Digital BW, The Print

Clayton - I offer another take on this subject which I hope isn't too
personal for you!

I wonder whether you're one whose vision is hyper-critical and
hyper-tuned to the extent that it is well beyond what most of us can
recognise.  If that is so then I can fully understand what you say
about your seeing the coloured inks B&W prints that others appear to
not see.  I offer suggestion this based on some of my own very
personal and perhaps unique(?) experience as someone who a) doesn't
have binocular vision, b) but has near perfect vision in each eye
independently, and c) can notice slight differences in colouration of
a scene depending on which eye I use to look at it.  The only point I
am making here is that through my own personal experience through the
evidence of my eyesight I know that the brain interprets things
differently; dependent on which eye I use.  From this I draw the
conclusion that if I personally can see differences in an identical
image (via my left or right eye) then there is no such thing as a
universal and common interpretation of the colour of an image when
judged by different individuals.

So, perhaps for many of us who don't see what you see, perhaps it's
truly a reflection of how our brains are tuned.  Without going too far
down this route, there are many examples of people with substantially
heightened senses who have been unaware of it until some event or
other reveals it for them.

I'm not suggesting that this precisely explains what you and certainly
some others see and but many others don't.  But I can't help think
that at least it's related.

Then again, I could be talking nonsense.

By the way, my somewhat unusual ability also allows me to see every
potential image in true 2D – through one eye at a time.  I know we can
all do it by shutting one eye – but for most of us that is a very
occasional experience – for me it is constant.  But whether or not
that helps me be a `better' photographer or not is another and
speculative question.

Steve Gledhill
http://www.VirtuallyGrey.co.uk

> 
> I'm probably more sensitive to the coloration because I've stuck with
> BO all along.  I sit here surrounded by prints that look, well, black
> and white.  They are rich, black, and they glow with a gorgeous
> intensity.  And when I pull out the K3 prints...I just don't get that
> warm fuzzy feeling about them, my stomach gets uncomfortable.  They
> look fake, somehow, with unconvincing blacks.  As an analogy, it's
> like looking at a fake Picasso, albeit one that is very skillfully
> done.  It may fool the masses, but the museum director who has handled
> the real thing for years isn't fooled.  His gut instinct waves red
> flags all over the place.
> 
> Please understand I am not trying to be critical of those who like K3
> prints.  I think it great, and these printers will surely have a huge
> impact and bring legions of photographers over the line into digital
> printing.  In the long run this will be a boon to the industry and
> will help propel more R&D.  I just don't think we are where we need to
> be just yet, and I'm not satisfied.
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm