DSI Blog

Friday’s opening of Jonathan Stark’s France:Chaleur was a celebration of the warmth found in sweeping views of Paris, the French countryside and the depth of character of it’s people. Shot on film during successive trips abroad the fiber silver gelatin prints are as soulful as their subjects. Intimate glimpses of Gallic pride shine from the soft eyes of a daper, elderly gentleman and the crisp attentiveness of a grandly mustached geradement. Stark caught Paris from the seat of a famed carousel, which no longer exists, allowing the vantage point of a bird surveying the quiet elegance of Hausmann’s orderly and grand design for the city of light. Caught at night the Eiffel tower is it’s quintessential playful self. Stark unobtrusively documents the serious pastime of a game of boule and the care and precision given to measuring the competition. These Black & White images exude a reverence of the ordinary while acknowledging the depth of tradition. Powdered truffles, fluted madeleines and red wine aside, these images transport the viewer to a place where time honored craft and care warm the heart.

 

For the past six years in the Fall and Spring semesters I have been teaching a course I created in Digital Printmaking and Color Management as part of the BFA Photography program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The aim of the course is to help the students to be knowledgeable about different printmaking technologies and how to produce the best quality digital prints possible. One of the biggest challenges for my students is creating good quality digital black-and-white prints. That’s why an important part of the Black-and-White Digital Printing Assignment is to have the students make a true silver gelatin digital print. Although, most students come to the class not knowing that this is even an output option, they are even more surprised to find out they can get digital output on the same fiber based silver gelatin photographic materials they have loved in the traditional darkroom. Digital Silver Imaging is one of the few service bureaus in the country and the world that produce fiber based silver gelatin digital prints.  Luckily for us, Eric Luden and his staff have been kind enough to help our students to experience their digital black-and-white images on these silver gelatin materials with their unique aesthetic and technical qualities.  

Tom Ashe is the associate chair of MPS Digital Photography Department, School of Visual Arts in New York.  He is also an excellent photographer & consultant to the photographic industry. Visit his website for more information.


One of Tom’s students, Azhar Chougle, had this to say about working with us:


“It has been an absolute pleasure to be able to work with Eric on producing digital silver gelatin prints. Working with labs is always a twisted and convoluted ballet, but in this case the process was surprisingly simple and straightforward. Given Eric’s vast experience in the field, he demonstrates a firm understanding of his process and requirements. At the same time, he is incredibly personal and accommodating.  The most important factor is of course the prompt delivery and the print itself. The images produced take on a refreshingly analog quality, a welcome deviance from the manufactured predictability of the inkjet process. The papers (especially the fiber) are thick, heavy and feel exquisitely organic, something that would be expected walking out of a darkroom rather than a digital lab. I would say it is impossible to replicate the aura and feel of a silver gelatin print, which makes this avenue of digital output a very worthwhile exploration.”

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I’m not absolutely sure that this is true, but I do know that first impressions can count for a lot.

I was lucky this week to visit an outcropping of the Griffin Photography Museum and enjoy an exhibit of photographs titled “Food Cycles”. The photographer, Francine Zaslow, has a fascinating take on food as art. Her images, which are on display at the very intimate gallery at Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, Massachusetts, are intriguingly delicious.

You must understand that these are my first impressions of her work. I love these silvery visions, so removed from glossy food magazine and cookbook portrayals of perfect doneness. This isn’t food in the “we eat with the eyes” sense exactly, it is food as art, and being a pragmatist (and foodie, I guess) I asked the folks at the gallery if the subjects of the photographs had in fact been eaten after the shoot.

I have to tell you that I don’t understand how they do what they they do at DSI to turn warm food into cool prints. Their site says “Digital Silver Imaging offers a unique printing process that provides beautiful fiber-based and resin-coated black & white silver gelatin prints directly from digital files.” but I think its some sort of magic. In any event, I loved the exhibit. Her “Belt Fish l” makes me wish I was a Pisces, and her “Silkie Chickens” could be dragon embryos.

Please read Rachel Mathews complete review by visiting her blog.

You can visit the DSI Gallery Mon – Fri from 9 – 5:30, or click on our Facebook on-line gallery if you’re far away.

Köln, Germany, September 21st, 2010 – From the Nik Software Press Release

Nik Software today announces that its highly anticipated HDR Efex Pro software will be available October 11, 2010. This completely new HDR solution is designed to help professional and amateur photographers quickly and easily achieve the full spectrum of HDR enhancements from the realistic to artistic. The company is showcasing HDR Efex Pro with live demonstrations of the software at Photokina 2010 at booth H09 in hall 4.1.

“Our HDR Efex Pro beta group has over 500 photography industry professionals and HDR enthusiasts and the feedback from this group has been both comprehensive and incredibly positive,” said Michael J. Slater, President and CEO of Nik Software. “We have incorporated many of the recommendations from this group and I am confident that this product will truly advance HDR imaging.”

HDR Efex Pro brings innovative and best-in-class technologies to HDR, including proprietary unrivaled tone mapping, Nik Software’s award-winning U Point® technology, and powerful ghost reduction, all of which have been developed specifically in response to photographers’ requests. HDR Efex Pro overcomes limitations in other software products with a revolutionary all-in-one approach that enables both realistic and artistic effects to be applied within a single tool. Photographers looking to explore the new realm of HDR will find that HDR Efex Pro offers a complete solution that takes HDR to new levels and offers new possibilities to fine-tune and finish HDR images with a simple and intuitive workflow.

Nik Software’s U Point® technology provides, for the first time, precise selective fine-tuning of HDR images without the need for complicated selections or layer masks. Photographers will find that the ability to control adjustments exactly where they want them provides unprecedented power and will further enhance their ability to create amazing HDR images.

Key Features
· Intuitive interface, with easy to understand photographic terminology and the actual processed results always displayed
· U Point powered selective tools for fast, precise enhancements of contrast, shadow, structure and saturation adjustments
·  Multiple proprietary tone mapping algorithms enabling a wide range of HDR styles and capabilities
· Visual presets that produce amazing results in a single-click
· Ability to create the HDR look from a single exposure
· Advanced technology for automatic image alignment and reduction of subject motion artifacts known as “ghosts”
· All-in-one workflow enabling the creation of professional HDR images

Pre-Launch special from Digital Silver Imaging is $139.95 plus receive 50% off your first print order when you purchase the software from DSI.  HDR Efex Pro is Free with either of the Complete Collections. Visit the DSI Nik Software page for our special offer.

Ever wonder how baseball pitchers make the ball dance up, down, in and out to baffle batters? Boston Red Sox left-handed ace Jon Lester showed photographer and sportswriter Steve Wilstein how it’s done with the positioning of his fingers on the five pitches in his arsenal: four-seam and two-seam fastballs, change-up, cutter and curveball. Wilstein photographed Lester in spring training this year using a Nikon D700 and a 105mm micro lens. Working with Christopher and Eric from Digital Silver Imaging, Wilstein created a 4-foot wide composition of five square close-up images, printed in color on HARMAN inkjet paper and framed by DSI . A framed print sold recently at Panopticon Gallery, which also is showing Wilstein’s other color images of the Red Sox and fans in spring training, as well as black-and-white images of Muhammad Ali that Wilstein made in 1978.

Wilstein, a longtime sports columnist for the Associated Press, can be seen discussing baseball’s steroids era in Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s two-part documentary, “The Tenth Inning”, on Sept. 28-29, on WGBH public television.

Contact Jason Landry at Panopticon Gallery to purchase this image.