What's New -- November 2, 2018+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE NEWS THIS TIME: + + The new novel is almost done! + + I am selling my collection of Jim Marshall prints + + POST EXPOSURE Is Free
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The new novel is almost done! Yes, there is a new novel in the works. After "Saturn Run," I asked David Gerrold (look him up) if he'd like to write a natural disaster thriller with me. His response? Oh, hell yes. Now, after years of work, "Ripple Effect" is almost finished.I can't tell you exactly when it will be done or when it will be published, but I'm hoping for next year. What's it about? Well, every coupla hundred thousand years, a really big chunk of the island of Hawaii breaks loose and slides into the Pacific. The avalanche produces a monstrous earthquake and an even more monstrous tsunami. Now, suppose this were to happen in a next few years...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I am selling my collection of Jim Marshall prints I have about two dozen signed Jim Marshall color photographs for sale, including some very rare items. These were given to me by Jim back when I was doing his color printing. Click here for the full backstory and the catalogue. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ POST EXPOSURE is still free Because... why not! "POST EXPOSURE: Advanced Techniques for the Photographic Printer" is out of print and the rights have reverted to me. I am making POST EXPOSURE a free PDF download from my website, at least until I massively rewrite the book to incorporate digital printing (don't be holding your breath -- it's been years and I ain't gotten to it yet).
All I request of you is that you don't redistribute this file in any form. If you know someone who would like a copy, please refer them to my website. I don't think that's asking too much, is it? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ That's it for this time.
April 20, 2011 ***New Work In My Online Gallery. Finally! It's been years since I put new work up for sale on my website. So many that it's embarrassing. Today, that changes. I've created a "newest work" webpage on my site:
It presents 3 dozen digital and dye transfer prints, most of them offered for sale on this site for the very first time (you'll see a few familiar faces in the list). My digital prints are much more affordable than my dye transfers, but I can assure you these digital prints meet my usual exacting artistic and technical standards. No matter the price, the only work I'll offer for sale is work that I am 100% happy with. I'll be adding many new dye transfer print listings to the site. Easily half my dye transfer portfolio has never made it online. My goal is to get it all up this year. As I add major chunks of new material, the previously-new listings will get moved to a secondary page, so you'll only see the very newest work when you visit this URL. That will make it easier for my regulars to check in and see if there's something new. Meanwhile, there'll be a lot of secondary construction going on, as I reorganize the site to better accommodate a substantially larger and more complex portfolio. For example, I've revised the order page and moved pricing information there. If you see inconsistencies, contradictions, incoherencies, mispelings [sic] or simple awkwardnesses, please drop me a note. I do not claim perfection on the first pass. Nor, if truth be told, the second, third, or fourth. ] ***I Do Custom Printing For the first time, I am publicly offering my digital printing services. I've been doing custom digital printing for clients for years, but referrals have always been personal and by word-of-mouth. Now I'm making my services available to the larger public: You can get custom digital prints from me for as little as $85 for the first print of a photograph (and substantially less for duplicate prints). As with my dye transfer printing, you get nothing but my very best work, along with my usual 100% satisfaction guarantee.
***POST EXPOSURE Is Free My first book, POST EXPOSURE: Advanced Techniques for the Photographic Printer, has finally gone out of print and the rights have reverted to me. I am making POST EXPOSURE a free PDF download from my website, at least until I massively rewrite the book to incorporate digital printing (if I do, said book would be at least a year off).
All I request of you is that you don't redistribute this file in any form. If you know someone who would like a copy, please refer them to my website. I don't think that's asking too much, is it?
***My Travel Plans-- Minneapolis And Madison Spring is here, so I'm off for my annual Easter trip to Minneapolis. I'll be there for two weeks, starting this Thursday, April 21. I'll be busy all Easter weekend with Minicon. If you'd like to get together with me afterwards, drop me an e-mail and I'll see what we can work out in my schedule. Over Memorial Day weekend, I'll be in Madison, Wisconsin for Wiscon.
