Digital BW, The Print

At some point the film response to light goes nonlinear which results in 
the "toe" and the "shoulder". My initial thoughts - yet to be tested end 
to end without a good printer - was if you kept the image mostly within 
the linear portion of the film response you could expand it to get both 
shadow detail and hightlight detail.

I think if you use film and a scanner there is another calibration step 
to the zone system - camera, film, developer and scanner.

Truman

Martin Wesley wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Truman Prevatt" <tprevatt@...>
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 2:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Film for scanning was Re: The State of
> PersonalScanner Technology
>
>
> > That's basically the way I worked when I was printing silver prints. And
> > it works quite well. But given the extra control one has when the image
> > is in the digital form, it makes me wonder if compressing the negative a
> > bit, scanning and processing in 16 bits would not give better results. I
> > don't know yet. When I finally get off my duff and get a printer, I can
> > test this a little better.
> >
>
> Truman,
>
> My thoughts were running parallel to yours on development but I recently
> read that scanners can read some pretty high densities. Epson 1640 - 2.6,
> Nikon 8000 - 2.8, Imacon Flextight III - 2.7, Howtek HR8000 - 3.3, Howtek
> D4500 - 3.5. From Ansel Adams, The Negative, he puts Zone X densities of a
> negative in the 1.5 to 2.2 range with plus developments rising to 2.5 and
> minus developments falling to 1.0. So it would appear that scanners 
> have the
> capability to handle the highlights in normally developed negatives.
>
> However it is not just density but the fact that film starts to "block up"
> due to the vigorous crystal formation in the more highly exposed 
> portions of
> the negative resulting in a loss of sharpness and detail.
>
> On the other end of the scale the old "0.10 + Base Film + Fog" rule 
> may not
> apply since scanners can reach down much lower and extract usable info. I
> have heard 0.02 quoted as the limit. You also have the ability to 
> expand the
> density range when you scan. This suggests that shifting the range down on
> film may then make sense. A little less exposure and development 
> knowing you
> can get more out of the shadows and bring your maximum Zone (VIII, IX,
> whatever you use) down a bit to increase detail in the highlights.
>
>
> Martin Wesley
>
> http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html
>
>
>
> >
> > Roger L Sopher wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Truman,
> > >
> > > To be honest, I have done all of my B&W film calibration work via a
> > > wet darkroom and a borrowed densitometer. I have gone on the
> > > assumption that a good printable negative will also scan well. As long
> > > as I do my part and develop absolutely consistently then the negatives
> > > are generally predictable (not always good images and worth printing,
> > > however). I usually place the highlight I can't do without on Zone
> > > VIII (with a spot meter) and let the other stuff fall where it may.
> > > Anything beyond zone VIII is usually a specular highlight of some sort
> > > with no useful information to be had from it.
> > >
> > > Roger
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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