Digitalsilverimaging
The Fine Art of Printing in a Digital World
DSI Founder, Eric Luden, appears on the The Crit House #MyFive YouTube broadcast. In this 19 minute review, host Jeff Larasen, discusses the influences that made our fearless leader the photographer and industry innovator that he is today. Also on the #MyFive broadcast are Digital Silver Imaging Curatorial Consultant J Sybylla Smith and many of our customers and friends. Thanks to Jeff Larasen and his channel for the informative, entertaining and unique photographic content.
In this hour long FREE webinar the experts at Digital Silver Imaging will answer your questions about inkjet printing. This webinar is for anyone who wants to make fine art inkjet/giclée prints with a lab or on their own inkjet printer. During this open Q&A webinar we will be available to answer your questions about printing paper, inkjet printers, archival issues, monitors, calibration, presentation considerations and anything else inkjet print related.
Direct-to-Print orders only, discount on prints only, does not apply to Custom Print orders. Free shipping in the continental US only.
Print Sample Promotion (Try 3 papers or our 2 DSI Digital Silver Print® papers)
The Making of a DSI Digital Silver Print® (True silver gelatin B&W print)
Monitor settings (standard photo industry settings): D65 / 100-120 Candelas / Gamma 2.2 (If you are printing with DSI we recommend 100 Candelas)
Calibrite Monitor Calibration Device – Display 123 Calibrite Monitor Calibration Device – Display SL
Choosing the Right Paper Webinar
Direct-to-Print Ordering Tutorial
Print Permanence Chart (Photo Prints Compared) How Long will My Prints Last
Did you know that we have a YouTube Channel with over 40 educational and informative photography videos? Our videos cover a variety of how-to and photography based topics, from preparing your files for print, to webinars with noted photographers. You can find the Digital Silver imaging channel by following this link.
Here is a brief list of some of our educational and informative content
Monitor Calibration with Calibrite’s Brenda Hipsher
Andrew Caulfield Interview – “Madonna 1984” Photo Shoot and Book
Mike Mezeul II – Post Production – Taking Your Photos to the Next Level
Choosing the Right Paper for Your Prints
Hanging a frame with a French Cleat
Digitization from Elliott Erwitt’s Studio (Digitizing Elliott’s Archive)
The Art of Underwater Photography with Jake Stout
Photographing in India and Nepal: An Insider’s Guide with Craig Semetko and Roro La Velle
Alternative Presentation Methods for Photo Prints
We also partner with other organizations like the Social Documentary Network (SDN) to sponsor webinars discussing relevant issues in photography today. You can find their video archive by following this link.
Here is a brief list of SDN content sponsored by Digital Silver Imaging
Join our DSIeNews list to receive notifications of future webinars and promotions. Scroll to bottom of page to join.
Digital Silver imaging is proud to support Through Their Lens – Personal Projects by Veterans, an exhibition and ongoing photographic education initiative by the Colorado Photographic Art Center in Denver.
This program provides six months of advanced photographic education to participants free of charge. Since the program launched in 2017, 60 local Veterans have graduated.
Starting January 13th, 2024 come see the largest showing of Veterans’ photography CPAC has ever presented, including photographs by 10 artists in the current class and 17 alumni. You can meet exhibiting artists at a free Opening Reception Saturday 1/13, 5 – 8 PM. Free and open to the Public.
Launched in August 2017, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center’s annual Veterans Workshop Series gives local military Veterans with a passion for photography access to advanced photographic education free of charge. Since we and our partners launched the program seven years ago, 60 local Veterans have graduated.
Over the past six months, participants learned to refine technical skills, hone ideas into a body of work, create a portfolio, and write about their artistic practice. For the first time, Veterans attended the program in CPAC’s new facility at 1200 Lincoln Street and enjoyed the benefits of learning in a dedicated, state-of-the-art classroom. Their final projects will be shown to the community through an exhibition from January 12 – February 17, 2024.
