Digital BW, The Print

> Julian:
> Are you scanning in RGB? If you scan in grayscale, you lose  information.
>  
> Richard (Brooklyn)

Richard,
My research and testing showed no advantage to scanning B&W negs,{Fuji Acros 645} in 
RGB mode. All it did for me was 3x my file size. I saw no difference in the noise level 
among the RGB channels. {many say that blue channel is least noise in CCD scanners} All 
were relatively clean. Was told this is due to the CCD cooling system that Imacon uses. 
From what I've seen, no digital image is totally noise free, and the Imacon scans are the 
next best thing to drum scans.

I don't think my sharpening issues are related to scanning. I used an Imacon 949, in 16bit 
grayscale mode @ 400DPI {no interpolation, no sharpening}. Files are 105Mb. 

I've been happy with PhotoKit for color images and when I try it for B&W I'm unsure when 
to convert to RGB as flattening images is a pain and not flattening yeilds unacceptable 
tonal changes. Also PK doesn't give me the amount of sharpening I would like in B&W.  I 
understand that I need to develop a 'sharpening workflow' {system} for myself, and 
thought that this group would be a great place to seek direction to help me wade thru all 
the plug-ins and 'expert adivce'.

Thanks to all,
Julian

PS. I e-mailed "http://www.pinkheadedbug.com/links.html" asking about the download
log in info for Deadman's Sharpener. Will share what I get.