to know absolutely
every exacting detail of what Adobe software offers me in the
digital darkroom, and what Fujicolor Crystal Archive offers
me in reproduction. That’s a vast range of possibilities,
so I don’t want to be distracted by other papers and processes.
I want to eke out every subtlety of my digital prints so that
they will have the same visual edge that I think my Cibachromes
always had.
Another benefit of Fujicolor Crystal Archive is that it’s
available in 50-inch by 100-foot rolls, allowing me to print
49 inches by whatever width my image requires. What I’ve
found with large prints like this is a level of sharpness that
wasn’t possible with traditional film enlargers.
When printing Cibachrome, we decided not to go larger than 30x40-inches
because we felt that the acuity of the image was beginning to
deteriorate when we printed any larger. At those larger sizes,
we started to see the softness of lens distortion, light diffraction
over a greater projection distance and those sorts of cumulative
traditional darkroom shortcomings. When you’re printing
with a laser beam from a digital file, as in the case of Fujicolor
Crystal Archive, your only limitation is the resolution of your
scan or digital file.
The best advice I can give to photographers who want to print
digitally from a lab is to really consider what they need from
their prints—size, longevity, cost, etc. Based on that,
choose a lab, select an output process and then stick with those.
In this way, you can gain control over a lot of the variables
and, in time, produce stunning images with exacting consistency.
The Master Printer’s
Perspective: Terrance Reimer
We first started working with Robert Glenn Ketchum when he desired
to make a series of very large prints and wanted the extra sharpness
that a digital process would add, compared to the Cibachrome
enlargements he had been making. I think he also saw the need
for digital delivery of his photographs because of all the ways
they’re used all over the world.
When we started, Ketchum’s experience was with an analog
process and the craft necessary to control the unique and often
difficult characteristics of Cibachrome. Our job was to not
only make beautiful prints for him, but to show him the freedom
the digital process gave us to make prints that better match
his vision and experience of the original subject. This communication
is vital. We need to understand what a client means when giving
direction that’s qualitative, for example, “Make it
more luminous.” There’s no “luminous” filter
or button in Photoshop. As a printer, I have to comprehend what
the photographer means by qualitative words, then use my understanding
of the photographer’s work and the tools I have in Photoshop
to create the look the photographer desires.
This dialogue happened totally remotely. While less experienced
photographers can benefit from participating directly in the
process, it’s a myth that the photographer has to be there
looking at the screen. By mailing proofs and talking on the
phone, we were able to have a dynamic, distinct working relationship
that let us quickly produce extremely expressive prints for
Ketchum with the digital process. The detailed, delicate control
we have for fine-tuning color and density allows Ketchum much
freedom with his final print interpretations. It’s incredibly
powerful to explore together what our process can do for his
images and present body of work. There’s no magic Robert
Glenn Ketchum plug-in filter to use. Each image is unique to
his vision. Through our mutual understanding and working relationship,
we realize Ketchum’s final interpretation effectively and
efficiently. |
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This
is a brief summary of the process we use to work on Ketchum’s
photos:
First, we scan his original transparency
to a 300 MB, 8-bit file on our Heidelberg Tango drum scanner, using extremely accurate ICC profiles to pull out the richness
and subtlety of the original. Scanning isn’t a step where
we’re trying to interpret the photograph. Rather, we try
to create a good score for the performance in Photoshop, following
an adaptation of Ansel Adams’ axiom that “the negative
is the score, the print is the performance.” In the digital
world, the scan is the score, it’s not the performance.
Photoshop is where we fine-tune the
image to replicate the feel of the original chrome. Typically,
this is done using simple adjustments of curves, color balance,
hue/saturation and a little selective color. The key to this
working is having the best scan to start with.
After making a round of changes,
we generate proofs on our ZBE’s Chromira using Fujicolor
Crystal Archive Glossy paper. To eliminate any inconsistency,
it’s essential to proof on the same printing device with
which you wish to make your final exhibition prints. By having
a superb ICC profile for the Chromira and carefully controlling
the variables of the production process, we’re able to
pull out the amazing color gamut and D-max that’s inherent
in the Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper, and make luminous and
dimensional prints that exceed what we’ve seen from other
digital enlargers or inkjet printers.
Not every Ketchum photograph ends up as a print for the wall. When Ketchum has approved a proof,
we make a file for the immediate use required. This might
be a file for a magazine or book that needs to be FTP’d
right away to the other side of the world, or it might be a
targeted file that we use to make a final fine-art print. In
addition, the file is archived for future use. By
making a master file from the initial 300 MB scan, we can create
targeted files for any use Ketchum needs. |
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