Digital BW, The Print

I've just printed some pictures of a 5-year-old from ultra-grainy 35mm
B&W...4000ppi Nikon scan, QTRgui, A4 prints.

Just for the heck of it I added a small amount of gaussian blur in
postprocessing, finally moderate USM (the correct sequence).

The result was creamy baby skin, ultra-sharp eyes and hair. Grain,
which I might have dug in a "meaningful" photo, simply vanished. Next
time I photograph a woman I will certainly want to evaluate gaussian
blur again.

I tried the it on some very sharp, grainy 400ei color negs of branches
and twigs...same result: creamy sky, grain vanished, and somehow the
pimage actually looks sharper, it's easier to see twig and leaf
details after gaussian blur, then USM. Perhaps USM works its miracle
better when grain isn't in the way. 

Gaussian blur seems rarely mentioned outside of retouching circles,
but have found it a great tool. Maybe it's comparable to use of
cold-light enlarger or a portrait lens, or Softar, or maybe like a
ScanHancer.