Digital Prints

Some of the photographers who are emerging from their smelly darkrooms and into the
digital light are merely using digital printing to output their existing work with little intervention.
Others are playing a more active digital role, either shooting with a digital camera
or scanning in their film-based images before beginning the work of color correcting,
retouching, and in general, improving what they have. Many are taking full advantage of
what digital imaging and especially printing can offer them.
A good example is Gary Goldberg, a new Toronto resident (from Florida) who covers a
lot of bases in the digital game. He’s a commercial photographer now shooting all-digitally
and working with ad agencies, record companies, and other types of businesses to
create his portrait, fashion, and advertising images. However, he also photographs weddings,
does digital restorations of damaged photographs, and markets his own fine-art
prints at art shows and through online services. And it’s those last two job categories, in
addition to printing his portfolios, that put his several inkjet printers to most use.
Goldberg is also not hesitant in using the online display and marketing services of
Shutterfly.com and Pictage.com, both of whom utilize the digital printing technologies
covered in this book for their products (read more about this in Chapter 10).
Traditional Artists
The painters, watercolorists, and sketch and pastel artists who have taken up digital printing
techniques to publish and reproduce their work are currently producing a large number
of commercially sold, digital prints. Artists can either have a transparency made of
their original work, take it to a digital printmaker for direct digital scanning, or digitize it
themselves with their own digital camera or scanner (if the original is small enough). The
digital file is then typically printed on either paper (watercolors, drawings, or pastels) or
canvas (oils or acrylics) to produce an edition.
Chapter 1 ■ Navigating the Digital Landscape 23
Left: Blue Bird, available as a fresco and also as a limited edition giclée and hand-embellished print. Right: Traditional artist Steve Bogdanoff
works on one of his unique frescoes in his New Orleans studio.
Courtesy of Bogdanoff Gallery/www.bogdanoff.com