Digital BW, The Print

Hi Johnny,

And, it seemed like such an innocent question! <g>

Thank you for your tip and all who replied. My intention was not to "stir
the hornets nest", but to get some feedback from list members who own
specific tools. Over the years, I have tried several techniques for
converting to B&W:

1. Channel mixer.
2. Fred Miranda's action.
3. The Russell Brown technique.
4. PhotoKit.

Just to name a few... But, I've always been left with the feeling that
something was missing--perhaps, a couple of channels worth of info as
Anthony indicated! <g> I thought, maybe, a filter for converting to
predefined gray values to match the spectral response of a given film might
be useful. It would certainly be an efficient way to work. Sometimes I need
speed, other times I'm willing to "play" with the image in an attempt to
extract all I can from it. I do agree, however, with various responses that
questioned why anyone would want to duplicate an existing film. I guess
sometimes you need that, but it does seem rather limiting. Anyway, my own
experience, to date, seems to indicate that Anthony hit the proverbial nail:
Shoot B&W film if grayscale imagery is the final output. Just finished
scanning, Photoshop'ing, and printing a couple of my 8x10 TriX negs (about
A3 in size) and the prints, IMHO, of course, are simply scrumptious!

Thank you, again, for everyone's input.

Alan Huntley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Johnny Eades" <jeades1@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 3:48 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: RGB Convert to Grayscale


> Hello Alan,
>
>  I hate to jump into the hornets nest this question seems to have
> stirred up, but I would like to put my two cents in. For what it's
> worth, when we take a picture with whatever camera we choose, our
> main goal is not to exactly reproduce what we see; which you indicate
> with your question. Your intention is to alter what the eye sees into
> something else that fits your perception of what the image can become
> with your help. If you are using Photoshop, then the tools you need
> are already there; the hard part is always finding them in the right
> combination.
>
> This is the way I convert into color:
>
> 1. Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation
> 2. Edit Master>Hue>-(minus)180 Saturation>-(minus)100 Lightness>000 OK
> 3. Image>Mode>Lab Color with Flatten
> 4. Channel>delete A(the letter A) channel then delete Alpha2 channel
> 5. Image>Mode>Grayscale
> 6. Continue with your adjustments with sharpening being the very last
> step done before saving the final image for printing.
>
> This will give your a B&W image.
>
> Note change only to the B&W image after all the work you want done on
> the color image is complete except the sharpening step.
>
> I hope this helps some with your question without all the scientific
> jargon I've seen in some of the messages so far. If I've stepped on
> any toes, I apologize.