Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
Seems so obvious but old 
> habits die hard.
> Martin

I think for me, a more apt title to this thread would be "Shooting 
for Scanning". I notice these big differences more in relation to 
contrast and tonal range, more than anything else. I was 
shooting today in this tiny English church; very very dark wood, 
and no interior lights; only windows. Above where the 
preacher-guy stands was this gorgeous stained glass, backlit 
from the sun, window. My first "old" thought was, "OK, I've got to 
pick one OR the other: the interior wood, or the detail in the 
glass. If I pick the wood, the glass will be fried".

But now, I just shoot two (or three) brackets, with the camera 
basically in the same place. I scan the base image (the interior 
of the church), and the scan the thinner neg of the properly 
exposed stained glass, and then just strip the glass into the 
church layer. 

All of a sudden, now, when you work this way, you can have film 
that renders almost infinite range of zones. Rather than the old 
way, of having to cut a mask by hand and burn in that stained 
glass forever. And even then, it never looks really right; always 
that fogged/burned-in-forever look in the highlights.

I do this all the time now with skies: I shoot a frame for the 
grass/buildings/whatever, and then another frame about a stop 
or two darker of the sky, and then easily pop them together, as 
long as the camera's basically in the same place.

-MTucker