New York Photography Blog

Now that orders are coming in again – I have a few that I’m going to try at DSI.  I spoke this morning with Eric at DSI and it was just a straight foward conversation and what I learned was that they use two common profiles: Adobe98 (which is what I’ve been using for years for b&w) and hmmm PhotoPro?  I forget.  Anyway, the fiber paper is the same Ilford Gallerie Fiber that I was using for years in the darkroom.  Can you imagine that?

I’d better calibrate my screen again – haven’t done it in a few months.  And just as I was speaking – a fourth order came through.  So it’s starting again.  I’m planning to do these orders through DSI, and send a physical proof from the inkjet along as a guide.

WCI would still be necessary for the really big prints – even if this works out (which I expect it will).

Things are turning around.  I found a place RediMat that has 12 x 16 Museum Rag with 12 x 8 openings at a reasonable price, if you buy enough (which I did).

And the next step is to prepare the files for DSI and see how it goes.  As I say, I’m hopeful that this works out.  Since these really are silver gelatin prints – and since that still means something to some collectors – well that may make it easier to sell at the higher prices.  We’ll see; but what I like is: they just do black and white prints (well they do scans and infrared conversions etc.) but basically they are doing b&w.  The idea of combining digital workflow with silver fiber prints – that is something that I thought about a long time ago.  And they are fairly small – again something I like.  Usually customer service is good at this sort of place that is essentially working with artists.

Digital Silver Imaging

Well, last night I added mats as an option (at suggestion of Ken) and what do you know – next day three orders comes in.  One wanted mats, and the other two are non-matted.  There seems to be something magical about offering mats, but I don’t really get it.  Maybe I should offer other things that no one is going to actually purchase – to see what effect it has on sales.

For example, I might offer framing but set it at such a high price that no one would actually get it framed, but seeing how much they can save by not getting it framed makes the other prices seem like a bargain.

Actually, if you bring the larger prints to a decent framer, it will cost as much as the print itself.  Frankly, framing is where the real money is.  It has to be, since we have framing shops on practically every block on the upper east side.  What they do is buy inexpensive posters – do custom framing – and the profit margin must be incredible.  While all these other stores have gone out of business – we have more framers than any other place in the world per square mile.  And they’re not all tiny either.

There’s a huge framing store on third and 83rd.  I remember when they opened a few years ago and although I never saw anyone in the store, they are still in business.  That I don’t get.

Then on second avenue, there’s a small framing store near 84th street that has been here for at least 15 years, and one on second / 83rd which has been here for about 10 years.

Along time ago, when I was just getting started, my father convinced me to try and sell my prints through one of these framing stores.  I knew (slightly) the guy on 84th and he took three prints on consignment, and put one in the window.

It stayed in the window for a few weeks, and then one day I noticed it was gone.  I asked the guy if he had sold it, and if he’d put one of my other prints in the window and he pretended not to know anything about it.  He claimed that he had never seen me before and didn’t know anything about the prints.

Of course, I was outraged and we got into a shouting match, until finally he admitted that he did get the prints from me, but that they were now in another framing store in Yonkers, and that they hadn’t sold yet.

When I managed to borrow a car – I went to see if they were in the Yonkers store – but the address he gave me didn’t exist.  It actually turned out to be a Kosher Deli.

I returned to him with this information and he looked at the address and said that he must’ve given me the wrong address.  He went into the back of the store, and came back with what he claimed was the correct address.  Time went by and I didn’t have a chance to get the car – and eventually I just decided (I was in that Zen sort of mood) to just let it go.  I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him.  It’s true, I had a signed receipt for the prints and I suppose I could’ve taken him to small claims court – but I was working at the time and it just didn’t seem worth it.

Are they all crooks.  No – of course not – though that would explain their ability to survive any recession.  I know – I should’ve pursued this – but you know – frankly – back then when I was just starting – I was pretty much of a chicken.  The idea of going to small claims court – I just let it go.  My personality must’ve changed over the last few years because similar incidents have happened – and I pursued them to the ends of the earth until I got my money back.

Bodega, 110th Street.  Shooting hdr, does give me the feeling of working with a view camera.  I continue to see potential for this process, though I’m not sure how much comes through on the web since it is the detail and complete lack of noise that I find fascinating (from the 10mp 40D).  At any rate, it definitely has knocked the idea of needing a new camera out of my head.

Yes, it is the first time in my photographic adventure that I’ve been happy with the color results.  No, not completely naturalistic, a bit saturated, but still true enough in terms of hue.

The Duke, 110th Street

HDR / 3 shots at ASA 200

No longer in “testing mode” I’m able to go out now and shoot without thinking about the HDR process.  Yes, you can use it on the street (tripod shot) if you have the right non-threatening vibe.

Seems like a good one for Valentine’s Day.

