Digital BW, The Print

Hi James,

> Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply.

You're welcome.

> I
> thought I had understood that the blue channel was least
> desirable (am I mistaken?).

Well, red is the channel that has the most smear and bloom.

> 3. What is the basis for the red channel being "fuzzier" and "less
> sharp" than the green?

CCDs are obviously sensitive to light.  They react to different wavelengths
of light differently...and red is the highest energy of all the three
channels, which makes is susceptible to bloom, which is basically it
provides too much signal to the CCD (which is shown in your histogram, that
red has the most "energy").  And since it has such high energy, it also
smears...which means it "bleeds" into the adjacent sensors.

> 4. What do you know about Vuescan, in terms of how it
> translates the raw scan data into a 16 bit B&W output: does Ed
> Hamrick just select for a single channel?

I don't know at all.  I'd suggest contacting him.

> I exhibit my documentary work fairly widely (30+
> solo shows to date).

Excellent!  Let me know if you have one in the Boston area, I'd love to see
it.

Regards,

Austin