Digital BW, The Print

Hiiiii Martin ;-)

> > > In a
> > > full range continuous tone silver print there are no steps between min
> and
> > > max density but an infinite number of tones.
> >
> > There certainly aren't an infinite number of tones!
>
> If you print a continuous gradient on a piece of silver paper
> that begins at
> paper white and ends at Dmax there are an infinite number of tones within
> the range.

Absolutely unquestionably incorrect.  You would need a piece of paper of
infinite size to print infinite tones, even if each tone is the size of one
atom.

> Or, if you will consider, that the number of tones is so high that you eye
> cannot distinguish between adjacent tones so as to simulate a continuous
> tone.

Well, that isn't hard to do since we already can do that with both inkjet
and chemical prints.

> What would that mean in terms of your dynamic range equation?

Your minimum discernable signal is now the limits of your eye.

> Somehow I knew you would. <G>

Some people knew about dynamic range long before digital cameras and digital
imaging became readily available to "regular" people ;-)

> Is that because of the quality of the materials or how they were used?

Could be either, and may be something else...and I believe that's image
dependant.

Regards,

Austin