I'd differ with you on that. Grain can be reasonably well controlled in B&W once you know what you're doing by choice of film, exposure, developer, developing technique, and choice of paper (both in terms of finish and contrast grade). Apart from the size of the grain (actually grain clumps) their hardness or softness can be controlled as well. Using the various techniques, the look and feel of a photograph can be changed substantially, giving it one feeling or another, strengthing or softening its impact, and, thereby, modifyng the meaning and intent of the image. Perhaps not on as grand a scale as a color conversion to B&W, but to a substantial degree.
A possibly extreme, but reasonable, example, would be the choice of making a photo on the now defunct 2475 Recording Film developed with something like Acufine or Diafine, maybe even Rodinal, given rough, aggressive agitation with minimal care paid to temperture between developer, stop, fix, and rinse, somewhat under developed (or even a bit underexposed), and printed on a hard paper. The same scene made with an ultra fine grained film, like Technical Pan or something similar, using a developer that promotes acutance and fine grain, and printed on a softer paper, will render the same scene completely differently. You may not even recognize 'em at 16x20 sizes <LOL> I'm not trying to argue, but rather just point out that the degree and type of grain can be a substantial creative tool. The problem today is that there aren't that many films to choose from with which you can easily make such gross manipulations of a photographs feel and intent, although it is certainly possible, and many, if not most, contemporary photographers aren't familiar with the possibilities or skilled in their use. Too many photogs are taking the homogenous method of using chromogenic film for their B&W work instead of learning real B&W techniques, thereby losing substantial interpretive and creative possibilities, where Juan wanted to add grain to his pics to make them look more like Tri-X. Of course, if grain were not such an interesting creative tool, numerous digital photographer might not give much thought to adding grain to their images ... which brings us back full circle to the start of this thread. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Rob Studdert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Ah thanks, it's a strange thing this grain issue, it's certainly a treatment > but I don't feel that it's a tool in the same sense as destauration or > saturating an image is. Grain or lack thereof is generally a consequence of the > process whereas printing a colour image to greyscale can completely alter the > focus and meaning of the image. For instance the colour version of my image > (which you commented upon) is dominiated by a red hat and competeing skin tones > in the mid and foreground.
