Digitalsilverimaging

The Fine Art of Printing in a Digital World

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Free Print for Leica Monochrom Owners

 

Mathieu Bitton image of hands holding a book and cigar
©Mathieu Bitton

Leica and Digital Silver Imaging are collaborating to present you with a museum quality black & white, silver gelatin print captured with your new Leica Monochrom.

To create your print, kindly follow the instructions below and enter the promotional code that came on the card in your Leica Monochrom box. We are confident that the resulting image will be nothing short of frame-worthy. To receive your print follow these steps

  1. Pick a file downloaded from your Leica.
  2. Make any post production edits. We highly recommend you use a photo monitor, CALIBRATED with a calibration devise from Calibrite or Spyder.
  3. Process that file as a 12×18″, 300 PPI file and save as a JPEG.
  4. Go to this link and upload your file and follow the menu prompts. DSI Digital Silver Print© described below.
  5. At check-out use the promo code to receive your print for FREE. The code can be found on the 5×7 card you received with your Monochrom. Only one free print per participant, shipped free in the USA.

If at anytime you have questions about the print creation process please contact us. Contact info below.

Exactly what is a DSI Digital Silver Print®?

DSI Digital Silver Prints® are real silver gelatin (silver halide), black & white prints on a fiber base paper. DSI Digital Silver Prints® are made from the fusion of modern digital technology and traditional exposure/chemical printing. We use a Lightjet 430 photographic laser printer to expose light sensitive Ilford silver gelatin paper, then process the exposed paper in liquid photo chemistry. DSI Digital Silver Prints® have a proven archival superiority and a completely neutral image tone, without a color cast. This is simply the best fine art black & white print available directly from a digital file.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

DSI Digitals Silver Prints® Fiber are processed in liquid photo chemistry, archivally washed, then air dried on specially made racks. The dry prints are then flattened in a heat press allowed to cool and trimmed down to the finish size. Unfortunately this process takes time and many skilled hands to complete, but the results are beautiful.

This video gives an overview of the Value Print online ordering application. The video includes basic ordering, adding borders, Print Sample Promotion, adding framing and/or mounting to your print, and more including questions from the webinar participants. 

The maximum file size for our Custom Upload is 400 MB. If your image file is larger than 400 MB we suggest you use a free FTP service from WeTransfer.com or another FTP service. Please include your phone and your contact information so we can contact you to complete your order.

Start with a calibrated monitor! Calibrating your computer monitor is essential because it gives you a much more accurate rendition of how your file will print. Calibration insures that both you and Digital Silver Imaging are looking at an image that will appear the same on your monitor and ours in the lab.

File Format  We prefer .TIFF but a .JPEG saved at maximum resolution is also acceptable. We can print from almost any file type including RAW or .PSD. However, unless you have a specific reason for using a RAW or .PSD this file type slows down file transfers and increases printing times. There is no quality gain from using a RAW file instead of a .TIFF.  Our online Value Print Service (ROES Web) currently only accepts .JPEG files.

File Size The sweet spot for our DSI Digital Silver Prints® and Museum quality inkjet prints is 300 ppi/dpi at 100% size. In other words, if you want an 11Ă—14″ print the file should be 11Ă—14″, 300 dpi/ppi at 100%.

How do I export files from Adobe Lightroom? We have a short tutorial on how to export your files for print from Lightroom. Follow this link to view the tutorial.

Exporting files from Adobe Lightroom for printing is not always an intuitive process. We have put together this tutorial to show our customers how to export files to create the best prints possible using our services. You can read our post on the full procedure here

All orders within the US ship via UPS Ground or United States Postal Service (USPS). We happily ship orders all over the globe. International shipping quoted on a per order basis. Shipping charges are determined by package size/weight. All prints, up to 20″ x 30″, are shipped flat, unless otherwise requested.

Estimated Shipping Charges â€“ Although we try to be as accurate as possible, shipping estimates are subject to change. Because every order is different, and we package orders to best protect your images, it is often impossible to predict exactly what the final charge will be. Simply put an estimate is not exact and may vary.

Using Your Own Shipping Account â€“ If you have an account with FedEx, UPS or a freight carrier we are happy to ship using your personal/commercial shipping account. Please note that we will add a handling fee to cover our costs of packaging and order entry.

Custom Shipping Crates and Overseas Shipping â€“ Yes we can do all that. Every project and shipping destination is different so please let us know when placing your order and we will create an estimate for you.

Damaged Shipments â€“ We have developed packing methods to best protect your prints in transit. However at times damage does occur. It is important that you follow these steps so that a damage claim can be filed. Failure to do so may result in the loss of a refund on your order. If  the carrier is present, always review and note exterior damage with the delivery person.

1. Photograph the EXTERIOR of your package. Making several photographs from different angles is important.
2. Keep ALL packaging
3. Call Digital Silver Imaging (617) 489-0035 immediately and email your photos to us at info@digitalsilverimaging.com

Digital Silver Imaging’s liability is limited to the replacement of the product that we have produced. We are not responsible for loss incurred as the result of an order that was damaged in shipping. If the customer request that we use their shipping account to make a shipment, the customer must file all damage/loss claims against the shipper. Digital Silver Imaging will not replace prints, frames, mats or any other product damaged or lost when using the customer’s shipper.

In this FAQ you will find a quick overview of the archival life of our products. For an in depth report on how Digital Silver Imaging’s prints compare to other print options follow this link.

DSI Digital Silver Fiber Prints®  are made on black & white, light sensitive, silver gelatin, Ilford Gallerie paper. This is a heavy weight, baryta paper with a proven history of archival quality, light fastness, and durability. Henry Wilhelm, of Wilhelm Imaging Research called our prints “the gold standard” in black and white print longevity.

DSI Digital Silver RC Prints® are made on black & white, light sensitive, silver gelatin, Ilford Resin Coated paper.RC paper is sealed between layers of polythene with the emulsion and a â€super-coating’ on top. This makes them a typically more robust paper that is easier to handle. This is a medium weight paper comes on a bright white resin coated base. It has excellent lightfastness, it can be rolled, and is ideal for commercial applications.

DSI Museum Quality Inkjet Prints are made on Canon Prograf printers using the latest Lucia Pro pigment inks. Not all inks are created equal, and Canon Lucia pro inks meet the highest archival standards. When printing on a quality paper with no OBAs (optical brightening agents), like HahnemĂĽhle Photo Rag, these prints will last over 200* years framed under UV glass, and 300* years in dark storage. Digital C prints can’t compare, making our prints the best choice for quality and price.

Standard Inkjet Prints are made on Canon Prograf printers using the latest Lucia Pro pigment inks. Not all inks are created equal, and Canon Lucia pro inks meet the highest archival standards. These prints differ from our DSI Museum Quality Prints in that they are made on quality papers that may not meet the highest standards set by preservationists.

*Based on Wilhelm Imaging Research’s paper  “Canon image PROGRAF iPF6100 and Canon LUCIA Pigment Inks“, 6/15/09

Camera Odyesseys

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Camera Odyesseys

NEPAL INTO BHUTAN PHOTOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE

Date: October 14, 2020

Nepal and Bhutan are alive with mystery, color and culture.  The history is all around you.  Creating images with the locations and people will be unlike any other place in the world.

Bruce Byers, Professional Photographer

Nepal-Streets-2016- C26O7940.jpg

has worked extensively with great guides in Nepal, Gopi Chandra Bhusal and in Bhutan, Kinley TTshering to design this trip to ensure that you will be able to create once in a life time images. The streets, countryside, people, festivals and much more will be alive with color and mystery. Bruce will lead you on an adventure of a lifetime. Come create. Photographers of all levels and those that enjoy to capture where they travel are encouraged to sign-up.

It will be the rice harvest season giving us the yellow fields at festival time. The places we will go are off the beaten path at the right time of day. The history of Nepal and Bhutan will inspire you to create. The friendly locals and rich culture will embrace you with its kindness, music and art. We’ll travel from the busy city, to a private farm, all while being transported to the villages of the past.  Whether you’re a seasoned photographer or just want a group of like-minded people to travel with, this trip caters to all.

NEPAL:

Home to the majestic Himalayas and ancient Kingdoms, Nepal is more than just about mountains and trekking! Experience century old Hindu and Buddhist practices, colorful villages dotted with ancient architecture and temples, and luscious jungles filled with wildlife. With 131 ethnic groups, Nepal is one of the most cultural diversified countries in Asia and every corner has its own unique story to tell. Come discover this magical land of ancient traditions and several World Heritage Sites.

old man from Nepal or Buhtan holding a bell
Bruce Byers Photography

This tour has been designed to enjoy Kathmandu City (1,350 meters), capital city of Nepal and also called as city of UNESCO, hosts around 7 world heritage sites and Chitwan National Park (CNP) in the south. CNP covers the total area of 932 squares km in the Terai region. Visit to CNP provides travelers to enjoy culture of local Tharu People, Jungle Safaris, Canoe Ride, Crocodile breeding centre, visit to local Tharu Villages and many more in the lust green area.  CNP hosts famous for one horned rhinos, Bengal tiger, deer, snake, Gharial and many other species of flora and fauna. This is the perfect tour to experience local culture, people, food, heritage and specially, the time of rice harvesting season. Pokhara, which is around 210 kms from Kathmandu on west is a natural and adventure hub. This is the gateway to Annapurna Region and considered as one of the cleanest cities of Nepal. From every corner of town, the close proximity of mountain gives you the feeling of just standing in front of mirror.

