KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
I N N O V A T I O N S IN PHOTOGRAPHY
This is the sixth of seven monthly articles that will cover innovations in photography for the most important equipment
areas, including: camera bodies, lenses, film, film scanners, digital cameras, digital printing techniques and irnage-pro-
cessing software. If you have a specific question about innovations in photography or photography equipment that you’d
like Eugene F Lally to answer, send it d o Stacy Lathrop, AN Managing Editdr, American Anthropological Association.
4350 N Fairfax Dr, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203-1620; slathrop@aaanet.org.
Techniques
EUGENEF LALLY
New Inkjet and LightJet printing technologies are
exciting and can be helpful to anthropologists. A
quantum leap in non-darkroom photo printing
quality occurred in 2000 when Epson introduced
new Inkjet printer technology. Before this, sever-
al generations of dqqtal printers for photos were
unacceptable and the only acceptable approach
remained the age-old optical enlarger using photo
paper and liquid chemical processing trays.
Both Inkjet and LightJet prints can be made
from slide and print film after digitally scanned
and from image files made by digital cameras.
Image files are downloaded into a computer and
manipulated with image-editing software such as
Adobe Photoshop then printed by Inkjet or
LightJet.
Inkjet Printers
Generally, Inkjet printers like a 240 dpi setting
while UhtJet printers prefer 155 dpi to produce
their best prints. This results in the largest pro-
ducible quality prints of 8 x 10” and 12” x 15”
respectively from a 4 mega pixel (MP) camera set
at highest resolution. These numbers offer a real-
istic “rule of thumb” for determining the largest
size quality print producible from an image size
such as 4 MP noted here. If you require larger size
quality prints, a more expensive camera with a
larger file size is required.
There are now Inkjet printers that do not
require computers. They directly accept image
files from digital camera internal memory and
their memory cards and prints are made directly.
They have received wide acceptance from the
digital camera marketplace. These printers cur-
rently produce enlargements up to 8%” x 11”.
The digital camera or its memory card are
plugged into the printer. Some printers have a
display for viewing the image and include basic
image adjustments such as zoom in and out,
cropping, color and other corrections.
Results are good for properly taken photos but
are limited for correcting poorly photographed
images compared to using a computer with
image-editing software. However, their conven-
ience, ease of operation and no computer re-
quired, have made direct printers a driving force
to speed the acceptance of digital cameras in the
mass market.
Direct printers dedicated to making one size
only, 4” x 6” prints, are also available. They are
useful for traveling and allow making prints at
Anthropologists
the end of each day for review. Anthropologists
would be able to share photos of their fieldwork
while still at the site. These printers are small and
transportable in standard luggage. They take up
the volume of a shoebox.
LightJet Printers
Traditional optical enlargements made from 35
mm size film begin to degrade in sharpness and
color for prints larger than approximately 20
inches. We had no choice but accept this limita-
tion until digital techniques became available.
LightJet prints offer comparatively better qual-
ity than traditional optical enlargementsas size is
increased. Digital image files are fed to threecolor
lasers (red, green, blue), which precisely recon-
struct the image on traditional photo paper
developed with standard photo chemicals. The
lasers preserve the sharpness and color of the
image independent of how big the enlargement.
This is a breakthrough improvement over opti-
cal enlargers that use a lens to project the image
onto photo print paper. Larger digital file sizes are
required for large LightJet prints so check with
local photo labs offering digital capabilities for
guidance regarding how appropriate your cam-
era’s file size is. Each lab has varying requirements
to obtain the best results.
I recommend LightJet prints for your most
valuable images selected for display as framed
wall hangings. Their sharpness, color quality and
dynamic range will improve the experience of
viewing the print.
Archiving
Along with the convenience of Inkjet printers
and the outstanding quality of LightJet prints,
the longevity of the prints or archival characteris-
tics have improved. Industry tests are alleging to
exceed 200 years longevity for Inkjet prints when’
certain premium paper and inks are used and up
to 75 years for LightJet prints when made with
archival photo paper. Of course, only time will
confirm these claims that exceed longevity of tra-
ditional photographic prints.
We traditionally save important slides and film
negatives in cool and dry locations. It is advisable
to save digital image files the same way and on
the best available storage media. Currently that
would be on CDs. Only use well-known brand
CD-Rs for this purpose. CD-RWs are not as robust
and not likely to preserve the image information
as long as CD-Rs. %Ti
Eugene F Lally (www.lall@hotography.com) is a photo
archaeologist.He has developed camera innovations, con-
sults to camera companies, teaches photography work-
shops, exhibits Southwest Indian Pueblo photos in muse-
ums and magazines, ledwes, and Wntes.
April 2003 Anthropology News
Help Bring Back
the Pamphlet
“The old-time pamphlet is back, with some of the
most challenging intellectual work being done
today” is the welcome visitors to the Prickly
Paradigm Press’ website receive.
Last year, Marshall Sahlins, an emeritus profes-
sor of anthropology at the U of Chicago, became
executive publisher of this small press that spe-
cializes in unconventional polemics via 80-page
or less pamphlets. Mathew Engelke, a lecturer in
anthropology at the London School of
Economics, is the editor.
Prickly Paradigm, distributed by the U of
Chicago Press, published its first five titles last
August. Selections include Bruno Latour’s take on
the West’s relationship to other societies and to
nature; Thomas Frank’s piece on the unlikely
affinities between leftist cultural studies scholars
and libertarian corporation executives; Derek
Nystrom and Kent Puckett’s “Against Bosses,
Against Oligarchies”; a conversation with philo-
sopher Richard Rorty; and economist Deirdre
McCloskey’s “Secret Sins of Economics.” Sahlins’
own contribution is an anthropological satire
entitled “Waiting for Foucault, Still.”
While George Orwell and John Milton have
used pamphlets to introduce radical ideas and
challenge prevailing thought, this genre is rare in
the US, as Sahlins discovered in 2000 when he
wanted to publish “Apologiesto Thucydides,”an
essay exploring why historians sometimes nar-
rate history in terms of great individual actors
and sometimes in terms of collectives. His answer
was found “in Bobby Thompson’s 1951 home
run . . . and then . . . brought in the Elian
Gonzales case,” he told David Glenn (“Prickly
Paradigm Press to Issue Pamphlets by Noted
Scholars, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 26,
2002).
He realized that this essay would probably not
find a home in a typical academic journal. As he
told Glenn: “The academy is now structured in a
way that’s outmoded, relative to the actual organ-
ization of knowledge . . . If you look at the social
sciences, half of them don’t talk to the other
half.” Thus, he turned to Prickly Pear Press, which
put out scholarly pamphlets on anthropological
topics. But when he approached Engelke, who
had taken over the press in 1998 from its
founders, anthropologists Anna Grimshaw and
Keith Hart, about “Apologies” he found the press
was financially strapped.
Believing in the importance of Prickly Pear, as
it gives academics the freedom to creatively say
what they want to say, Sahlins put together a
team of investors, which took over the faltering
publisher by agreement, changed its name to
Prickly Paradigm Press because of several other
existing Prickly Pears, and broadened its editorial
mission beyond just anthropological topics. %Ti
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