I think that this shows the limitation of digital photography and why film still rules in black and white. Note the granular quality of the noise in the tonal gradations (although the dark near field upper left still looks awesome.) How did you convert to black and white? Maybe there is a way to lose the splotch. Would be an interesting one to run by Larry.
I used a B&W layering system developed by Larry Vogel. It is a multi step process. I noticed the splotch. I may fool around with it some more to see if I can minimize that.
Film has some advantages in rendering B & W. Especially with long tonal ranges. I like digital and it makes color work much more pleasant and rewarding but when I convert a digital file to B & W the limitations do pop up regardless of the methods used. Lets help Ilford stay afloat; buy a roll or a box as a charitable contribution, even if you use it for a door stop or paper weight! BTW scanning film is a workable alternative. You get some quality loss and some increased grain but with patience good digital images will emerge.
I screwed around with a copy of this downloaded from the site. Simple contrast and brightness tweaks or levels tweaks seem to replicate the contrast of the your B & W conversion without increasing the grain or creating a smudge effect. Perhaps the grain/smudge resulted from aggressive manipulation or destructive Photoshop tools. Perhaps beginning with a 16 bit file would help also. I think this image could be B & W without problems. Still Me Like the Color one Better.
I think that this shows the limitation of digital photography and why film still rules in black and white. Note the granular quality of the noise in the tonal gradations (although the dark near field upper left still looks awesome.) How did you convert to black and white? Maybe there is a way to lose the splotch. Would be an interesting one to run by Larry.
ReplyDeleteI used a B&W layering system developed by Larry Vogel. It is a multi step process. I noticed the splotch. I may fool around with it some more to see if I can minimize that.
ReplyDeleteFilm has some advantages in rendering B & W. Especially with long tonal ranges. I like digital and it makes color work much more pleasant and rewarding but when I convert a digital file to B & W the limitations do pop up regardless of the methods used. Lets help Ilford stay afloat; buy a roll or a box as a charitable contribution, even if you use it for a door stop or paper weight! BTW scanning film is a workable alternative. You get some quality loss and some increased grain but with patience good digital images will emerge.
ReplyDeleteI screwed around with a copy of this downloaded from the site. Simple contrast and brightness tweaks or levels tweaks seem to replicate the contrast of the your B & W conversion without increasing the grain or creating a smudge effect. Perhaps the grain/smudge resulted from aggressive manipulation or destructive Photoshop tools. Perhaps beginning with a 16 bit file would help also. I think this image could be B & W without problems. Still Me Like the Color one Better.
ReplyDelete