Digital BW, The Print

This is interesting because I have never been able to make a B+W print from a 
color digital capture that had the look of a print from B+W film.  I believe 
I have tried every method and every plugin and the print never looks "real."

Converting color to B+W in Photoshop doesn't work, IMO.

Helene

> >"Simulate" is the operative word here.  You can make something 
> >look like Tri-X or Tech Pan, but if you compare it with the 
> >same scene actually photographed with these films, you may be 
> >surprised.  Almost all the information required to reproduce the 
> >response of most B&W films is missing from color images.
> 
> >You can certainly produce fine prints; but if you want prints 
> >that look exactly the way a certain film looks, you must 
> >capture the original scene with that film.
> 
> I've been following this thread with great interest.  It's a subject
> that has concerned me for a long time, as I've hinted at in past posts
> about my fear of losing the look and feel of particular films.  You
> have finally brought to the table a credible explanation for what I
> have only suspected.
> 
> I don't have a high end digi cam, but do have a 4mpx model with a
> decent lens, and so have been able to try making BW prints from a
> few images.  I even tried using the demo version of the software that
> emulates different films, and it's quite good.  The few images I
> worked up were sharp, well rendered, and made prints that were
> basically "good" in many ways, yet failed to fully satisfy by not
> "pressing my button" in the way my scans of Tri-X negs have.
> 
> I'm not giving up hope for an all-digital workflow.  Perhaps better
> cameras, software, and my own improving skills will make it possible
> someday.  In the meantime I'll save my shekels and shoot film.  6x7
> Tri-X negs made with Pentax 67 lenses are hard to beat.
> 



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

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, grdglass@a... 
wrote:
> This is interesting because I have never been able to make a B+W 
print from a 
> color digital capture that had the look of a print from B+W film.  
I believe 
> I have tried every method and every plugin and the print never 
looks "real."


Let's not get all mystical about it.   The response curves for all 
their films are available from Kodak.  A response curve is a vector 
of scalars.  It should be simple linear algebra to take two response 
curves and come up with a third curve that represents the conversion 
of one to the other.   The only case that would fail is if the 
target response curve had a wider latitude than the source one.  So 
if you start with a wide latitude color film why should it be hard 
to simulate a b+w film of similar or narrower latitude?