That's it for this time. As soon as I get back from spring holiday, I'll be diving into preparing new dye transfer print listings for the Online Gallery. Expect an e-mail from me announcing further new work posted to the site sometime in May. June 20, 2010 *** Book Sale's a'Coming! Among the things I've neglected to mention to you this too-busy year is that the second edition of DIGITAL RESTORATION From Start to Finish came out in January! As a side benefit, a substantial amount of the content from the first edition is now available as free PDFs In celebration of the new edition, I will be holding a belated publication book sale next month. For approximately 30 days, you'll be able to buy signed copies of the book for me at a substantial discount. How substantial? For US buyers, a 10% discount and free shipping. That's $36.00 total (California residents will need to add sales tax) instead of almost $45. I can't offer quite so good a deal to out-of-country buyers; the shipping costs are just too high. In fact, postage has gone up twice, although I didn't previously pass that on to you folks. Still, I will knock more than $8 off the real price. The Canadian price will be $43 including shipping; most other countries will be $45. All books will ship within two weeks and usually within a matter of days of ordering. Wait for the announcement: I'll send out an e-mail, the headline and order-button prices will change on the webpage linked to above, and there will probably be mention of it in The Online Photographer. *** An Exclusive Chapbook for Contributors My "1000 True Fans" experiment has been going great, and it has bought me considerable time and freedom to work on my art. I am so appreciative of everyone who's decided to support me, and they were rewarded accordingly. Free prints, even a free dye transfer print, free holiday notecards, and my eternal gratitude. Now it's entering its second year, and I have two new incentives for people to sign up: First, if you're the kind of person who hates deferred gratification (I am) or feel uncertain about supporting an artist not knowing what they're going to produce in the next year, you now have the option of taking a free gift print as soon as you subscribe, instead of taking two at the end of your subscription year. Think of it as "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." I know that some of you would prefer the certainty of art now instead of the speculation of more art later. Now you have the choice. Second, I've created a chapbook, "First Snow." It consists of 16 saddle-stapled 8.5" x 5.5", pages containing 15 new, never before printed photographs. Here's a JPEG of the near-final cover design. Each chapbook is hand-printed and assembled by me, and they're signed and numbered in an edition of 200 copies. There will be no more copies of it than that, ever. Furthermore, the ONLY people who can get copies of this chapbook are folks who sign up to be a Contributor. I will send them a copy of the chapbook, at no charge, as thanks for subscribing. Until I run out of copies. It's unique thank-you gift for my magnificent supporters. *** Here's my upcoming travel schedule: ~ I'll be Minneapolis for Two Weeks Starting Around June 25, 2010 It's summer travel season. I will be in Minneapolis for Fourth Street Fantasy Faire over the June 25-27 weekend and staying in town after that until July 7th. If you want to see me when I'm in town, drop me a line! I will be in Montreal for Farthing Party Con over the August 20-22 weekend and staying through the week. Again, If you want to see me when I'm in town, drop me a line; my time on that trip will be tight, but possibly something can be arranged (As always, if you want to see me when I'm in town, please email me now. I will try to accommodate everyone but my schedule is often both congested and hectic, and it will be first-come, first-served.)
I am currently working out the details with the Mpls Photo Center, 2400 North Second Street, Minneapolis, MN 55411. It's not yet official, and we haven't finalized the details, but I will probably be teaching a one-day workshop on digital photo restoration on the weekend of October 9, with a Guest Artist talk the following Tuesday evening on a topic to be determined. And sometime in that mid-October timeframe, we hope to have an opening for an exhibit of my dye transfer prints. When everything is certain, I'll give you the "official announcement", I hope within a month. But, I'm excited enough about the possibilities that I wanted to give you a bit of advance word. Stay tuned! My column for The Online Photographer. is now weekly and appears every Thursday morning (for some value of "morning"). Mike has also put in a page where you can read all my columns, sequentially, from the most recent backwards. I had been grandfathering previous buyers of my prints and monographs, so they got a substantially lower price on new print purchases than everybody else. The reality is that nobody cared. Exactly one person in the past five years took advantage of that. Not worth my trouble keeping track of two separate sets of prices and patrons. Just thought I ought to mention this, in case anybody cares... although the evidence is that hardly anybody does.
