Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 6:54 PM
Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Is dynamic range more important than density
range?


(snip)

> > 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.

Austin,

Remeber Plane Geometry? The Postulate that says that any line segment
contains an infinite number of points? A tone has no width so there is no
limit on how many you have within a line segment on a tone curve.
>
> > 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.

Then shouldn't were be looking at the limit of our eyes and not the prints?
And if the prints all exceed the discernable limit of our eyes wouldn't the
factor of interest then be the density range?
>
> Some people knew about dynamic range long before digital cameras and
digital
> imaging became readily available to "regular" people ;-)

Well the dictionary definition I gave you was from 1949, not pre-digital but
certainly based from radio broadcast days.
>
> > 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.

As in negative or as in the actual scene?

Best,
Martin