I just recently started developing and printing my own B&W, and before that used with scans of B&W film or de-saturated color film. I'll also flip the digicam into B&W mode from time to time.
If you're planning to use a scanner and digital printer, I'd suggest using either chromogenic B&W (like Ilford XP2 super or Kodak B&W +) or shooting color negatives and converting to grayscale. I've never been able to scan traditional B&W film well - the scanner seems to accentuate the grain and lose some of the sharpness. I've also had a hard time getting consistent results in terms of B&W film development from the local labs, even those that are well regarded, but the chromogenic B&W negatives seem to come out OK from any minilab. In regards to converting color film to grayscale, aside from de-saturating your scan you can extract a particular channel, sometimes with better results. Corel Photopaint has a "split channels to" command that will create grayscale representations of each color channel. These sometimes are more interesting than just desaturating, and sort of simulate the effects of using a color filter with B&W. The biggest problem I have with digital grayscale is getting a decent print. The documentation with my Epson 2000p flat out says it is not intended for B&W, and it's predicessor, an Epson Photo EX, was just as bad. Maybe other brands of printers can do better at this. I get a monochrome print but usually with a blue or green tint. If I print in B&W (not color ink) then there is a loss in fine detail. All in all, I have to admit that traditional B&W prints do seem to do better. Hope this helps - MCC At 06:37 AM 2/18/02 +1100, Kevin wrote: >I have been fiddling with GIMP and grey scale images and color >reduction to 2 colors (black and white) and have been having >some success. What I am curious about is the quality of such >an image taken with color film against black and white images >taken with black and white film. >My situation is this. All my film, color or B&W is developed >in a local lab. I then use my neg scanner to bring the images >into the The GIMP for printing and/or manipulation. > >What are peoples thoughts about B & W film versus Greyscale? > >Kind regards >Kevin - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Kalamazoo, MI [EMAIL PROTECTED] - - - - - - - - - - Photos: http://www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