Many people don't realize that I print for other photographers. I can make dye transfer prints from any photographic original, slide or negative, from any film size up to 8" by 10," but my specialty is making dye transfer prints from color negatives. I have 30 years experience doing this for a variety of clients, and you'd be very hard pressed to find anyone in the world who'll make you a better negative print.
First print prices for a "16x20" (15' by 19" image area on oversize paper with 1" or greater margins all around) are typically $1,500. Duplicate prints are much less expensive. My work comes with a 100% satisfaction-guaranteed policy, just like sales of my own artwork do.
If you're interested in getting dye transfer prints made of your original photographs, drop me a line telling me what you'd like done and we'll discuss details and scheduling for your work.
September 5, 2008 *** Price increases are coming! Those of you who've bought dye transfer prints of mine before 2004 have had the benefit of special "patron prices" that have been immune to normal price increases. Most of the large prints that run $1,100 have been priced at $650 for patrons. Effective October 15, those prices are going up substantially. The new patron price will be $900 (still a substantial discount over the normal price). if you want to take advantage of the old prices I must receive your order by October 15. Don't wait to the last moment! The October 15 deadline is a firm one, and orders received after that date at the old prices will be refused. You can pay with personal check in the mail, via PayPal, or with credit card (directly to me or I can set up a Google Checkout order button for you). In addition, the small print prices will also be going up by at least $100 for everyone -- a 33% price increase. If you've been thinking of buying some (more) of my dye transfer prints, now is the time to start acting on those thoughts. *** Here's my upcoming travel schedule: I'm afraid the high cost of travel has made a trip to Calgary infeasible for this year. Apologies to all my friends up there! I will only be making one trip this fall: (As always, if you want to see me when I'm in town,please email me me now. I will try to accommodate everyone but my schedule is often both congested and hectic, and it will be first-come, first-served.)
The Mesilla Digital Imaging Workshops are run by the brand new Preston Contemporary Art Center in Mesilla, New Mexico. I'll be teaching two different workshop there in January:
Layered Look in Photoshop "Every serious photographer should be using layers; this 2-day workshop will teach participants how to get the most out of using layers. Layers are for much more than doing up composites. Layers let photographers work creatively but nondestructively on their photographs. They are the key to performing really professional and sophisticated dodging and burning in and making local color correction. Layers allow selective sharpening of fine detail and smoothing out of noise and grain. They can be used for hand tinting and airbrushing photographs, and for making fine corrections to photographs to optimize print quality on different printers. Layers can even be used as "magnifying glasses" to make it easier to evaluate image manipulations. The workshop will provide instruction and practice in using layers like a pro." Tuition: $395.00 - limited to 16 StudentsThursday & Friday, January 29-30, 2009 9 am - 5 pm
Image Restoration "The author of Digital Restoration from Start to Finish will take students through the whole process of restoring old photos, from start to finish in a 2-day workshop. Topics covered will include how to get the photos into computer, including optimizing scanning settings to make restoration easier. Students will be taught how to "diagnose" the photo to figure out the best approach to repairing it. Numerous specific tips and techniques for restoring photos will be provided. The course will also cover how to best print out the results and the best ways to archive the files. Ctein will provide sample images to work on, but students are encouraged to bring some of their own damaged photos to experiment on." Tuition: $395.00 - limited to 16 StudentsSaturday & Sunday, January 31- February 1, 2009 9 am - 5 pm Spread the word; let your friends and fellow photographers know, and sign up early. You don't want to miss out, and space is limited. Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 71: Migration Route
Many people don't realize that I print for other photographers. I can make dye transfer prints from any photographic original, slide or negative, from any film size up to 8" by 10," but my specialty is making dye transfer prints from color negatives. I have 30 years experience doing this for a variety of clients, and you'd be very hard pressed to find anyone in the world who'll make you a better negative print.
