From: bjs@uts.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: 8x10, Christopher Burkett, light sources
Date: 12 Oct 92 19:31:02 GMT
Reply-To: bjs@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Followup-To: rec.photo
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA


This weekend in a gallery in Carmel I saw some of the most amazing photographs 
that I've ever seen.  The artist's name was Christopher Burkett.  The 
photographs were nature images printed on 20x24 paper, in color.  Most were of 
the genre in which incredibly fine colored detail is used to capture rather
mundane scenes and render them exquisitely lovely.  Ack.  I can't really
describe them.  Hopeless.  

But what interested me was the medium used.  Although they were behind glass
I was able to ascertain, by looking at light glancing across them, that they
were done on glossy (polyester) Cibachrome.  This was confirmed by the gallery
owner.  But the masking and printing used were so masterful that they 
displayed none of the dreadful muddy black shadows and overly dark highlights 
that I usually associate with prints from less experienced printers.  (I and,
apparently, many others find it difficult to print Cibachrome and attain
the color saturation that I want without having the overall result look
too dark, even when I mask the shadows correctly.)  Color intensity compared
very favorably with dye transfer and sharpness was far better than I've
seen from dye transfer, although I'll admit that the largest original I've
seen reproduced through dye transfer was 4x5.

I also deduced almost at once that he had to be be using at least 8x10 format.
The gallery owner affirmed this, also.  The sharpness of the images was 
astonishing.   In fact I'm somewhat irritated in that his 20x24's would be
approximately the same magnification that I use to make 11x14's from my 4x5
negatives and transparencies, yet they look considerably sharper.

But this got me to thinking.  Although I've only been using 4x5 for about
9 months now, I'm already dissatisfied with my image quality  when I compare 
my images with those made with 8x10 format.  Now, I'm not in a financial 
position to switch from 4x5 to 8x10 yet, especially with my company planning a 
10% RIF in the next few weeks.  But I'm thinking about it.  Now, at last, the 
question.  What light sources are available for doing color work with 8x10 
originals?  I've already been playing with trying to convert my enlarger from 
4x5 to 8x10 by building a different negative carrier and getting an Aristo 
cold light head.  But that wouldn't be optimal for doing color.  Are there any 
dichro 8x10 heads made?  Can the Beseler/Minolta head be used for 8x10?  
Anyone know?

Barry

-- 


|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp.       | "Any fool can face a crisis - it's     | 
| bjs@ruts.ccc.amdahl.com           |  this day-to-day living that wears you |
|                                   |  out." - Anton Chekhov                 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Amdahl, being a corporation, is a legal fiction.  Therefore it is incapable|
| of holding, let alone expressing, opinions.  Unfortunately, this has been  |
| said of me as well.                                                        |
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Newsgroups: rec.photo