Interview with David Ward Continued:

However, the modern digital printing process, combined with Photoshop, opens up a realm for creative impulse that in earlier times was reserved for only "darkroom masters".  Digital printing is not only the equal of traditional methods, it's much easier to master, and a whole lot less toxic.  While learning color management and getting inkjet printers to behave requires patience and significant knowlege, the skill required to get good digital prints is much less than that needed for traditional darkroom printing. 

And, crucially, Photoshop provides the color photographer with tools like contrast control that were largely absent from traditional chromogenic processes.  This much greater flexibility and versatility of digital tools enables the digital photographer/printer to realize a creative vision far beyond what was possible only a few years ago.

Amy: People just stared at "Lotus Bud" at the Photo Expo show.  Would you mind sharing your process?  It had A LOT of black in it.  Did you try different papers/settings/profiles?

David: This photo began as a medium format negative, shot on Fuji Acros.  It was taken in bright sunlight, lit by a single Quantum flash handheld in a softbox close above and to the right of the bud.  The idea was for the flash to overwhelm the sunlight and thus render the unwanted and unlit backround as black.  The negative was scanned by Colourworks in Wilmington, DE, on an Imacon, creating a roughly 100mb file.

I tweaked the scan in Photoshop, altering the tonal balance slightly to bring out some of the foliage detail in the lower part of the picture, and did a small amount of dodging along the edge of the bud, but not much else in the way of alteration.  I scaled the print with Genuine Fractals, and did a final sharpening with PhotoKit output sharpener, and printed the image through ImagePrint 6 on an Epson 4000.  ImagePrint gives wonderful black and white images with this printer, I've found.  Their profiles for the 4000 are uniformly excellent, in my opinion.

I tried several papers before hitting on Hawk Mountain Condor Bright White as the ideal paper for this image. I tried Innova Cold Press Art, a heavily textured unwhitened paper, but I thought that the texture softened the image detail too much.  I also tried Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308, but I thought the tonal rendering of the Condor was superior.  In addition, I like the slightly "velvety" surface of the Condor.  I also had flaking problems with the Hahnemuhle that I didn't have with the Hawk Mountain paper--that's a huge plus.

Stay tuned for David's review of his "new" HP!