Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Craig Sanders"
<craiglsanders@c...> wrote:
>
> I have used it and can say it's very good. Gives you excellent
control over
> color to B/W conversion, including simulating photo filters,
different photo
> print papers (not inkjet, photographic), and even has some print toning
> tools thrown in.


I've been converting color to B&W for digital output for more years
than I'm willing to admit in this forum. There are more ways to do it
than could ever be discussed here in detail. Caponigro's book, Adobe
Photoshop Master Class and Harold Johnson's Mastering Digital Printing
are excellent references...and there are many more. Up to now my
current preferred conversion workflows include the LaB approach,
Photoshop's channel mixer, the Adobe Bridge Calibrate tab AND
ConvertToBW Pro. Fortunately there are many ways to do it right so it
really boils down to personal choice and finding a workflow that is
comfortable.

All this said, I must point out that one of the best conversion
algorithms to come along is the Grayscale Mixer in Adobe's beta
version of LightRoom. I have been using it since the beta version
became available and I now use it nearly to the exclusion of all my
previous choices. I find it intuitive, very easy to use, can preview
live as I go and the grayscale files I create with it are robust and
no important data seems to be lost in the conversion process. There
are many other reasons for professional photographers to take a look
at Light Room, but for me,a black & white photographer who works
mainly with RAW files, the Grayscale Mixer tops the list. At present
the free(!) Light Room Beta is available to Mac users only but there
is a sign-up list on the beta site for PC users who might want to
download it, for free(!) when it becomes available. Sorry to rag on
like this but, as most here know, conversion to B&W is  near the
beginning of the B&W printing process and the importance of doing it
correctly can't be overlooked. If you wanna check it out go here:
http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/

KD