Digital BW, The Print

This is a very interesting discussion. 

I've just started to experiment with b/w gloss and I would agree that the expanded dynamic range is one of the most attractive aspects. 

My comment on the "wow" fact provided by the extra DMax is that it's potential benefit will vary, image to image. As a parallel, I just finished a number of colour prints for a customer, most on gloss. Her feedback was that she generally preferred the matte prints. She saw little benefit in terms of increased gamut or Dmax, and did not like the glare. However, the gamut of many of her images would fit within matte and as a proper test I should select those that exceed the gamut of matte, and print them on both media. Then we'll truly know if she prefers matte.

>"Jon Cone" <jon@...> wrote:
>
> I think also, we come up against human visual systems that will have trouble differentiating.
> 
> Put a human into deep space, and their brain will still be transmitting the perception of light. People who meditate frequently realize how much of an illusion or phenomena is "darkness".
> 
> interesting stuff in the shadows...

This is somewhat of an aside, but. . .  Light and sound are simply different parts of the frequency spectrum, one being composed of low frequencies, the other composed of a higher set of frequencies. I suffer from Tinnitus, a condition where I hear a high pitched "ringing" or "hissing" all the time (~6Khz). I'm in a Tinnitus Retraining Program, and my audiologist told me that if someone with normal hearing (i.e. no tinnitus) sit in room with no sound, such as an anechoic chamber, they will "hear" sounds. 

Interesting stuff in the silence...

Terry.