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Author Topic: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?  (Read 12139 times)

framah

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #20 on: January 08, 2013, 09:40:38 am »

It better match!

The plus side is that unless you are looking at it on your LCD right next to  the one in the gallery, you will never know.
Not a plus for YOU, but for the gallery, sure!! ;D
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"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

framah

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #21 on: January 08, 2013, 09:47:55 am »

 

The "myopic" comment is a touch ironic, but then, your handle is "framah" -- so it may be unfair to ask you to separate emotion
Yeah, I thought it was, also.

As for my emotions, I'll cry at the drop of a $100 bill or two. ;D

Seriously tho.. I guess I do have a bit of a prejudice in this discussion as I need people to still come in and get stuff printed so i can keep making payments on my Mercedes.

One does have to have priorities, doesn't one.
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"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

deanwork

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #22 on: January 08, 2013, 12:48:12 pm »

When you think about it, the market has already made a giant move toward this kind of transition, at least on the amateur level.

Almost all of our Atlanta shopping mall photo print outlets that used to produce proof prints and such have closed. Now families have their baby and vacation pictures shot on point and shoot digital cameras sent to relatives in email or displayed on galleries like Flickr, which is huge now. Alternatively they can buy one of those little frames and plug a memory stick into it to display them.

About 18 years ago Bill Gates bought the Bettmann Archive which was the largest collection of historic photographs out there, then set about scanning everything in the collection.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-10-11/business/9510110202_1_corbis-corp-bettmann-collection-doug-rowan

Around the same time he purchased the digital rights to all of Ansel Adams archive. Also around that time he set up large flat screen HD screens all over his underground home in Seattle. He had written software where his visitors could type in what kind of art they were interested in -  such as Renaissance painting, landscape photography, etc, - and they would see a loop of images on the big screen in their guest room. Obviously Gates thought this was the future, or a big part of it, and that we would all be looking at photographs that way by now, and he would have a head start on the technology and especially the content.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-04-03/business/9604020429_1_corbis-adams-photos-ansel-adams

Obviously it didn't pan out that way for the contemporary artist, or hasn't yet. My feeling about it is that once you start viewing a big print on a big hd screen the first thing you think of as an artist (or viewer) is to see it animated, such as using multiple images in creative ways, and of course adding sound to it, which is so easy to edit and create on your computer these days in a really professional way. Then you are another kind of artist all together.

Just showing still pictures on a screen in a gallery or in your home is just going to look quaint and old fashioned. It will no longer seem like a precious object but rather an event, and if you don't have sound and movement, it would be a very boring event indeed. So, once you do move into that arena of flat screens on the wall ( and cheap, very large roll out versions of screens that are coming quickly) your competing with video and that is a battle you can't win. Cycling through reproductions of Cezanne and Adams in Bill Gates home isn't the same thing as photographers doing the same in a gallery context or people purchasing the content for their home I wouldn't think. But it may be coming eventually, I wouldn't doubt it, but it better be done in an interesting way or you will totally loose the next generation of patrons who have been brought up making their own videos and putting them on the web.

john
« Last Edit: January 08, 2013, 12:49:46 pm by deanwork »
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #23 on: January 09, 2013, 12:49:32 am »

Hi,

I'd suggest times are changing. I don't see flat screens replacing fine art prints but my guess is that they will replace prints for many applications.

I certainly wouldn't mind a 80" or 100" screen.

Best regards
Erik
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Erik Kaffehr
 

indusphoto

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2013, 12:29:26 am »

Hi,

I'd suggest times are changing. I don't see flat screens replacing fine art prints but my guess is that they will replace prints for many applications.

Best regards
Erik

Erik

You have hit the nail on its head. Fine art prints are displaying an artist's vision, the image is a big part of it, but presentation is also very important or the vision may not come through.

In the next few years, LCD technology is bound to be replaced by OLED panels which would paper thin and brilliant. I am sure those will find their place as display mediums in corporate hallways, motel walls, etc, but my guess is that any art which is valued by its creator, will still be on paper.

That said, there may appear new display technologies which may provide Artists fine control over the presentation and look. If that happens, that will likely replace inkjets just like inkjets have replaced wet processing for the most part.
 

Ernst Dinkla

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #25 on: January 13, 2013, 07:03:06 am »

Make it 8K, CES showed a Sharp prototype, extra yellow pixels included. A Nikon D800 could fill it with content. We all above 65 need new glasses and a cataract operation to see the advance made.  A flexible OLED display were both sides could scroll (in the old meaning) to adapt to the aspect ratio of the image is recommended if it ever has to compete with framed prints. Nice change on the wall from wrapped canvas prints.


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Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2012, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

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philbaum

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Re: 4K: the beginning of the end for large format printing?
« Reply #26 on: January 19, 2013, 05:19:30 pm »

Yes and No  :)

About 2 years ago, a photography forum i visit did a poll about members printing habits.  Turns out 1/3 of the members never printed their pictures.  So yes, to some degree, digital display methods have already started to erode print sales.

I'm just an amateur compared to most of you, but in 2012, starting in April, i've sold 30 canvas prints with only 6 months of exposure.  As long as people continue to buy, i'll continue to sell.

Electronic devices often seem to be short lived and very high maintenance.  Yet one can pull old prints out of many homes that go back decades and are still a joy to contemplate.  Laptops are discarded on an average of 4 to 5 years if memory serves.

Painters must have thought they weren't going to have careers anymore when film cameras were developed.  There are probably more painters out there now than there ever was.  So fine art prints, and their future, to some degree is tied to whether humans will continue to appreciate art.  Do we need art?

I don't know much about how the future will turn out, but i'm convinced that current framing technology and printing technology will change in significant ways. 


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