Times Square Paper Delivery.  Infrared and “faux” HDR

p.s. I’m doing so much color work lately that I changed the blog name.

p.p.s. No sales since I raised the prices.  Still too early to say that’s an issue, but I have gone back and added 5 x 7’s.  Then wait awhile and if still no sale, then I’ll add mats back.  And wait.  And then… well, then I can say that people won’t pay these prices and have to lower them and go back to doing my own printing, unless I come up with some other ideas.

In the never ending search to produce high quality black and white prints from digital files, I have been looking into SilverDigitalImaging.com which offers Ilford Fiber Prints (similar paper as the Ilford Graded Paper I used for years) in both fiber and RC.  Prints are exposed via a 3-color rgb laser and then go through the usual (or what was once usual) chemical baths.

Here’s a PDF that explains the process.

PDF about Silver Digital Imaging.

And here’s a price list for the fiber printing.

I have a bunch of questions for them – which should be answered on Monday when I’ll speak with the owner (I think) Eric.  I really only have a few basic questions, such as what profile to use; and what the turnaround time is.  Just for the record, I haven’t received a print order since raising the prices to accomodate the WCI prices; but it’s early in the game, and one thing that you know about me if you’ve been reading this blog for a while is that I keep searching for solutions until I find something that works.

The benefit of this type of system is that you still get to do all your Photoshop / Lightroom / Whatever tweaking in the digital world, but the prints are true silver gelatin prints; they’ve just been exposed differently than with an enlarger.  At least on their site, sizes don’t go up as large as what WCI offers, so I suspect that even if this turns out to be the “answer” I’ll still be tied to WCI for really large prints.

Many years ago, before Lambda and all that sort of thing appeared on the scene – I had the same idea.  I was still in the corporate world, but I remember sketching out a sort of print head that could take a digital scan and print it on darkroom paper.  Turns out, that at a very crude level, I was actually onto something.  Not being an engineer, I had no idea of how to do this sort of thing but even back then (this is about 12 years back) I thought it should be possible.

Anyway – should be an interesting week.  Their smaller prints (esp. if you do more than one at a time) are fairly inexpensive – and so I put back the 5 x 7 prints on the site, though at a higher price than before.  I’m really into this idea of outsourcing my printing and I’m starting to see that there are options that might actually work.

Website: www.SilverDigitalImaging.com

Well I for one am still going to call it the triboro – though whether it should be Triboro or Triborough I don’t know and even if Lester says it is now the RFK Bridge, a rose by any other name still smells as sweet. Yes – more hdr.  I do finally have enough time to do more shooting and it is a great pleasure.  I go to sleep at night thinking about what I want to try next.  A great feeling.

I may rework this again and try and bring out Roosevelt Island (unless they’ve changed the name of that too).  I can’t quite get this web image to look like it does in lightroom, i.e. it seems lighter there, though it may just be the black background of Lightroom (which I should change I guess).

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT WEBER (NEW PHOTO BLOG OF NEW YORK)

Click image for large size

I met Matt a few years ago when he asked me to takes some pictures of his daughter at the Central Park Zoo.  We’ve been good friends ever since.  His old site was was simply not worthy of someone that I consider a major  street photography talent.  (Sorry Matt – you know that was how I felt).

For a few years I was trying to talk him into redoing the site somewhere else. Maybe just a simple blog with pictures.  Every time he heard the word “blog” mentioned, it turned into an argument.  Why…?  Well, he has very specific ideas about how his work should be presented.  The pictures should be BIG. Back then anyway, all the blogs he looked at had small images or thumbnails.  He didn’t like any of the templates he saw.  I told him they could be changed.  At the same time, he was disgusted with his lack of web traffic and thought it was all due to a lack of certain magical metatags.

True, there are one or two metatags that are important, but really you want people to link to your site and come back to see what’s new, and that’s not going to happen if the site is poorly displayed and hard to navigate.

And so finally, I managed to convince him to do a blog at wordpress.com (which is where they host it for you) and it’s free.

And so, a few days ago, while we were discussing (loudly) the possibilities over the phone, he said, wait a minute, I think I found one (a template that he can live with).  It is a fluid template that will expand to fit the size of his pictures, and eventually, he’ll purchase the CSS option for $15 and I’ll be able to change the background color etc.

So welcome Matt into the 21st Century at: mattweberphotos.wordpress.com and let him know how happy you are that he has a photo blog.  And   In all seriousness, he’s a talented street photographer that has not had much web presence.  I’ve linked to his new site, and if you are interested in amazing New York street photography you might consider linking to his new site.  He’s a good guy at heart who has mostly been invisible on the web (if you don’t count his flickr presence) which regularly gets lots of comments and has a following.

Bon Voyage Matt.  May the web be with you.