Digital BW, The Print

Hi Jules & Martin

1. There is a fairly extensive article on scanning pyro negatives and
selectively using different color channels in the magazine 'Ag' No.
26. Here is their webpage with the possibility to order back numbers:
http://www.ag-photo.co.uk/

2. I have been working with PMK for the last 15 years and am presently
also using Pyrocat HD. I scan both kinds of negatives either with
EPSON 4990/Vue Scan or IMACON 646 and have beautiful results with both
developers and both scanners. 

On and off I am poring over the following question which is directly
pertinent to this list:

Enlarging pyro negs (PMK and/or Pyrocat) on multigrade silver paper
gives you the advantage of the yellow/brown stain selectively holding
back the hard blue light of the enlarger so that the highlights be
selectively filtered down by the stain and thus giving better
differentiation in the highlights. This has been described in depth by
 Gordon Hutchings (inventor of PMK) and also by Sandy King (inventor
of Pyrocat).

Now what I would like to work out is how to achieve similiar increase
of differentiation of highlights in scanned pyro negatives. This would
have to entail scanning the pyro negs in colour and then simulating
the selective filtering by intelligent use of the channel mixer or
some such in Photoshop.

Has anyone any ideas in this direction or does anyone know someone
with such ideas? ;-)

best regards
Juraj



> > 
> > > I do all my processing (not really all that much on a pyro neg)as 
> a B&W 
> > > scanned in as RGB, then when I go to print, I convert the image 
> to a 
> > > 20% dot gain grayscale. I use QTR and a 2200 for smaller work and 
> farm 
> > > it out for larger prints. 
> > > 
> > > Jules
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > Jules, thanks for the input.  Using the 24 bit color negative 
> setting, in Vuescan, for "Pyro" 
> > processed B&W film and converting them to B&W in PhotoShop did the 
> trick.  I have a lab in 
> > Sacramento, California do the "pyro" processing.  They only do B&W 
> work.
> > 
> > Martin
> 
> Thanks for the tip Martin. Could you post the URL for tha lab so I 
> can stop stinking up the house with pyro developing?
> 
> Thanks again
> 
> Jules
>