[pure-silver] The Quest

I am stretching to find the way to capture what I have been dreaming of for most of my life! (And also wondering whether it is technically possible, or even reasonable to undertake, using analog means these digital days.)
I am trying to get the incredible tack-sharp depth of field in Abbott's "City Arabesque" and other NY skyline shots. (I've seen some 40" prints in a business reception area & conference rooms years ago & was blown away.) I know she used a view camera.
Also check out this link for similarly inspiring work by Taiji Matsue : http://www.cohenamador.com/CHI0254.html
But here is the only thing I could find on his equipment (excerpted from http://cohenamador.com/Press%20Page%201.html):
"He also dabbles in darkroom cuisine, cooking up his negatives with an enlarger designed for an electron microscope to achieve a degree of image sharpness and contrast impossible to get with traditional photographic equipment." (What kind of enlarger is that, I wonder??)
And lastly, my own feeble attempt, hastily stitched together in Photoshop & complete w/compression artifacts to avoid extremely long download times: 

http://www.picturexhibit.com/SkylineStitch.html
I made final (16x20) versions of these 3 prints, shot handheld on 6x4.5 from a bobbing barge in the middle of NY harbor on this past Sept. at about 4PM. The tonal uneveness is due to this being one of my first MF rolls, it took me a few rolls (& help from you folks on the list!) to work out the kinks w/MF film processing.
I showed them at a local photo salon the other night. The consensus (from one of the only non-digi photogs there!!) was that the extreme DOF tack-sharpness I'm after just isn't possible from such a range of distances--then of course everyone jumped in w/suggestions about scanning the neg. to make a new digital one (a la Dan Burkholder), shooting digital from the start 
..................AAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!
So I'm trying to figure out of it IS possible by this mere mortal, without unlimited finances, to break my back & my wallet with a view camera & serious tripod, and get the prints I dream of using my Saunders LPL 4550XLG (oops, I think it would mean getting a new enlarger to accommodate the larger negs?)
Sorry for the length of this post......and thanks for any help/advice/resources any of you can provide. I really appreciate it. 

Adrienne Moumin
***************************************
on the web at:  www.picturexhibit.com
Saatchi Gallery:   http://tinyurl.com/hw6r3
Art DC:              http://tinyurl.com/vtjqf
***************************************

_________________________________________________________________
Share your latest news with your friends with the Windows Live Spaces friends module. http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mk 

=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your 
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) 
and unsubscribe from there.

Other related posts: