Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
You basically get what you pay for, which means that as you spend more, your ability to
print larger, higher-quality images increases.
Digital Camera Backs
While purists argue that digicams still can’t equal the quality of a well-exposed, processed,
and scanned medium- or large-format piece of film, the ground shifts when you start talking
about digital camera backs (also called digital scan backs). With these devices that typically
attach to large- and medium-format cameras such as Hasselblad and Mamiya, you’re
on a different level of quality that either approaches or exceeds large film formats, depending
on who is talking.
These digital backs are used mostly by professional commercial and advertising photographers
in a high-production
environment. Exposures are
instantaneous, so all light
sources including flash can
be used, and some models
give the photographer the
option of working untethered
from the computer to
capture hundreds of highresolution
images. For example,
Imacon’s Ixpress digital
backs have a companion
Ixpress Image Bank device
with a storage capacity of
more than 850 132-MB
images and power for up to
eight hours of constant
shooting.
Some of the most popular digital backs include (with their maximum pixel dimensions):
Leaf Valeo 22 (22 MP), Imacon Ixpress 528C (22 MP), Phase One P25 (22 MP), Sinar
Bron 54M (22 MP), Kodak DCS Pro Back Plus (16 MP), and Fuji Luma II (11 MP).
Digital Drawing/Painting
Not really a way to acquire or capture an image, digital drawing or painting involves artists
creatively inputting their ideas directly into the computer. It can be done with drawing or
painting software applications, image-editing programs, or the many niche programs, plugins,
and filters that are available to artists working digitally.
Let me admit right up front that there is a lot of overlap between this category and the
next one, image editing. The dividing line where image creation becomes image processing
is very fuzzy. Much art is made with a feedback loop of trying something, going back
and fixing it, then trying again. And that’s one of the main advantages of working digitally.
Experiments and variations with a computer can be done quickly, and if done right,
they’re reversible.
Imacon’s Ixpress 528C (22 Megapixel)
digital back attached to a studio camera.
Courtesy of Imacon USA