Digital BW, The Print

I don't really get what your going for but a flat negative will make 
a flat print- digital or silver- there is no easy way around it. you 
can expand contrast silver or digital with paper grades or curves but 
it is still going to look like a fixed job.
Crap in=crap out

Pasajack




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Gulstene 
<kevin@d...> wrote:
> Is zone system development time manipulation irrelevant when 
scanning 
> film as opposed to traditional printing?   That is the question I 
would 
> like some help with.
> 
> My understanding is that the zone system is way of ensuring a  
constant 
> density range on the negative independent of the brightness range 
of 
> the scene.  This is desirable because it makes most scenes 
printable on 
> a grade 2 paper (leaving the other grades available for artistic 
> interpretation) and it helps minimize the stuffing around in the 
> darkroom required to get a good print.
> 
> Since I am not doing wet prints but am scanning the negatives, it 
seems 
> to me that the N- or N+ development dependent on the scene 
brightness 
> range is, mostly, irrelevant.  By setting the black point, setting 
the 
> white point and scanning the negative am I not mapping the entire 
> density range of the image to a numerical range of 0-256 or 0-64k?  
> This mapping would take place independent of the absolute density 
any 
> particular zone.
> 
> As a hypothetical example lets assume a scene contains a 8 stop 
range 
> of brightness.  Three images are similarly exposed to capture that  
> brightnesses range. The three images are given different 
development 
> times and produce density ranges of  (1.0-0.3=.7), (1.4-0.4=1.0) 
and 
> (2.0-.5=1.5).  When the images are scanned each one will produce a 
full 
> histogram from 0 to 255 and a scene brightness at the 6th of the 
eight 
> stops will show up at the same place in each of the histograms.
> 
> Soooo, can't I simplify the zone mantra to "expose for the shadows 
and 
> let the highlights fall where they may with normal development".  
Also, 
>   wouldn't it be better to generally use N+1 development times so 
that 
> the numbers from the raw scan occupied more of the scanner's range?
> 
> Thanks for your help