Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@i...>
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...>
> Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 11:22 AM
> Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Dynamic Range: For Austin
> 
> 
> (snip)
> >
> > Martin said that chemical prints don't have dynamic range since 
you can't
> > measure any discernment in tones, he claims they are infinitely
> continuous.
> 
> No I said the dynamic range of the silver print is Dmax minus Dmin 
which is
> the ratio of the the minimum and maximum reflectance. I said that a 
silver
> print may not have a DyR as Austin defines it because the noise in 
his
> equation is either zero, approaches zero or is so low as to be 
reasonably
> neglected.
> 
> Martin
> (snip)
I think a silver print does have a DyR.  I'm not sure what noise 
would be in a silver print but I think the minimum perceptible change 
could be determined -- with some difficulty.  Perhaps it could be 
done by precisely exposing  and developing greyscale step wedges with 
veryfine increments in the grey.  If they were in say 1cm squares 
then the point at which you could no longer tell the difference 
between the measured densities of the squares would be the smallest 
discernable change.  No? 

Kevin Gulstene