Many times, buyers of our prints have expressed their surprise at how different the real thing is from the JPEG they saw online. I feel like I'm used to that, in a general way. And yet I still was unprepared for my own reaction to the real print.
Something about this print (here's the link) really grabs me. Since the proof arrived here five or six days ago I've been looking at it a lot. What I like about it doesn't seem to exist in the JPEG above, and yet I'm not able to quite put my finger on what it is.
I don't think the print is exceptional in any technical sense. It's more vivid, richer, deeper, than you might think it is based on the JPEG. But that's to be expected.
Ctein sensed it right away. Privately he wrote to me:
I am seriously torn. I don't really have the cash right now, but I missed out on their last sale. The thing is, I honestly can't tell from the JPEG on the website whether this photograph appeals to me. I think that too much of its impact is based on fine detail that comes out looking like oatmeal in a low-resolution JPEG. Unlike their first one, I think the devil will be in the details (to coin a phrase).
It's not fine detail, I don't think. Maybe it's that the texture of the print so clearly speaks of the texture of stone. The blacks seem to sparkle.
There's something deep and amazing about the colors hiding in the color print, too. Again it's not technical—it's not bright or saturated. Rather the opposite—it's very subtle, yet it seems to glow. Do you notice the reddishness inside the opening in the wall? It sings in relation to the colors shimmering in the stone. It seems...mysterious.
Whatever it is about this print, it gets to me. I've put it under the pendant lights in the kitchen and I stop to look at it every time I go by. And even though I'm used to such things, it seems further from the JPEG you see here than most prints are from their online representations. I can't really guess if you're going to like it as much as I do. But I think you'll be amazed by how different the effect is. Unfortunately it sort of points out one of the inherent limitations of online sales—at least in a gallery you see exactly what you're buying before you decide whether to buy it. This is a print that should be seen.
(You can return it for a full refund if you don't like it, I should point out. All our sales are "satisfaction guaranteed.")
I'm already planning to frame this one with low-reflectance museum glass, in the hope that it will allow the paper texture to make it through the glass.
John Paul took his Black and White Mastery Workshop to visit Paul on Thursday and, purely by chance, Paul pulled out the silver gelatin version of his image included in our print—along with an alternate version. Here he is showing it to the workshop participants.
Here's the link to the print again, if you're interested. The sale ends Monday, at 4:00 p.m. Central Time.
Mike
Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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