[Leica] B&W conversion methods

[Ken Carney]

Hi, Adam

I have not printed this version yet.  I currently have the Epson 3880 
printer and will be keeping an eye on the Epson P800 (also a 17" width) 
to see if the promise of better blacks holds true.  I think that is the 
area, maybe the last area, where improvement is needed for b&w as 
compared to wet prints.  I have tried some of the specialty b&w inksets 
and continuous flow conversions but they are all in a landfill somewhere 
now (they are for folks who print daily as the vendor told me and I 
didn't listen).  Yes, I did add some TriX grain to this one.  I use 
TrueGrain (www.grubbasoftware.com).  They used blank film stock in 
various developers and then scanned the results, for example TriX in D76 
1:a at 20C.  The grain added by software such as SEP is of course a 
digital approximation.  Both of the gallery images are 1024x700. Thanks 
for looking and commenting!

Ken

On 5/7/2015 7:28 PM, Adam Bridge wrote:
> I think your revision is the better choice, at least to my eye on a monitor. For an image like this, though, the proof is in how it prints and that would be an interesting process.
>
> I also think highly of using Tony Kuyper’s luminosity masks to develop images. They offer a powerful tool to work with challenging images. I don’t use them all the time but they’re well worth the effort when they are needed.
>
> It’s funny but adding a bit of grain to an image also makes a difference as well. I’m not sure why this is the case. I wonder if people who haven’t seen a lot of black and white printing would experience it the same way as those of us who have lived with it most of our lives.
>
> A momentary digression:
>
> We’ve been watching many of the “30 for 30” documentaries on ESPN while Jan recovers from her knee replacement. Especially in the basketball stills from the 80s there are some killer black and white images. I admire the photographers who made them because they weren’t shooting thousands of images in bursts of 50. They had a few rolls of something like Tri-X and a motor drive. And skill. And an eye. It shows.
>
> Now back:
>
> All of the images I saw had film grain. It really added to the image in my eye. Maybe it’s what I expected. Or maybe it’s something else: like how a bit of hiss in an audio recording makes the highs sound brighter (a documented psycho-acoustic phenomena).
>
> I believe you have added grain to images, Ken, in the past, to good effect. Maybe here?
>
> Also, what’s the full size of these images? I somehow think the original is larger?
>
> Adam
>
>> On 2015 May 5, at 4:50 PM, Ken Carney <kcarney1 at cox.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for commenting and I think you are right, that I went a little overboard.  Here is hopefully an improvement:
>>
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525BWTX2.jpg.html
>>
>> Ken
>
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