Digital BW, The Print

Hi Tom,

There are quite a few good tools out there for converting your D100 RGB
files to grayscale; B&W Pro from www.imagingfactory.com, PS actions from
www.fredmiranda.com, and the B&W conversion set of the www.pixelgenius.com
toolset. But, as you would expect all the "magic" these tools perform
you can do in Photoshop, though not necessarily as quickly. However, don't
mean to burst your bubble but I, personally, have never been able to get
a B&W image from any of my Canon D30 files that really satisfies me. Maybe
I've been shooting large format B&W film for far too many years, but I
find the conversions of my digital files simply lacking...lacking contrast,
lacking tonality, highlights that don't sing, weak shadows, etc. It's not
like I don't
know what I'm doing in PS! I've produced beautiful, IMHO, output from 4x5
and 8x10 scans...just can't seem to get my purely digital stuff to any level
even close. It sounds like you may be having a similar experience with your
D100 files. I'm pretty sure Jerry Olsen converts his D60 files to B&W and
has posted on this forum that he is happy with 'em so, maybe, he'll have
something more productive to offer.

Good luck and, please, let me know if you find an acceptable workflow. For
now, I'll continue exposing and processing film for B&W work.

Alan Huntley

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Husband" <thusband@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 8:49 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] B&W Conversion Workflow


> I'm looking for a good work flow converting my D100 NEF's to B&W.  I
> can get to B&W easy enough and the final print is nice but they're
> missing some depth and contrast.  After tweaking in Capture 3 I
> convert to TIF and open in Photoshop 6 where I've used simple convert
> to grayscale, curves, etc. and the little more involved channel
> mixer.  I've tried creating layers of hue and saturation per Ian
> Lyons and a few other methods.  I'm using the VM inks with Paul
> Roark's curves right now but have tried the Boley and Krebs curves
> too.  I've tried the VM-S but haven't tried the FS inks yet.  I print
> to a 1280.  I have an 870 too with MIS dye ink and can get real nice
> Black Only prints.  The only thing is I don't like the dots.
>
> I keep working on the front end of taking decent images and maybe
> that's where I should concentrate.  I'm doing lots of reading and
> have hundreds of test images with different settings, paper, drivers,
> etc.  It's becoming an obsession with me.  I think about this stuff
> all the time but don't get me wrong I love it and know I can only get
> better.  When I started with color four or five years ago I went
> through the same pain with inks, color management and such but I
> think B&W is even more of a challenge.
>
> Anyway, sorry for the long sob story but I'm wondering how do you get
> to your B&W image?  Do you do it all in grayscale and then convert to
> RGB or do you keep it in RGB all the way?  There're a bunch of plug-
> ins out there for converting to B&W but they can't do much more than
> Photoshop right?  Is Piezography the answer?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom Husband