Digital BW, The Print

Martin writes:

> At this point I am not sure how much digital
> B&W printing you have done but you can get very
> different B&W renderings from color film scans
> or digital color files depending upon how you
> blend the RGB channels in Photoshop. In addition
> you can buy software that takes color files
> and applies curves to them to simulate the
> response of various B&W films and color filters as
> well.

"Simulate" is the operative word here.  You can make something look like
Tri-X or Tech Pan, but if you compare it with the same scene actually
photographed with these films, you may be surprised.  Almost all the
information required to reproduce the response of most B&W films is missing
from color images.

> There has even been some software to simulate that!

Compare the simulations to the real thing, and again you may be surprised.

> I shoot B&W film myself and you are not incorrect
> in what you say, but it really seems to have no
> significance in producing a fine print using digital
> means.

You can certainly produce fine prints; but if you want prints that look
exactly the way a certain film looks, you must capture the original scene
with that film.