Digital BW, The Print

Craig notes, correctly I think, that you cannot always rely on any of the 
automated conversion tools to get the best b+w print from a color image.   FWIW, 
I surveyed the options and ended up paying $40 for The Imaging Factory's basic 
color>b+w conversion tool (their pro version is $100).   It gives you a 
profile that allows you to translate a color image using the same greyscale values 
that Tri-X would render for the image.   But it also includes six sliders that 
allow you to lighten or darken each of the six colors the sliders control.   
So, if, for example, you would have used a red filter had you been shooting in 
b+w to darken the sky, you can jigger the sliders to get more or less the 
same result.   

It has occurred to me that if you are doing nothing but digital output, this 
set-up give you immense flexibility to add in filter effects upon conversion 
to b+w after seeing the image on film, saving a lot of uncertainty in the 
field, and eliminating the need to schep around a lot of filters shen shooting.   
Stupidly, though, I shoot Tri-X and Plus-X and Portra 400BW, because I don't 
want to be confined to digital output in my printing options.

I should add that I am using Photoshop Elements 2.0.   I gather the full 
version of PS has the channel mixer or some such tool that Elements lacks, so 
maybe the six-slider feature of The Imaging Factory's plugin is irrelevant for PS 
users (although I know PS cannot render the conversion to Tri-X tones, and 
that is a big plus).   But for Elements users, it's a huge improvement -- at 
least it has been for me.

Sanders McNew.


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