Digital BW, The Print

Austin writes:

> Quite small?  Not necessarily.  Portra has a density
> that goes up to 3.

Yeah, but the exposure range is large.  It's unusual to actually see that
kind of density on the negative, although I've seen it in specular
highlights and light sources sometimes.

> There are MORE tonal gradations (as in it has a higher
> dynamic range) on negative film than there are on slide
> film, it's just a property of the type of film and how
> it responds to light.

If you divide the change in density per change in exposure, you get the
tonal resolution.  Slide film changes a lot more in density for small
changes in exposure, so it shows better tonality in the midrange of
exposures.

> What film is that?  Tri-X has in fact a narrow density
> range, like 1.8 to 2.

Tri-X shows about 2; Tech Pan can exceed 4.0, although that wouldn't be very
good for pictorial use.  In Technidol it shows less than 2.0.

I may have been thinking of exposure range.  Typing too fast, I guess.

> Nonsense.  Go look at the Kodak data sheet for
> Tri-X.  It gives a density range of 2.0.

Correct, my mistake.