Digital BW, The Print

Pussycat (sorry Paul, I couldn't resist that),

A valid point, I agree. But (there always has to be one), surely all our 
views of the world are false. They are based on incredibly complex 
interactions between cells in our eyes and brains, and no two people 
probably see anything exactly the same. We know some people are color blind; 
some totally, some partially. But of the majority who can see red, for 
example, do they all see the same red, or blue, or green?

Couldn't this variability explain why some people swear a B&W print is 
neutral while someone else says it has a blue/brown tone? Or why some see 
'metamerism' in everything and others don't? I suspect there is a lot more 
variability in human eyesight than most people think, and we need to take 
more account of this. Quite a lot of research has been done, I think, with 
people who are totally colorblind and only see in B&W. I must read some of 
it up again.

As to color films, I find Provia F matches my view of the world quite well, 
and I hate the Velvia-type films. But then it might be different for you or 
anyone else.

I just do things the opposite way round to you; I shoot color to satisfy my 
instincts, and make B&W prints sometimes to please other people.

'C'est la vie'.

Bob Frost.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bhhc" <tawow@...>



"Real images of the world"??????? You gotta be kidding!!!!! For nearly 
thirty years I have been a commercial photographer and NEVER, NOT ONCE, has 
there been a colour film that shows "real" images, or "real" colour. There 
is an enormously, hugely, gigantically, big industry out there constantly 
trying to get what a fim sees to match what a "real" colour might be, but it 
hasn't happened yet and it won't anytime soon. Through the years there has 
been one interpretation after another of "colour", resulting in one 
photographer going this way, and another going that way. VPS isn't real, nor 
VHC, nor Ektar, nor Velvia, nor the new "saturated" ektachromes, nor the 
"warm" ektachromes . . . ALL of them offer an interpretation, as does black 
and white. ALL of them are false. As for black and white, I frankly think it 
gives a more "real" representation of what I see . . . perhaps because it 
minimizes the neon efforts of Kodak, Fuji, and Agfa.

I shoot black and white to get an image I want. I shoot phony colour to pay 
for my house, car, food, kid's education, etc, etc.

Paul Aparycki
(an expert colour shooter, but a sensual pussycat in B/W)