BHUTAN:

This beautiful tour around Bhutan’s most scenic places takes us to the country’s finest locations with an unparalleled diversity. We will be in the right places at the right times to capture with our cameras. This is the perfect trip to experience the delight of crossing high hills as well as the wide windswept meadows filled with wildflowers, across sleepy hamlets, through fragrance filled forests, rice fields and orchards. There is no real trekking that requires outdoor camping with exhaustive long day walks; but it has moderate hikes and excursions to villages from the comforts of your Hotel. An active vacation without roughing it! The itinerary covers the regular tourists’ sites, as well as many off- the-beaten places. Walk out to visit villages, farms, and monasteries and ancient temples from the towns of Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdue Phodrang and travel as far interior as to the Bumthang District. Between the drives, we shall make unplanned stops at local villages. All of our small group departures are scheduled to attend the local festivals and therefore some parts of the itinerary may be revised slightly to incorporate these colorful.

Bhutan-2016- C26O8587.jpg

BUMTHANG JAKAR FESTIVAL-2020

Bumthang Jakar Tshechu Festival lasts for three days. Its official Jakar or Bumthang District’s Official Festival of the year and the Festival happens inside the gigantic Jakar Dzong. The whole district of Jakar or Bumthang remains closed for three days to witness the annual Bumthang Jakar Tshechu Festival. Tshechu are always conducted or ending on the 10th Day of a Bhutanese Calendar month as the term Tshechu means the tenth, which is widely celebrated as Birth Anniversary of Guru Rimpoche, The Second Buddha. Tshechu’s are organized in all 20 Districts of Bhutan and each district performs at different months from one another and its more like a New Year Celebrations and it’s both happy celebrations for the citizens as well as big day of offerings to the Guru Rimpoche and other local deities.

There will be both mask dances by the Buddhist Monks as well as songs and dance from the local villagers. It’s an annual event and during Tshechu period all Govt and Private including schools and farmers remains holiday. It is an important event as all related folks from across the country comes together and discusses the important issue and prays together for a successful year.

BUMTHANG JAKAR FESTIVAL IS FROM 24TH TO 26TH OCTOBER, 2020.

Nepal-Mountains-11-17-16- DSC03341.jpg

Paro International Airport, the only Int’l Airport in Bhutan, has a very good connection with Kathmandu International Airport with just 50 minutes flights passing by alongside of the Himalayas including Mt. Everest, Mt. Kanchenjunga in Nepal and Mt. Jhomolari and many others in Bhutan. The flight itself is a life time memory for those who are fond of mountains and natural landscape.

Price of workshop  $6550 Double occupancy

$620 plus for single occupancy

Sign-up by June 20th for $150 off trip cost.

Camera Odyesseys

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Camera Odyesseys

Travel to the Tobacco Harvest of Cuba

Date: February 1, 2020

When we visit some of our favorite remote places, like Cuba, we’ll be sure to give you a trip with a twist that no ordinary group would offer. For instance in Cuba, we’re not just going to visit magnificent urban and rural areas, we’ll be following the tobacco harvest with some of the most famous growers and cigar makers in the world, across the country, a trip equivalent to being on the ground for the great wine harvests of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

The trip will start in Havana where we will explore the city and it’s people.  We will have Carlos Rene Aguilera Tamayo as our guide to take us into the culture and the world of Cuban art.

We will drive to Vinales on the western end of the island.  The valleys of Vinales hold the greatest tobacco fields in the world, which will be in full bloom.  The farmers have opened their farms to us to photograph and learn about the famous Cuban cigar. The sunrises and sunsets will be taken while looking over the farmland.  The artists of the area have invited us into their homes to listen to great music and talk art.

We will also travel to Trinidad to the south. Stopping along the way for a portrait workshop with local farmers.

Leica Akademie

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Leica Akademie

Book Making Workshop – Ralph Gibson

Date: January 24, 2020

The photography book remains the foremost delivery system of a photographer’s vision.

In the book the sum equals more than the parts. In the world of photography all the leading practitioners have made their work and their names known by way of a major publication. For many serious photographers, however, the book is a goal difficult to realize. Often the technical steps in making a book remain a mystery.

This 3-day workshop and will deal with all aspects of the book making process. We will focus on the book “dummy” as an object in and of itself. An object developed to the level of presentation for final publication. Aspects of layout, design, double-page spreads, book cover impact and editorial thrust as well as binding, typography, separation for plate-making, distribution formulas and more will be addressed.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to view books by Ralph Gibson and their hand-made dummies, created via this same process. Ralph’s position has always been that an accurate facsimile of the book intended for publication is the optimum approach.

Ralph strongly believes that these are the golden years of the photography book. This workshop is designed to help you explore the process with guidance from a true master of the craft.

Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller on Staying Relevant as Professional Photographers

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Doug Menuez & Sandro Miller ©Doug Menuez's Leica
Doug Menuez & Sandro Miller ©Doug Menuez’s Leica
Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller continue to be creative, successful, and relevant after almost 40 years in the business of photography. On June  22, 2019, Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller generously shared volumes of valuable and entertaining information in an event hosted by Digital Silver Imaging and PhotoPolitic™. About 30 photographers and industry professionals gathered in Sandro’s beautiful Chicago studio. Also present was special guest Jim Stallman Senior VP and Creative Director of Leo Burnett and four industry movers and shakers, Patrick Rynell, EVP/ECD, Ainara Del Valle, ACD/AD, Jennifer Meinders, ACD/AD, Jon Lueken, Sr. Producer. So how do these successful photographers define “The Art and Science of Staying Relevant?” The take away is condensed into these few brief paragraphs.

Stay Creative

Personal Projects | Pro Bono Work | Fine Art | Get out of your comfort zone Both Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller pursue personal work as part of their work/life balance. Doug believes that working with nonprofit organizations can give an editorial photographer like himself the ability to photograph new and interesting subjects with fewer limitations. Doug has also published 4 books, most notably Fearless Genius, his unprecedented documentation of the digital revolution. Fearless Genius was #1 on the Amazon Bestseller list and it continues to provide exposure as a multimedia project, film, and a traveling exhibition of prints all produced by Digital Silver Imaging.  Sandro Miller’s expansive personal work often starts with a project that becomes an entire large format fine art book. Projects like the one he did with John Malkovich or his trips to Cuba became books and many of the images end up as fine art prints for gallery sales and exhibitions. Although Sandro has a distinct style, and can be considered a portraitist, he is constantly finding new paths and subjects for his work.
Sandro’s spacious studio ©Andrea Zocchi

Stay Organized

Make a business plan | Strategically target your customers According to Doug Menuez what put him on the path to success was a solid business plan and the discipline to stick to it. Both photographers emphasized that having the business acumen and the right people in that field was invaluable. Sandro Miller stressed focusing your promotional efforts on a manageable group of targeted clients/agencies and galleries. Casting too broad a net often doesn’t work and can result in work the photographer is not excited about executing. Miller stated that he focuses on about 20 potential customers at a time.
Refreshments ©Doug Menuez
Refreshments ©Doug Menuez

Stay Above the Crowd

Use prints and printed media to stand out The consensus was that regular posts on social media were necessary but didn’t necessarily get you work. Doug said that one of his most successful and expensive promotions was his “F…You Book.” It was a portfolio of work he loved (not work that everyone advised him to show, that’s where the “F…You” comes in). He said that this piece got him more and better jobs than any other promotions. The advice from Sandro was to send a signed print, as he said, “People just can’t throw away a signed print.” He also uses his books as a way to rekindle art director and ad agency interest in what he’s doing. Both photographers have an active fine art presence, with gallery representation and the print sales supplementing their income and increasing their exposure. Jim Stallman Senior VP and Creative Director of Leo Burnett echoed what both photographers said. He underlined the point that as a creative director he is overwhelmed with emails and electronic communications. His advice was to do something tangible that shows your own creative genius, something that represents you, not what you think someone wants to see.

Stay Informed

Research your customers | Know the brand | Be prepared for the shoot Before you start a job, or start to promote your work to a client, know what they do. In editorial, documentary, or product work the research is the first step. Sandro stated that he might shoot for an entire week before the actual photo session is scheduled. In the preceding week he will test lighting, concepts and other aspects before the client arrives in studio. Dig deep, acquire knowledge and be prepared.
Portfolio reviews were an optional component ©Doug Menuez
Portfolio reviews were an optional component ©Doug Menuez

Stay Personal and Connected

Pick up the phone | Meet people | Attend Events Doug Menuez, Sandro Miller, and Jim Stallman all agreed that photography is all about making personal connections and keeping them fresh. Don’t send an email if you can call the person by phone. Expanding your community in person makes you memorable. Knowing that you can work with a person and they can work with you makes all the difference.  This also extends to the photo shoot itself. Don’t just start blasting away. Talk to your subject. Again both photographers emphasized the pre-shoot preparation. If you know your subject you can make conversation and the shoot will be more successful. We hope that PhotoPolitic™, Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller will choose to repeat this event in the future. It might be the best $189 dollars that you can spend on your career. We’d like to thank Doug Menuez, Sandro Miller and Jim Stallman as well as Chris Armstrong from PhotoPolitic™ for asking us to play a small part. The entire day was videoed and is available to PhotoPolitic™ members. To stay informed about future events follow us, Digital Silver Imaging and PhotoPolitic™ on social media.