Digital BW, The Print

Paul,
I worked in a large engineering/architecture operation.  Just be aware  
of one thing.  Often, architects want large sized prints of images or  
renderings....24X36 and 36X48 being pretty common.  When you say that  
they want some "quality b/w as well as digital color", it makes me  
think that they could want really great looking, very large b/w  
prints.  That gets me to worrying about grain being obtrusive.   I'd  
suggest that if you're going to be shooting film, that you use medium  
format or 4x5.  If you have to use 35mm, then use the finest grained  
film you can get.  Otherwise, scanning down to the grain level and  
then enlarging to that size will yield a salt and peppery grain-storm.

I have my own darkroom and did lots of 35mm up to 4x5 b/w development  
and printing for years, but if I had that assignment today, I'd shoot  
digital and convert to b/w or shoot 4x5 transparency's if I needed  
perspective control and then scan that.  From those scan's I'd get  
both the color and if needed, I'd convert to b/w.

Brad

On Feb 3, 2009, at 7:41 PM, Paul Whiting wrote:

> Greetings all, interesting thread. I share Dana's approach.
>
> I thought about this issue a lot last week. I have a project coming up
> with an architect who wants some quality b/w as well as digital color.
> I began investigating how to get b/w from my digital color files,
> knowing there was more to it than just clicking on "remove color" in
> PhotoShop Elements. The more I looked at options like CS3 or CS4,
> various plug-ins, stand-alone conversion to b/w software and so on, I
> finally ended up thinking heck, why not shoot in b/w film as I shoot
> the color digital. So I plan to shoot the digital color, leave the
> tripod in the same place, mount my b/w film camera and take the same
> shot. Develop the film, scan it, and hey, I've got the film look. Been
> developing b/w film for 40 years so am quite comfortable with it.
> Plus, I would then have a hard copy b/w original which is more
> comforting archivally speaking than a file on a CD when CD players may
> go the way of the dinosaur.
>
> I did some tests, scanning some Ilford FP4+ film, 35mm yet!, and got
> some very fine 8x10's using the MK3 approach on an Epson R1800. A
> friend of mine calls this the hybrid approach. I'm inclined to go this
> way for the time being.
>
> fwiw,
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]