Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
<cj@c...> wrote:

"I found that it's a very different set of Photoshop skills and
sesitivities that's called upon compared to working with scanned 
negs, like a completely different track or channel." snip  

I just started messing with my Dimage A2 with Camera Raw using the 
calibrate sliders to selectively convert a color shot to grayscale.  
It is amazing to me how much better that works than all my past 
experiments with scanning color negatives then converting to 
grayscale in Photoshop.  I can't reallys say why but I get some 
really intersting "glowing" results with the digital image. Maybe 
because most digital cameras are actually gryascale cameras with 
lots of little filters.  Haven't printed any of those experiments 
yet so I have no idea how that silverish glow will travel to inkjet 
paper but I was surprised at how much more pleasant the digtal 
camera B&W results were than the color negative results.  I don't 
know if that will make me give up B&W film - probably have to get a 
lot more resolution and image sharpness to wean me from that.  But 
if I had one of those expensive medium format digital backs I might 
well bail out on B&W film the way I'm progressively bailing on color 
film. Still up in the air on that issue technologically speaking. 

But -- I have never been a big fan of carrying around a lot of B&W 
filters to map colors to gray tones.  Makes shooting not all that 
much fun for me. (Screw filter on, screw filter off, put in filter 
book, take out of filter book, where is that darn filter I just had 
it!) Maybe some folks handle that routine as a comforting zen sort 
of thing - but to me it was always just a drag.  But with a digital 
camera you have an infinite set of B&W filters right in the camera.  
Very convenient!  Of course you have to actually "apply" 
the "filter" back in the "darkroom" rather than the field so you 
still need to sort of previsualize the results. The B&W mode on my 
camera viewfinder only does the Minolta interpretation of a 
grayscale image which is seldom good for anything but infrared 
filtered shots.

What would be really nice would be a digital camera that had some of 
the same color to B&W flexibility you have with camera raw.  Then 
you could atually get an idea in the field what sort of B&W results 
you'd get.  Sort of previsualization on the LCD rather than in the 
minds eye.  Except you could change your mind back in the lab. Even 
composite multiple B&W renditions in the computer for selecive 
areas. Too darn convenient maybe! Probably spend all my time 
tweaking sliders in Camera Raw and oohhing at the results and never 
get around to printing any of them.  Then again, LCD TVs are getting 
cheap enough to hang around the house and use as multiple digital 
picture frames... but that is another technological controversy that 
probably belongs more in the "are we obsolete" thread.

Dan