Each artist was asked to consider a personal project and to explore a narrative that goes beyond a single frame. The result is a broad range of subject matter, because each project is a deeply personal expression of the individual. For example, Cherie Sutton’s layered self-portraits explore her experience with aging combined with her multifaceted personality and lifestyle. Jason Alfaro’s portrait series of his friend Santos, a former Marine and Green Beret, underscores the transformative power of relationships, whether with the land, animals, or one another.
As a mentor to the artists throughout this rigorous program, I have seen tremendous growth and development of each artist’s project. It has been an honor to work closely with them, hear their stories, and try to see the world through their eyes.
– Samantha Johnston
Executive Director & Curator, Colorado Photographic Arts Center
Making good color reproductions of artwork takes excellent equipment, the appropriate software, skill and a knowledge of how color is rendered in each step of the digitization process. This post will help you understand why certain colors and/or elements of artwork reproduce well or poorly using the best available methods of professional digital technology and Inkjet/giclée printing. Make sure you read all the way to the bottom where there are several useful FAQs.
First an understanding of color space or COLOR GAMUT is necessary. Think of color gamut as the palette of paints that you have available to create your artwork. For example, if you paint with oils you might paint with a limited palette: Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue and Titanium White. These colors when mixed can create every color including greens, purples, oranges, etc., giving you all colors but perhaps not the range or intensity you desire. If you add paint colors to expand your palette such as Viridian Green and Dioxazine Purple you expand the greens, purples and other colors you can mix, giving you more greens and purples to work with. So to continue this metaphor you have expanded your color gamut, your palette, to include a wider and more varied choice of color options. Simply stated, a color gamut is the variety and range of colors available.
In digitizing artwork the goal is to create a reproduction that gives the best representation of the original. The goal is to create a reproduction where all the color relationships are precise and the overall effect is color accurate. To do this each step in the digitization and printing process must capture the maximum amount of information and correctly translate that information. In an ideal world everything falls within the same color gamut.
It is important to understand that everything in the reproduction process has its own color gamut, the digitization camera/scanner, the computer monitor, the software, and the printer. For example, the camera in your phone utilizes a much smaller color gamut to capture an image than does a professional digital camera. So if you photograph your artwork with your phone you start with a small color gamut, that lost color information cannot be added back accurately later in the process. Also software like simple image preview software, and browsers like Chrome also use a much smaller color gamut than Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. The images you take with your phone and upload to Instagram may look good in the uniformly limited color gamut of the internet, but they are not an accurate record of your artwork or ideal for accurate print reproduction.
A large color gamut is important because If a color in your piece of artwork falls outside the color gamut of either the digitization device (camera/scanner), or printer, that color will reproduce as the closest color in the gamut. That is why you want every device in the process to capture or reproduce the largest color gamut possible. At Digital Silver Imaging our inkjet/giclée printers use 11 pigment inks plus a chroma optimizer to print an extensive color gamut rendering the most accurate color possible. The average office or home printer typically uses 4 inks for a very small gamut.
So color reproduction is not as simple as clicking a button. The entire reproduction process must be designed and operated for color accuracy. Can you make color accurate reproductions in your own studio or home? Of course, but it takes the equipment and technical knowledge to make it all work.
We digitize your work using an ultra-high resolution Phase One camera, or full frame DSLR for large format work, and flat field lenses designed specifically for reproduction. We use Digital Heritage Capture One software, calibrated monitors, color accurate light sources, and Calibrite Color Checkers. Every step in our process has been designed to reproduce the most accurate color possible. The final step involves our expert staff that examines and makes those subtle changes that no software can.
Can I choose the paper my reproduction is printed on?
Absolutely! We offer a wide variety of papers in many different surfaces. From ultra gloss to flat matte, to watercolor, and canvas. The paper you choose is an important part of the process. We offer papers from Canson, Hahnemühle, and Ilford.
Can I do my own digital capture and have you print it?