First print prices for a "16x20" (15' by 19" image area on oversize paper with 1" or greater margins all around) are typically $1,500. Duplicate prints are much less expensive. My work comes with a 100% satisfaction-guaranteed policy, just like sales of my own artwork do.
If you're interested in getting dye transfer prints made of your original photographs, drop me a line telling me what you'd like done and we'll discuss details and scheduling for your work.
August 3, 2008 *** Here's my upcoming travel schedule: Here's how you can find me -- Art Show Docent Tour (with Teresa Nielsen-Hayden) Thur, August 7 - 11:30 AM Check the Pocket Program for more details. My books, POST EXPOSURE and DIGITAL RESTORATION will be available at Sign of the Unicorn in the dealers' room. I also expect to have two of my hand-printed and bound monographs, FINDING THE SUN and THE FINAL FRONTIER there. (As always, if you want to see me when I'm in town,please email me me now. I will try to accommodate everyone but my schedule is often both congested and hectic, and it will be first-come, first-served.) I've received copies of RESTAURACION DIGITAL DE FOTOGRAFIAS. The Spanish publisher is Ediciones Anaya Multimedia. Bueno! Muy bueno! The book is doing great; we're well into the second printing in English. You can still order autographed copies (in English only, I'm afraid) directly from me . Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 43: A Proposal to Redefine Digital ISO *** Here's my upcoming travel schedule: If you'd like to make an appointment to see my work during my travels, please email me.
May 5, 2007
I'm being featured in a two-week-long on-line interview in one of the WELL's "Inkwell: Authors and Artists" conferences. If you're a member of The WELL, you can post to the interview and have a real, live (time-lapse) conversation with real, live me. But you don't have to be a member of the WELL to enjoy the conference. Anybody can read it (although you can't post) by going to the following URL: Check it out! The conference will run until May 15th.
Postal rates are going up, substantially in some cases, in a week. Orders I receive by next Wednesday will be honored at the old postal rates. After that, you'll have to pay a higher rate for shipping on my books. The difference is only 50 cents for U.S. orders, but the shipping costs to Canada will be rising to $7 and overseas shipping $11. So if you've been thinking about buying my book, now is the time to do it and save yourself a little money. Remember, you can place your order via Google Checkout. *** I'm going to be Special Guest of Honor at Baycon Memorial Day Weekend. What's this 'Special Guest of Honor' thing? Well, it's like being the Writer Guest of Honor, except the convention is not honoring me for being a writer. Or the Artist Guest Of Honor, except they're not honoring me for being an artist. It's because, well, I'm "special" (he said in his best Mr. Roger's voice). The truth is, it means I can just be me, so I'll be doing panels and presentations as a writer, as an artist, as a scientist, etc. I get to wear all my hats at once. It's going to be a lot of fun, I promise you. I will be doing (among other items) an interview, a slide show of me work, and a demonstration of photo restoration. Baycon will be held in San Mateo over Memorial Day weekend.
Many people don't realize that I print for other photographers. I can make dye transfer prints from any photographic original, slide or negative, from any film size up to 8" by 10," but my specialty is making dye transfer prints from color negatives. I have 30 years experience doing this for a variety of clients, and you'd be very hard pressed to find anyone in the world who'll make you a better negative print. First print prices for a "16x20" (15' by 19" image area on oversize paper with 1" or greater margins all around) are typically $1,500. Duplicate prints are much less expensive. My work comes with a 100% satisfaction-guaranteed policy, just like sales of my own artwork do. If you're interested in getting dye transfer prints made of your original photographs, drop me a line telling me what you'd like done and we'll discuss details and scheduling for your work. Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 23:
The Worst Photographic Mistake I Ever Made
April 2, 2007
E-Commerce has finally come to ctein.com and photo-repair.com. I've set up a merchant account with Google, and my books and artwork can now be purchased via Google Checkout. There's a Google Checkout button at the bottom of my web page for ordering DIGITAL RESTORATION. Just select your shipping destination, and Google handles all the paperwork. It couldn't be easier to use. You can even use Google Checkout to order any of my artwork or monograph volumes. Let me know what you want to buy and I can build you a custom button in a matter of minutes for your order. I'm still happy to accept personal checks, but no longer is there any reason to fax, email or mail me credit card numbers. If there's some particular reason why you want to run your credit card through me rather than Google, I can still do that. But Google handles this stuff better and more efficiently than I ever did.
I've finished the practice-photo web pages for DIGITAL RESTORATION from Start to Finish. I created and uploaded nearly a gigabyte of new on-line content. Wow! In case anyone is wondering why they can't find those sample photos on-line, the page isn't linked to the main web site. It's a service exclusively for purchasers of DIGITAL RESTORATION. The URL's in the book, not on the site. That's a hint, folks. If you haven't ordered a copy from me yet, you're missing out on a great book. It's been getting rave reviews. Even if you're not specifically interested photo restoration, you'll learn a whole bunch of really cool image processing techniques that will improve your digital printing no end. See for yourself; read the sample excerpts. I'll be resuming monthly featured-photo and news updates on this site now that my big work crunch is over. Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 14:
OS Obsolescence
Jan 1, 2007 *** My brand new book, DIGITAL RESTORATION from Start to Finish: How to Repair Old and Damaged Photographs is here! Order it now! All the advance orders shipped this past week. Thanks to all for supporting this industrious author. The early reviews are great. You can order autographed copies of the book from me. Click here for full details on the book, sample contents and ordering information. ... and on a related topic... To celebrate the publication of DIGITAL RESTORATION, I'm throwing a party! The date is January 20th. If you'd like to attend, email me for details.
Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out! Column 10: $10 Digital Camera - How Do They Do It?!Column 11: Shopping For Pixels Column 12: $10 Digital Camera - How Does It Perform? Column 13: Book Review: PLASTIC CAMERAS-TOYING WITH CREATIVITY *** Here's my upcoming travel schedule:
Dec 3, 2006
*** My most recent blog columns Here are links to the most recent columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 6: The Seductive Tyranny Of Digital Printing
An advance copy of DIGITAL RESTORATION from Start to Finish: How to Repair Old and Damaged Photographs showed up on my doorstep the day after Thanksgiving. Wow, it's real! The rest of the press run is coming on a slow boat from China (literally), but the order department says they'll arrive at the publisher's warehouse this week. I can't wait! My pre-publication sale is over, but you can still order autographed copies of the book from me. Click here for full details on the book, sample contents and ordering information. As promised, I've put up new 'Featured Photographs' on the opening page. I'll update those regularly, showcasing five different works each month. This time, in honor of the holidays, it's a second installment from Christmas in California.
October 14, 2006 *** My most recent blog columns Here are links to the first five columns I've written for Mike Johnston's highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check them out!
Column 1: Tee Corinne, Superstar of Lesbian Erotica
As promised, I've put up new 'Featured Photographs' on the opening page. I'll update those regularly, showcasing five different works each month. This time it's 'atmospherics.' Next month, the holiday season begins; be afraid.
If you'd like to make an appointment to see my work when I'm in one of these locations, please email me in advance.
September 5, 2006
*** I'm a blogger (and I'm OK) Mike Johnston has commissioned me to write three pieces a month for his highly successful blog, The Online Photographer. Nominal publication dates are the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. Check it out! Here's a link to my first piece. Future pieces will include commentaries on the state of photography, short reviews of products that didn't make it into the mags, and nifty little photo tricks. In short, my usual offerings, now conveniently packaged in bite-sized, bloggy nuggets. Yum! (Old News) *** I Am Represented (and my prices have gone up!) I now have a representative in upstate New York.! Louis Perticone of Artisanworks, Rochester NY is handling my prints and books In order to avoid undercutting Louis' prices (which would be a clear case of biting the hand that is trying to feed me) it is necessary for me to raise my general prices to match his. But... Those of you who in the past have bought prints or monographs directly from me (note: the PHOTO Techniques magazine sales do not qualify) will be able to continue to buy those items at special 'patron prices.' This is my way of saying thanks for your support. Folks qualifying for patron prices for either the monographs or prints got emails from me within a week informing them of their status. If you think you qualify and didn't hear from me, please email me.
