Digital BW, The Print

I'd like to publicly thank Jeremy Cleavis Cox for sending me two
binders of sample B&W photos from a print exchange.  And Clayton Jones
sent me a sample as well as Joe McCabe.  I've got a lot to look through,
and I'm sure I'll be asking individuals some questions privately by
e-mail.
     As a general comment, there certainly seems to be a wide amount of
variation of different qualities obtainable with similar equipment.  I'm
certain a good deal has to do with the original capture or scan, but
then bring in monitor, software, and personal preferences and it's easy
to see why a lot of the specifics of obtaining a specific result might
not be too easily duplicated.
     I also have to tell you all that more than just a few times while
reading detailed descriptions of techniques and consumables on the back
of the prints, I began to ask myself if this is really worth it when
optical/chemical printing can yield such beautiful results with
relatively low cost and effort.  Yet, with my D100 yielding such
gorgeous results in color, it seems worth the effort to investigate a
way a getting good B&W from it as well.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com