greybeard said:
I have never seen the point in developing B&W or color print film and having it scanned. If I'm going to go to the trouble of shooting and developing print film, I want an enlarger and print it myself like I did 35 years ago.
There are several benefits to a hybrid system. Scanned film allows one to edit the image in daylight, using precise tools that are easily regulated. Instead of doing crude dodging using wire stems with little circles or cardboard or tufts of cotton on the ends of the stems, one can use an adjustment brush that's precisely variable, and which has the advantage of having intelligent auto-masking, so it's easy to dodge even complicated figures or shapes with the computer determining what is "subject" and what is "background", with amazing results. Same with burning in...instead of a piece of cardboard with a jagged-edge hole cut into the middle, one can burn-in using a computer "brush" with the same edge feathering options...Same goes for applying contrast,sharpening,color,saturation,etc.. using the computer tools...
Instead of making one print that has multiple complex dodges and burn-ins that require hand-written notes, one can make a master print file, correct all types of flaws, do retouching on the original image (pimples,tooth whitening,skin smoothing,dust-bunny removal,etc), and have a truly "perfected" image file to work from.
Instead of ONE, single negative that can not be replicated well (a duplicate or inter-neg can be made if one has the right equipment), the digital file can be replicated multiple times, and sent to various locations for safe-keeping, if needed.
Retouching and spotting of dust and scratches is soooooo much better with the computer than my old Spot Tone dyes and sable brushes were.
I dunno...I think that inkjet prints nowadays look as good as wet darkroom prints, or better, in most cases. I think it's far easier to make a good print from a digitized image than it is from a negative...the tools are just better, and more-precise, more-adjustable, and it can all be done with numerical,perfect repeatability, in daylight, with the manipulations instantly visible, not visible only AFTER the print has been made, washed,and allowed to dry, and without need to compensate for the "dry-down effect" on wet darkroom B&W prints.
But...with electronically-stored images and inkjet printing, there's no smell of Dektol print developer, and no smell of acid fixer either...and no safelight illumination...it's a rather sterile process, and one somewhat devoid of mystery and magic, which is why darkroom work is, I think,so,so satisfying.
