May 2001 Meeting

Members attending the May 29th meeting were treated to a wonderful and inspiring presentation by Bill Fortney,photo the founder of the Great American Photography Weekend group. GAPW , provides workshops and field trips lead by some of the world's leading professional nature photographers. A highlight of Bill's presentation was a slide show and a video featuring images from Bill and his son Wes's upcoming book " America from 500 Feet ".

Bill had also brought with him a letter and a couple of prints that he had received from John Shaw that day. Bill and John had been corresponding about printing digital images. Bill was kind enough to allow us to copy the letter and provide it here on our site so that members could also benefit from John's comments. It is included below .

Letter from John Shaw to Bill Fortney

Bill,

Thanks for the print. It certainly looks great... but then it should since a pro lab scanned and printed it.

Here's a 20x30 from the Smokies. This is roughly a 98MB file, printed at 240 dpi on the Epson 7500. Epson printers max out at this dpi, and there's no reason ever to go any higher in printer resolution. I noticed that the scan you sent was done at 300 dpi. Here's the difference in file size: a 24x36 at 300 dpi means a file of 225MB (your file). Done at 240 dpi, all that is needed for the Epson, means a file of roughly 140MB. Big difference in size and convenience.

This print is from my scan done on the LS-2000, then upsized in Photoshop (it would a bit better upsized in Genuine Fractals, which is included with the LS-4000, but I didn't have time to do so). Sharpened in Photoshop with my own procedures, no Nik Sharpener Pro or anything else used.

Some comments: your print looks great. Notice, though, the grain in the clear water areas. Areas of solid color, especially the sky, are the downfall of blowing up 35mm much larger than 16x24 in my opinion. But that size, matted and mounted, makes a pretty large print to hang on the wall. I think my print is a little less grainy. I talked with John Smith and he said the emphasis on grain is a problem with Sharpener Pro.

My print is on Epson's Luster paper. They do not have a high-gloss paper that has the archival properties like this one has. Your Chromera print is on a gloss paper, which always looks slightly crisper, but the Epson has a longer archival life.

I've also included a print from my Epson 1270 (which is exactly the same as the 1280). FYI, if you use the 1280 set it for l44Odpi in the printer menu, not 2880dpi as that only increases printing time with no visual difference. This print is also from my LS-2000 scan and is on Epson Premium Glossy paper, display life around 10 years rather than the 200 years of the pigments with the 7500 printer. I sized this shot to I 0x15 inches, and is certainly the quality you, or any client, should be able to get at home.

By the time you get this we will have talked. Let me know your conclusions once you see this.

John

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