Digital BW, The Print

Did you ever use filters to shoot BW film?  The standard grayscale convert
gives you about 60% Green channel, 30% Red channel and 10% Blue channel.
Using the channel mixer in monochrome mode with either a digital RGB image
or scanned color film gives you the ability to "play" with the effects of
various filters that people traditionally use for BW.  The differences can
be quite striking for some imagery...particularly landscapes.

Also as mentioned below different BW film have different tonal
characteristics.  For veteran BW photographers they may want to try to
emulate the tonality of the particular film that they used to use.

Saying that grayscale is grayscale or once you've seen one BW image you've
seen them all...is certainly missing the point of BW photography...it can be
fine art...were the subtlest changes can make a huge difference in the
impact of the final image.  Certainly not all viewers will appreciate the
differences...but for a trained viewer...these types of differences separate
art from fine art.

Robert

 7/31/02 12:49 PM, "millerhillsteve" <steverob@...> wrote:

> Why should I care how any film sees color? I'm shooting digital, so
> comparisons to film are irrelevant to me. Who can perceive a slight difference
> in color rendition when converted to greyscale in a practical picture taking
> situation? I can't imagine the viewer would have a problem with it.  I'm still
> left 
> with the question: How does desaturating using channel sliders differ from
> simply converting to greyscale?
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "michaeladawson_ajax" <mike.dawson@w...>
>> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...>
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 12:44 PM
>> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Converting to B&W Workflow question
>> 
>> 
>>> I read several of the replies and they are all correct but I don't
>>> believe they addressed the exact intent of the question.
>>> 
>>> The replies all focused on using curves and channels to mimic the
>>> effects of putting different filters on the camera.
>>> 
>>> Unless I missed it, though, no one has addressed the issue that B&W
>>> film is not neutral in its response to the color spectrum.  Its
>>> pretty good compared with decades ago.  But my understanding is that
>>> it is still not truly panchromatic.
>>> 
>>> In other words the film responds slightly differently to red, green,
>>> blue wavelengths of light.  And each manufacturer creates films with
>>> slightly different response characteristics.  So desaturating in
>>> Photoshop yields an image which is different than what would be
>>> obtained by B&W film.  Using the channel mixer allows one to simulate
>>> the response of B&W film to different wavelengths of light.
>>> 
>>> Then there's the whole issue of film grain.  And even that has a
>>> Photoshop plug-in available.
>>> 
>>> Mike
>>> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "millerhillsteve"
>>> <steverob@s...> wrote:
>>>> I currently am using PS Elements as I can't afford Photoshop and
>>> frankly, my
>>>> prints are pretty damn good, but I've seen references to using the
>>> channel
>>>> mixer instead of simply switching the mode to greyscale. What are
>>> the
>>>> differences in desaturating an image when switching to greyscale?
>>>> 
>>>> Steve
> 
> 
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