(1)Scotland - 1995, a 27-plate tour of northern Scotland, rich green and teeming with lush life. (2)The Collaborations, the complete series of 18 pieces created by me and Laurie Toby Edison. (3) Christmas in California, with 24 color plates, an essay in photographs on holiday displays. 4) The Final Frontier, with 26 color plates, containing my collection of photographs made at Cape Canaveral and of the Apollo 17, Apollo Soyuz, and first Space Shuttle (Columbia) launches. 5) Chasing the Sun -- Baja, Mexico, with 28 color plates, chronicling my trip down the length of the Baja Mexico peninsula to photograph the 1991 solar eclipse. These are 17.5" by 13.5" hand-printed and hand-bound, signed-and-numbered books. These sumptuous volumes are limited to numbered editions of 100 copies, and I am offering them at $895 plus shipping. Each book plate is individually printed by me on 17" by 13" Epson Enhanced Matte paper with Epson pigmented inks. The image size on each page is up to 14" by 11" (depending upon the format of the photograph). For a complete description of these most special works, accompanied by many detailed photographs of the actual books, click on the header. Because of the very limited numbers, prices and availability are subject to change with no notice, so order now before all copies are committed.
"Scotland - 1995" is a portfolio of my travels through the Highlands, and it is the first one I'm offering as individual dye transfer prints, as inkjet prints, and as a luxurious, hand-bound volume of the complete portfolio. ( Note that the link above takes you to the standard text-based Gallery Listing page. If you have a high-speed connection, you may prefer the Gallery Listings page with automatic-loading thumbnails. As usual, new postings appear at the tops of the lists and menus and are flagged with "**" so you can pick them out easily.)
I am going into the digital photo restoration business! After years of doing this for myself and my friends just for the pleasure of it, I've decided to turn this into a business and offer my skills to the world at large. I've built a new web site for this business: That's where you can find the particulars about my services and a number of examples of restorations I've already done for people. Check those out; a lot of people assume that their photograph is a hopeless loss, not realizing what a skilled digital restorer can do these days. I can handle color or B&W, positive or negative, film or print or glass plate, in almost any size and format. Note: I am not offering to do physical restoration of photographs. Digital restoration recovers and restores a photograph to its proper glory while leaving the original object unaffected. It usually produces much greater improvements in image quality than conventional physical photo restoration. Digital restoration does not involve physical alteration of the original photograph. All the restorative work takes place in the computer. There's much less risk of damage to the original than with conventional physical photo restoration. If restoring the image, not the physical object, is what's important to you, then digital restoration is the safest and the best way to resurrect a photograph.
Chuq von Rospach has been a wonderful host and a superb service provider for my Online Gallery since it opened seven years ago, but he would now like to focus on other things, and so I have moved the Gallery. The new URL for Ctein's Online Gallery is: http://ctein.com Chuq will provide a redirect indefinitely from my old URL to this new one, but for the sake of efficiency folks should change their Favorites list to reflect the new URL. Thank you very much, Chuq, for all your years of support and help. You've been wonderful. And thanks to DD-B for providing me a new home on his server.
That's a 50% increase in the number of pieces online. This is by far the largest addition I've made to the gallery (even more photographs than I put up initially). Accompanying this major addition are three new pages of thumbnails, for quick access to the new photographs. Featured are my very newest pieces from Hawai'i-- hot, flowing lava from the current eruption at Kilauea! This is extraordinary stuff. In addition, I've posted many of my previous photographs of volcanoes and craters. The majority of the new pieces comes from my photographs of the US space program. I've put up almost all the dye transfer prints I've done from the Apollo 17 (the last moon launch), Apollo-Soyuz and the first Space Shuttle missions. Just to round things out, you'll also see photographs of Comet Hyakutake, Meteor Crater, and a most fine moonbow. As usual, new postings appear at the tops of the lists and menus and are flagged with "**" so you can pick them out easily.
