Digital BW, The Print

Hello Steve,

>Is there any point in working with the color temperature and tint 
>sliders in Adobe Raw if the image is ultimately going to be
>converted to monochrome?  Intuitively, it seems that the color 
>balance should affect the tonal range as it affects each of the 
>R, B and G channels differently.  However, that is no more than 
>an uneducated guess.  

I've found that altering the colors _can_ affect the resulting BW
shades, but to what degree depends a lot on your BW conversion
technique.  But in general, if you do things like intensify a blue sky
you can end up with a darker gray sky.  Also, if there are any colors
that typically convert to middle gray, such as peach or salmon, these
can also be adjusted to affect the final tones.  

Also, a lot depends on the individual image and what things you might
want to emphasize, so the approach may vary from one to another.  For
example, suppose you do a portrait of a woman who is wearing red
lipstick.  You may wish to emphasize or deemphasize that, and act
accordingly.

So you really need to experiment with whatever BW converson technique
you use and different ways of manipulating colors, to determine what
works for you.  There are countless combinations and you will evolve
your own style.  Experience over time counts heavily here.  It's worth
the effort, though, because often you can influence an image easier
while it's in color than later in BW where you'd have to make some
time consuming selections, etc.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm