[Leica] RE: Ted shaking our heads to pulp

["BIRKEY, DUANE" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

Ted wrote
 
>He used Kodak 3200 at that speed and sometimes 6400. Developed the 
film
>himself and then took it and had 4X6 B&W prints made at his local 1 
hour
>shop!

>I know it sounds crazy already, but hear it out! It gets wilder! :)

>When the prints are made 4X6 they don't show any grain!  Now you edit 
and
>take the very best and copy them onto Tmax 100 film fine grain stuff. 
And
>make your almost grainless 8X10's from the copies! Now I know you are 
going
>to be shaking your heads and brains to pulp.

At first glance I'm a bit skeptical,  since it just doesn't seem to 
make logical sense.   

I looked at a few of my TMY B&W 3x5 prints with a Linhof 8x loupe and I 
can see grain with or without the loupe.  I suppose copying a low 
resolution print softens the image enough that the grain doesn't appear 
as sharp on the 8x10's and maybe the apparent sharpness was just OK in 
the 8x10.   

But let's face it, if there is grain in the negative it will be in the 
final print and in the same proportion to the rest of the image whether 
you make copies or not.   If you soften the grain you also soften the 
image. When you duplicate images, you add more grain albeit different 
grain and you lose some sharpness since photographic paper is 
relatively a low resolution material.  I suppose adding the Tmax 100 
grain over the other grain could cause it to break up the original 
granular patterns more.  I would test it before believing the process 
to be true and I would want to see some side by side comparisons.  I've 
been wrong before.

The other factor about grain is that it is invisible with true blacks 
and true whites, and less visible when the subject is in sharp focus. 
Some textured subjects hide grain as well.  Out of focus medium and 
light grays make grain stand out like a sore thumb.  So shooting a high 
contrast scene (or making a high contrast print) while maintaining the 
subject in focus could nearly eliminate the appearance of grain.  Don't 
just take my word for it, look at some prints!  

Duane