Yes. To get the best results please use a high quality digital camera, preferably one that has the ability to capture images in RAW format. Use a calibrated computer monitor to make any adjustments to your digital file and work in AdobeRGB color space.
Can you print from images I made with my iPhone/Smart Phone?
We can but because of the internal software in your phone, and the color space (gamut) used by phones it is difficult at times to make an accurate color reproduction. We ask that you don’t expect perfect color from a photo made with a phone.
Will the print paper I choose affect the color of my reproduction?
Yes. Different papers have slightly different base colors. In the world of paper different base colors are referred to as cool base, neutral or bright, and warm base (off-white to cream). Your base color slightly impacts all the color and white space in your print.
Can digital capture or Inkjet/giclée prints reproduce fluorescent or metallic paints and pigments?
Fluorescent or metallic paints use UV light and reflection to create more brilliance. In these situations some additional post production time maybe required to produce an image with increased saturation to approximate the feel of a fluorescent color. Metallics present the challenge of reflections, which are difficult to approximate. See our staff for specifics on your artwork.
What to you charge for your services?
Elliott Erwitt’s many photographs have become part of the world’s visual vernacular. His images for Look, Life, and Magnum capture a world of humor, beauty and irony. His prolific output has filled over 20 published books, with a new book just released in 2021. Elliott’s prints are in virtually every major museum collection in the US and abroad. At the age of 92, Elliott Erwitt hasn’t slowed down much, he’s involved in a variety of projects and working on his archive.
Elliott Erwitt’s archive is where Digital Silver Imaging comes into the picture. Rick Smolan, former Time and National Geographic photographer and Elliott’s son-in-law, came to us with an idea for on-site film digitization. He said that Elliott was reluctant to have his archive leave the studio—a concern widely shared by other photographers—so high resolution on-site high resolution image capture would be ideal. Within In a few short months we had sourced the required high resolution equipment, hired PhaseOne and CaptureOne expert Scott Nidermaier, and formed the Digital Silver Imaging On-site Image Preservation Service™.
On a chilly Sunday afternoon, Scott and DSI’s Eric Luden got to work digitizing Elliott’s archive. Over the course of the next several days the pair would set up in Elliott Erwitt’s studio and rapidly capture some 3,400 negatives and transparencies. For some photographers such an undertaking could take months or even years, but utilizing our On-site Image Preservation Service™ the job was completed in under three weeks. At the core of the system we utilize a high resolution digital camera mounted with a flat field lens. This method of digital capture produces drum scan quality images with a click of the shutter. Unlike drum scanning, this process minimizes contact between film and machine, dramatically reducing the risk of scratching or damage.
Scott has emphasized that each job is different and attentive preparation is the key to a smooth digital archiving process. The On-site Image Preservation Service™ operates on the principle that every archive is unique, and we customize the service to fit the needs of each client.
Much of the credit for the efficient digitization of Elliott’ Erwitt’s archive goes to his studio manager, Mio Nakamura, who organized the film by box, contact sheet, and negative with a corresponding spreadsheet, so there was no confusion about which images to capture. With the digitization of Elliott’s prized images now complete, his entire film archive will be housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s a comfort to know that Elliott’s film will be preserved in perpetuity.
Looking back on Elliott’s project, Scott reflected, “It was fascinating to see a sheet of great negatives and wonder why Elliott picked one negative over another. Also, we digitized many images of family that obviously had personal significance to Elliott. Elliot Erwitt lived with a camera in his hand. Sure the Marilyn Monroe and celebrity images are amazing, but there are so many great images that have never been seen before. It makes you realize that archiving is not just about a financial legacy, it’s a personal legacy. It tells you so much about the life of the artist.”
Digital Silver Imaging is grateful to Elliott Erwitt, Mio Nakamura and Rick Smolan for inviting us to collaborate on this important project. We feel that we played a role in photo history, providing a service to one of the greatest living photographers.
If you are interested in our On-site Image Preservation Service™ please contact Scott Nidermaier at scott@digitalsilverimaging.com.