Digital BW, The Print

Sometimes when it gets like this, I can say only one thing. Go take  
more photographs. That's the one thing that Ansel did that we all  
need to do more often, eh? ;-)

Better yet, do this.  Combine Ansel Adams' zone system techniques  
with raw (3f, negative, whatever) drum-scanning.  Note this is  
truncated and written on-the-fly.

Part One: (best with TMAX 100 because it's a thin film)
1.Start with your normal ASA and Development time.
2. Photograph gray card in direct sun Shoot five rolls of 120.
     #1: Expose all you stops from under to over. Your middle  
exposure should be around f8 or 11.
     #2: Develop #1 roll normal, #2 roll -2 or -3, #3 roll +2 or +3.  
Use roll #4 as you normal control (ie: develop it normally and view  
it against #1 roll for inconsistencies) and keep #5 roll for backup.
3.Run your densities for ASA/development time combo to find optimal  
ASA and dev time for +-0 (for traditional paper and darkroom that is.)
4. Re-do using found ASA and development time. Run densities to  
validate + should normal scene for visual validation. (normal scene  
is 4 stops between textured shadow and textured highlight)
6. Use your paper and developer combo to find exact exposure/ 
development time for a good print of normal scene. Do NOT dodge and  
burn.
7. Use a drum-scanner and scan your film in raw (visual validation  
shot from normal scene) (ie: as a negative with your histogram  
completely out.) Keep image Untagged 16bit or 12bit RGB
8. Open file and tag with GG 1.8 or 2.2 or whatever is working for  
you. Keep Grayscale 16bit
9. Invert in photoshop and use your controls for general histogram  
correction (ie: curves etc). Do not mask.
10. Also scan in each negative from your validated roll of gray-card  
photos. Line these up along the bottom of you image in Photoshop.
11. Print.
12. Look at print and visualize until it "matches" the tonalities of  
the silver prints from the validated roll.
13. Run reflective densities using Eye1, etc.
14. Graph along-side transparency densities.
15. If the graph does not match curve-wise, re-do your curves in  
photoshop or re-profile you scanner.
16. If the curves do match you have completed Part One.

Part Two: (for those who don't want to print silver anymore but still  
should film.)
1. Re-do validation experiment but expose 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5. Expose a  
gray-card and normal scene for each. That's 12 shots.
2. Develop +2 +1 0 -1 -2 (5 rolls.).
3. Scan in film and find the negative that takes the least amount of  
tweaking with curves when scanned raw and inverted in photoshop.
4. Find the corresponding development times for the exposure and scan  
the gray-card shots in. Line up under image and print.
5. Run reflective densities and graph.
6. Look at your graph against the other ones.
7. Now you have an ASA and Development time for your specific digital  
work-flow. Yes indeed.