Digital BW, The Print

I think the reason that I love black and white is because it minimizes the distraction, though the hurdles one has to jump through to get the "previsualisation" correct can be  discouraging at times. Since day one in photography I have shot it for my pleasure, sometimes for business.

Yes you are absolutely right about each person seeing it differently (the tone or hue that is), so I suppose ultimately, none are right. That is an uncomfortable thought . . . it almost presumes that yes indeed, ther are an infinite number of universes (one for each person, soul), and none of them are the same colour . . . ought to keep Martha Stewart busy for a long, long time ;-))

Visually I live in two, actually three extremes. The first is B/W, which as I stated is somewhat therapeutic for me, the second is trying to get colour film make my client's product look right (it HAS become easier over the years), and the third is where I fiddle, experiment, and torture lighting and film, so who the hell cares what tone is right?

I think I'll give up here . . . am beginning to sound like I need help ;-))))))

all the best
Paul Aparycki

p.s. " the opposite way round" . . . you don't suppose we are "doppelgangers??"


  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.

  SNIP SNIP

  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.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]