Posted by DiverD on April 22, 2004 at 12:55:47:
In Reply to: Re: beautifull photo--thoughts on annalog technology posted by scarybarry on April 15, 2004 at 16:12:57:
Your accustomed perception, yes. In Offset Litho printing Direct-to-plate plate buring is spreading very quickly. This eliminates the need for film and darkroom chemistry, not the CT film used in photography but high-contrast hard dot film. Kodak is/was aslo a major manufacturer of this type of film and chemistry, which may ultimitley never be needed again.
But the analog process of contacting film to metal plate in a vacuum frame and exposeding it to light mechanically does produce a warmer finised piece because of the interaction between the flats and the plates in the vacuum. The midtone areas get pulled up to the glass away from the plate, causing the midtone dots to slightly gain over all the other tones. This is an imperfection in the process that can't be avoided and creates a warmer tone than if all the the dots had no gain. This result has to be faked in the Direct-to-plate printing by adding a "bump curve" to warm the image and make the printing look more as we would expect to see it. More like we are used to seeing it.