Digital BW, The Print

There is no advantage to scanning a b&w neg in RGB as the three
channels (and hence the three times larger file) will be identical.
However, my printer tells me that i should supply him with RGB files
of my b&w work as they contain more information. I have never quite
understood this but I do it.
 If you convert to monochrome in the channel mixer the three different
channels WILL look different. Very different in some cases. Yes it's
true that you can select the one that you like but there is an optimum
percentage mix that I have seen recommended. I don't know if you used
to shoot with different b&w films years ago but if you compared the
same shot of a colourful subjecttaken with Tri-X and say Plus X they
were very different as the films reacted to different colours differently.
I personally don't use the Mixer method to convert to B&W but use the
Lab method and prefer those results. The method is explained on the
web if you do a search. Try it and see what you think. It is good and
much better than Desaturate.
Jules

 

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Bruce Watson
<bwyg@...> wrote:
>
> howg2211 wrote:
> > I am just starting to try my hand at black and white digital imaging
> > and am actually starting with a Holga and a pinhole camera using Kodak
> > Tri-X.  I recently purchased an Epson V700 scanner and Vuescan
> > software.  Looking around the internet, the general advice seemed to
> > be to scan black and white negatives as if they were color images and
> > then convert to grayscale afterwards.  I do notice that Vuescan has a
> > scan black and white negative as an option.  Since this is Vuescan and
> > not some prepackaged scanning software I was wondering how folks here
> > recommend doing this with Vuescan (I realize this isn't a Vuescan
> > forum but figure there are lots of people here using it with a lot of
> > experience)....is it best to scan as a color slide or a color negative
> > and convert to grayscale or will the Vuescan scan as black and white
> > negative give the best results (ie, has Vuescan taken all this into
> > account and will setting the source as black and white negative give
> > me the best results)?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Howard
> >   
> 
> Why guess when you can know? Scan the same negative in different ways 
> and compare. What works for someone else won't necessarily work for
you. 
> And scanning isn't automatic. The only way to get good at it is to
scan, 
> and scan, and scan. So you can kill two birds with one stone as it
were. 
> Scan and scan and scan. It's the only way to learn what the different 
> settings mean, and what they do, for your film. I'm serious.
> --
> Bruce Watson
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