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[OM] Re: Digital B&W, another attempt

Subject: [OM] Re: Digital B&W, another attempt
From: Johan Malmstrom <jmalmstrom@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 09:45:00 +0100
One (stupid?) question:

Is the 8-th step to go greyscale?

Digital seems the as the path now, I got my DD-X yesterday that I ordered
last summer!

/ Johan

Den 06-01-30 21.33, skrev "AG Schnozz" <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Friday I took some pictures that I envisioned as B&W. Last night
> I got around to experimenting with a couple of those to see if
> they'd go anywhere.  I shot the same scene with the E-1 as well
> as my A1.
> 
> Veddy int'resting.
> 
> The tonal adjustments were "extreme" to say the least.  We're
> talking very heavy-handed processing to achieve a "look" that
> was as far from "realistic" as possible.  In the darkroom, it
> would have involved a double whammy of paper-flashing and
> split-grade processing.  In Photoshop (or during RAW conversion)
> it was quite a bit easier--but not quite as much fun.  :)
> 
> Without a doubt, the A1 produced a film-grain look that was
> nearly identical to T400CN.  You'd be hard pressed to tell the
> difference in the final print.  The E-1 produced a look which I
> still can't figure out, but merges the cleanliness of
> medium-format with a slight edginess of silver-film.
> 
> Then came the fun.
> 
> I didn't want "grainless" or "noiseless" as I was attempting to
> achieve a look.  Well, doing some testing, this is what seemed
> to work well and will be a basis of further experimentation.
> 
> 1. Process the image to your desired tonal extremes. Let the
> blacks and whites go just a touch farther into 0%, 100% than you
> normally would.  Don't worry about noise/grain, just let it go.
> 
> 2. Upsize the image to your desired print size. Do the scaling
> with Bicubic.
> 
> 3. Duplicate the image onto another layer.
> 
> 4. Apply noise to that layer. I stayed with monochrome noise.
> Not much, just enough to irritate you.
> 
> 5. Apply a very light blur to that duplicated layer.
> 
> 6. Blend the duplicated layer at about 25-30%.
> 
> 7. Flatten image.
> 
> The end result is an image with an "organic" look to it and the
> extreme blacks and whites now have a texture to them that looks
> real instead of white-washed. The results are more B&W'ish than
> anything I've ever achieved through normal processes. I applied
> these steps after the initial conversion to monochrome (and
> whatever goofy things you do there). My biggest problem with
> digital B&W is the lack of "finesse" in the highlights and
> shadows. Most films have a nice toe and shoulder that gives
> details that is lost in digital capture. This additive noise
> process mimicks the lost detail and can actually reveal details
> that are maybe one or two brightness steps different by bringing
> them back from the threshold.
> 
> If I can get a globbier noise pattern, I might be able to mimick
> real B&W films.  The grain in a B&W film creates (extremely)
> localized diffraction artifacts which are not captured in the
> film scanning process or digital capture.
> 
> Much more work to go, but at least I'm making headway.
> 
> AG
> 
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