(Old News -- February, 2002) *** I've put up 18 new works: the collaboration pieces created with Laurie Toby Edison This project represents a significant departure for both Laurie and me from our usual art. It's the first time either of us has worked with another photographer. Further (unlike our solo photographs) these collaborations are produced in very limited numbers. Editions run from 11 to 24, at prices from $750 to $1600. These prices will rise substantially as we sell into an edition.
They cover the lava photographs from Hawai'i (posted last year) and the collaboration works, so everything's now up-to-date.
This page duplicates the information in the original Gallery Listings page, except that all the thumbnails load automatically. This speeds up browsing my site if you're in the habit of viewing lots of thumbnails before downloading the full-screen images. This is primarily for the benefit of folks with a high-speed connection: the new Gallery Listings page is almost a megabyte in size, with some 70-odd JPEGs to be loaded, so it'll be a slow download over a phone line. I'm not eliminating the original text-only page, just providing an alternative for the speed demons out there.
You can read a description of the second edition further down this page. That's also where you'll find the instructions for ordering a signed copy from me. If you've got a favorite local, independent bookstore, please order from them; it's important to support independent bookstores (Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com are not local, independent bookstores). Continuing my "free samples" policy, I've put a full chapter from the first edition of POST EXPOSURE on-line along with supporting material, such as the Table of Contents and the Index. Here are excerpts of what Arthur Kramer and Mike Johnston said about the first edition: "This book will be the key reference text in just about every darkroom dedicated to quality work. It is truly a masterpiece..." -- Arthur Kramer, author of "Kramer's Korner" for Camera 35, "View from Kramer" for Modern Photography, and "Pro View" for Popular Photography "More intelligent and scientifically literate by far than the standard fare, it is the best such synopsis [of information for printers] to be found in any current book directed at a lay audience." -- Mike Johnston, editor, PHOTO Techniques (Read their complete reviews, plus those from the photography magazines.) Here's what I said: I've written this book to provide photographers with the underlying principles as well as practices needed to produce truly excellent photography prints. Addressing both black and white and color, POST EXPOSURE's purpose is to teach photographers the refinements of photographic printmaking, taking them from making merely competent prints to making excellent ones. This book will provide clear explanations of principles and theory, but the focus will be on practical techniques. This book is built upon my 30 years of experience as a printer and 20 years writing over half a million words for photographic magazines. Some of what's in this book is pretty fundamental stuff, but it's stuff that most photographers and printers don't know and that you won't find in the average photography book. Even novice printers will benefit a lot from this book. But, this is not a primary textbook. It assumes you have a basic working knowledge of photography and that you don't need me to tell you how to develop a roll of film or a sheet of print paper. I hope it will be indispensable to anyone having this minimal knowledge.
What's New in the Second Edition? The second edition is not only revised and updated but expanded. Physically, there are 16 more pages; the book now runs 178 numbered pages, plus the front matter and color signature. But... Through careful redesign of the layout and consolidating some chapters, I managed to add almost 24 pages of new material including about 10,000 words, two dozen photographs and 10 diagrams. I did this without removing anything from the first edition except references to some products that are no longer available (like the digi-thermo). Two short chapters were eliminated and their sections incorporated into other chapters, and I rearranged chapters for better logical flow, but nothing's missing from the content. Half of the new material consists of my extensive and definitive tests on the differences in B&W and color print quality produced by condenser and diffusion enlargers. I've expanded the sections how to do split-filter printing and how to use Sistan. I've added to "Tricks of the Trade" with a section on dodging and burning masks, a section called "Gotchas" describing some common (and frequently overlooked) pitfalls, and I've provided more complete information on how to keep good records and how to make masks. Those are the big changes. There are lots of minor ones-- a corrected explanation of color crossover, an update on the RC permanence problem, more complete explanations of metering and exposure errors, and literally hundreds of minor changes and error corrections (there's nothing worse for an author's ego than to go through a book line by line and see just how many mistakes got into print the first time). Here's a partial list of the contents of the book:
This softcover book has 208 8.5" x 11" pages containing some 90,000 words of text and over 140 illustrations, 34 in color. I've put a full chapter from the first edition of POST EXPOSURE on-line along with supporting material, such as the Table of Contents and the Index. You can read the sample in HTML on-line with your browser or download it as an Acrobat PDF file that preserves the fonts and layout of the actual book. You can order POST-EXPOSURE directly from me and get a signed copy for $39.95 plus first class postage and handling costs. If you want to order six or more copies at a time, I'll give you a discounted price. You'll save making a trip to your bookstore and get an autographed copy for your trouble! In turn I'll earn a lot more on each book sale. We call this a win-win situation. Here's how to order: Send a check or money order in U.S. funds made out to "Ctein" for:
Ctein Along with the check or money order include a sheet of paper with your name, address, phone number and email address, and the name you want the book made out to if it's different from the addressee.
