Yesteryear Depot - P.O. Box 8614 - Waco, Texas 76714
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  Updated:  December 26, 2001


  COMPUTER PRINT, PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT, OR BOTH?

    The Negative - Book 2
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    "I eagerly await new concepts and processes.  I believe
    that the electronic image will be the next major advance.
    Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable
    structural characteristics, and the artist and functional
    practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control
    them."
                                      Ansel Adams
                                      March, 1981


     The case for digital imaging could not have been explained
  any better than the foregoing.  Whether you like it or not,
  most photographic experts agree the marketing of all things
  digital will have basically put the photographic process on
  the back burner in the next ten years. It is the next
  generation of images  and imagery to come.

     While to most of you Yesteryear Depot is simply a place to
  buy older photographs, we view it as something quite different.
  We are working from a large photographic collection which will
  eventually be part of a museum resource.  We are in the process
  of cataloging and trying to preserve those images, and the
  available information about them, in the collection.  We use
  the funds raised from sales in part to help support us so we
  can devote a major amount of time to the process.

  The Process:
  ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
     Current expert archival thinking is to copy each print, with
  or without a negative, maximize the image as to tone, hue and
  contrast, and store the finished view on an 8-bit gray-scale
  TIF format with a JPEG algorithm file for daily use and backup.
  While the negative is what is really important, most experts
  now believe that a digital file will last the longest with the
  least degradation (70-200 years).  Further, images can be made
  from that same file without disturbing the archived negative
  or its TIF digital image counterpart.  Likewise, image
  repeatability is easily achieved from a digital file, while
  each darkroom print has the probability of being somewhat
  different.
     For some time we have been struggling with the foregoing in
  terms of wanting to produce good photography, but also working
  toward the future archival of prints and negatives.  At the
  same time, we have hundreds of old, many smaller, original
  photographs with no negatives.  Rather than make copy negatives


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  of these older views, which produce pictures of slightly less
  quality than the original print, and which accomplishes nothing
  as to the archival process, we have decided to go straight to a
  digital file.  Further, several of our negatives have problems
  as to being underexposed, improper density right to left, and
  surface spotting and degrading.  By making the best print
  we can in the darkroom (usually not good enough to sell) and
  then enhancing it via computer program, we can arrive pretty
  close to what the photographer originally intended.
     There is the problem, however, of public acceptance.  Many
  say a digital image is "not" a photograph.  "When I buy a
  photograph, I want a photograph!" They, of course, are stuck
  in the past and with what they perceive as "valuable."  In
  truth, the same print, if produced properly, whether digital
  image or photograph, is indistinguishable to the naked eye. The
  8-bit JPEG algorithm allows for 256 variations in gray-scale
  luminesce between black and white.  That is about 150 more
  variations than the human eye can normally detect.
     All of this leads us to the following conclusion:  First, we
  will continue to produce and sell "photographic" views from
  quality negatives in our collection, especially larger views.
  Second, we are also going to make available  "digital" images
  which do not produce well from negatives, or cannot be produced,
  using the photographic process.  This will make a whole new
  group of previously closeted views available to the interested
  public. Finally, in many cases where we offer the view in a
  photograph we will also offer it in a digital image along with
  its digital file.
     Regarding our digital prints:  We are using Xerox software
  and scanning at a dpi rate sufficient to produce quality 8«"
  by 11" images.  We produce the full frame as viewed with white
  border filling blank space.  We do not produce the actual
  prints, but have them done at a local computer center which
  uses a Xerox state-of-the-art Docucolor 12 digital system.
     Finally, you the buyer, of course, will determine what we
  ultimately sell.  Keep in mind the view you are buying has
  value to you.  There is something about it that strikes your
  perception of a certain reality.  Whether a stunning artistic
  rendering, a quality view, a typical record shot, or a faded,
  spotted and stained rare scene, you derive satisfaction by its
  possession.  Therefore, we will continue to strive to produce
  that print, digital or photographic, which has significance.


                                             Rick Hamman

  Note:  If you would like a copy of our two page Black & White
  Digital Archiving Specification, write and we will get it out.









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