Gray area will have a dedicated website possibly today..

[Sean]

Hi Gray area users, I am almost finished with the new gray area dedicated website HybridPhoto.com. It should be in a beta state hopefully later today early tomorrow. It will be a hybrid site with dedicated forums, gallery, etc. All traffic from this forum will be re-directed to the new site. It would be great to get some recommendations for forum categories on hybridphoto.com before we go live. This new site will be operated by myself and John Callow. I'm also looking into migrating the data in this forum to the new site.

Thanks,
Sean

[donbga]

Hi Gray area users, I am almost finished with the new gray area dedicated website HybridPhoto.com. It should be in a beta state hopefully later today early tomorrow. It will be a hybrid site with dedicated forums, gallery, etc. All traffic from this forum will be re-directed to the new site. It would be great to get some recommendations for forum categories on hybridphoto.com before we go live. This new site will be operated by myself and John Callow. I'm also looking into migrating the data in this forum to the new site.

Thanks,
Sean

Looks like it is passworded so I assume it is still in development.

As for content, I assume you perhaps mean forums. If so there are several categories that come to mind.

1) Digital negatives via inkjet printer.
2) Digital negatives via imagesetter/LVT
3) Scanning hardware.
4) Scanning software.
5) Color management hardware
6) Color management software
7) Digital vendors and services
8) Digital consumables resources
9) Digital capture scanning backs
10) Digital capture DSLRs
11) Digital capture P&S
12) RAW conversion
13) Digital file formats
14) Editing software
15) Plugins/filters
16) Panorama software editing/stitching
17) Panorama hardware capture

Is that enough? I'm sure others will have input.

I assume that the hybrid forum is targeted to workers that create final output on traditional processes, so I deliberately left out anything that has to do with inkjet printing. I think there are plenty enough sources on the internet for that.

[Sean]

Looks like it is passworded so I assume it is still in development.

As for content, I assume you perhaps mean forums. If so there are several categories that come to mind.

1) Digital negatives via inkjet printer.
2) Digital negatives via imagesetter/LVT
3) Scanning hardware.
4) Scanning software.
5) Color management hardware
6) Color management software
7) Digital vendors and services
8) Digital consumables resources
9) Digital capture scanning backs
10) Digital capture DSLRs
11) Digital capture P&S
12) RAW conversion
13) Digital file formats
14) Editing software
15) Plugins/filters
16) Panorama software editing/stitching
17) Panorama hardware capture

Is that enough? I'm sure others will have input.

I assume that the hybrid forum is targeted to workers that create final output on traditional processes, so I deliberately left out anything that has to do with inkjet printing. I think there are plenty enough sources on the internet for that.

Thanks for the suggestions! Well the main thing is the promotion of film/paper/chemistry within the hybrid crowd. A 100% digital work flow is out of scope for the site, but anything that involves people using film, printing on traditional papers and using chems that's a good thing for all of us. If someone is shooting 8x10 film and outputting to inkjet I would think that is still in scope because that is a 'hybrid' process. We can see how people feel about this after launch..

[L Gebhardt]

Sean, glad to see you are finally getting this off the ground. Will this site share user accounts with APUG?

[Dave Miller]

If someone is shooting 8x10 film and outputting to inkjet I would think that is still in scope because that is a 'hybrid' process. We can see how people feel about this after launch..

I would reverse that and say that it should be restricted to outputting by traditional processes; and I don't yet classify inkjet as traditional.

[Joe Lipka]

Preach on, Dave. I agree. The final image should be printed on something that has to be immersed in some form of liquid.

[Dave Miller]

Preach on, Dave. I agree. The final image should be printed on something that has to be immersed in some form of liquid.

But that will make the ink run.

[Sean]

Sean, glad to see you are finally getting this off the ground. Will this site share user accounts with APUG?

I wish it could and originally planned this but after investigating it I decided not to do it. It would add a massive level of complexity to both systems involving some pretty outrageous code modifications to the software. Anytime modifications like this are done it causes problems for future upgrades. Also, both sites would have to share an entire database so if anything were to go wrong with hybridphoto it could potentially bring down apug, etc. On launch I will leave registration open for a few days so that no email verification is needed, this way you guys can pop over there and create an account in a few seconds..

[Sean]

I would reverse that and say that it should be restricted to outputting by traditional processes; and I don't yet classify inkjet as traditional.

Yes, ink is not traditional it is hybrid if film was used for the original image capture. Off the top of my head these are the main areas I see in hybrid photography, each one encompassing 1 or 2 traditional processes (required 1 traditional process):

-captured on film -scanned -digital output to traditional photopaper
-captured on film -scanned -digital output to ink
-captured on film -scanned -digital neg to traditional paper
-captured on digital -digital output to traditional photopaper (this is probably the grey area of hybrid i suppose since it's practically a full digital work flow and only slightly using some form of traditional materials)
-captured on digital -digital enlarger projected to traditional paper
-captured on digital -digital neg to traditional paper

not accepted- digital capture -inkjet
not accepted- 3d renderings -digital output to photopaper

The scope of the site is to be a hybrid site, not just a digital negs site. When I look at the big picture anyone using traditional films or traditional papers in ANY of their work flow has a place on a hybrid site. It would be wrong to have a hybrid site and tell someone shooting 11x14 film and outputting with ink that it's not a hybrid process. I'm thankful that the person is burning up 11x14 film so do not want to shun the 1000's of hybrid folks using film. Personally I have no interest in hybrid other than the hybrid crowd use traditional products. The more people shooting film and outputting to photopaper the better. I don't think these are times to be shunning any use of traditional products. I know it might be painful for some but like I say look at the big picture here..

[Jordan]

Sean -- I'll be an enthusiastic participant. My take on "hybrid" is much like your own, I think: a process that uses either an analogue capture medium followed by a digital workup (e.g., scanning) or a digital capture medium followed by an analogue workup (e.g., digital negs for alt-process or silver printing).

I would leave digital backs, colour profiling, etc. as more of the domain of the all-digital crowd.