(Old News -- April, 2001) ***There are twelve new photographs are in my Gallery! I know; it's about time. These were worth the wait.
Eleven of the photographs are from a brand new series with the working title "Jewels of Kilauea." This new project has me very excited. I spent some time hiking around Kilauea last summer and was astonished to discover these brilliantly-colored lava formations. I had not been aware lava like this even existed. The photographs presented here are the beginnings of a major project that I hope will become a book. I'll be going back next summer for two weeks of serious photography that should yield the 50-70 additional images that will make this possible. I haven't yet created a page of thumbnails for the twelve new photographs. To view them, go to the Gallery List; the new works are at the top of the listings. There you'll find the links to individual thumbnails and the full-screen images, as well as the usual complete descriptions, including print sizes and prices.
I've added a new page that gives just the titles of works (linked to the full-screen JPEG images) and their prices. This is in response to a frequent request that I provide an easy way for people to find prices without having to wade through all the information in the Gallery List. This is the good news. The bad news is that my prices have gone up. It's been four years since my last price increase, so it's overdue.
(Old News -- August, 1999) *** New, smaller JPEG files I've re-optimized the larger JPEG files using better software, and I've been able to shrink them down considerably without sacrificing quality. The largest image file ("Vehicle Assembly Bay...") has shrunk from 500K to 300K. The dozen largest files are on average a third smaller than they used to be. Even the pages of thumbnails are 15% smaller. Enjoy! *** New Images in the Gallery I've mounted seven new works in the Gallery. These are the long-awaited images that have been listed-but-not-displayed since my Online Gallery opened. I've moved them to the head of the Gallery List and marked them with a "**" for easy identification. They also have their own thumbnail page. Check them out!
(Old News -- December 30, 1997) *** I've raised my prices Effective immediately, my print prices are about 15% higher than they were previously. Sorry about that, but I hadn't raised them in four years, and it was time. The new prices for each work are in the Gallery List.
(Old News -- March 1, 1997) Yes, I've written a book on fine printing. Now you know what's been keeping me from mounting new images in the Gallery, as I promised. In the future, I'll be mounting new images regularly, I swear. Meanwhile, at the end of November, 1997 Focal Press issued ... POST EXPOSURE -- Advanced Techniques for Photographic Printers, 2nd Edition by Ctein
(Old News -- May 1, 1996) *** I've greatly improved the speed and convenience of thumbnail browsing: First, I've replaced the full-page thumbnail composite GIF's with JPEG's. They're only 40% of the size of GIF's so they'll download faster and be less prone to getting caught in Net traffic jams. Second, I've added individual thumbnail GIF's to each work described in the Gallery List. Those thumbnails do not load automatically, so it won't take any longer to open that page. You grab a particular thumbnail by clicking on the "get thumbnail" text displayed right under the title of the work. *** I've added a "What to do if you're having trouble" page: If you encounter a problem downloading any of the images, look here for advice. You can get to the Help page from the Welcome, Gallery, and Gallery List pages. If the tips there don't solve your problem (they have in every case so far), you can email Chuq von Rospach (the sitemaster) from that page.
Sorry, but the final seven images aren't ready for display, yet. I know I promised 'em, but Kodak's been slow on shipping me software (it's a long story...).
You can email Ctein at ctein@pobox.com This material is Copyright ©2011 by Ctein. All rights reserved. |
