[filmscanners] Re: TMAX/grain/BWscanning/dynamic range

["don schaefer" <send2ds@mac.com>]

> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 06:57:38 -0700
> From: "KARL SCHULMEISTERS" <karlsch@verizon.net>
> ----------------------------------------
> B&W  film has much greater dynamic range than color film (some film 
> approaches 12
> stops)…

Thanks, Karl, I assume you mean TechPan, although many people don't 
know how to get that much out of this film, and with 35mm, it's a very 
difficult proposition. Shooting color neg, you can split the dynamic 
range, shoot once for highlights, and another for shadow, and combine 
the scans in PS.

I am not against BW shooting, just getting it scanned without the grain 
becoming compounded with other artifacts to make a very unpleasant 
situation is the problem. That's why I suggested making a very sharp 
wet darkroom print, then scanning it on flat bed. And that solution is 
suggested only because of the grain problem. If you have large format 
negs and no comparable film scanner, then it make even more sense to me.

Now, whether you're printing to BW darkroom paper, or to an inkjet, you 
won't get 12 stops of dynamic range printed, so you have to decide into 
where all that extra dynamic range is going to be compressed to fit the 
range of the paper, and that's the choice we make as photographers, 
using whatever tools we choose, traditional or digital. It makes no 
difference.

This is a great discussion. Thanks to all.

Don/Boston, MA

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