SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

With mirrorless it’s even better. You can set the JPEG to B&W and see it as B&W in the viewfinder but save the raw which will give you a lot more leeway in post. Doh! I just realized you kinda said that. I was fixated on the DSLR bit.

mindzye Loc: WV

Keep in mind, if you can't do what Chg_Canon recommends (great thought, btw), then when you do your conversion there are a couple of ways to do this. One is just to convert to b/w via the button that says, well, conversion to b/w.
Simple enough. Yet that won't give you the full spectrum of tonalities as it's a generic form of transforming the original color image.

What is recommended is to take it into Vibrance, Saturation - in Affinity it is simply labeled black and white - or whatever your particular program calls it, and take all the color sliders back. This will give you a full palate of tonalities with which to work.

It is a preferable method to those I've studied and spoken with, and good results are easier to accomplish, it seems, to finalize a 'classic' b/w image - yeah I know, now describe 'classic' -.....

One can use the sliders on the b/w details menu, where the separate colors can be used to enhance or detract for several varying tonality choices.

Quite some time ago I came across an article that explained how Hollywood transformed their color images to the
'classic' b/w tones they produced. If memory serves me, they had certain percentages of....well, this & that ! -to achieve their look. When I find it I'll post it.

wayne-03 Loc: Minnesota

Maybe you guys would be interested in this chart.

(Download)


(Download)

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

You could also do it how I do it - I use B&W film.

wayne-03 Loc: Minnesota

Yes, but digital is quicker and less expensive and I don’t end up in a fight with my wife because I took over one of the bathrooms for a temporary darkroom.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Neither do I; I have it developed professionally.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Thanks for the link mindzye.

Don

mindzye Loc: WV

You are most welcome and thanks.
I have used many of the b/w films in times past - Agfa, Ilford, etc. - albeit no medium format unfortunately. Mine was the simple but effective N90 S with auto winder and good glass.

To use the above referenced material, it would dictate using digital. Of course, for the film aficionados (really can't argue with the process, as I have enjoyed untold hours of looking at proof sheets, or film strips w/ light box and loop, of b/w processing before deciding on printing, ). No negative response/ experience of film here. Ya' gotta admit though, digital is effective and Soooo less time consuming.

and when ya' screw up, it's soooo convenient, cheaper and less time consuming than film - though I rarely screwed up ---- nope, not ever once. Many times though......, but technically, not just once........

Don't need to converse on the time and expense of film; but it is a feeling of it's own - kind of like owning a pair of Keds.

User ID

Raw is the key to EVERYTHING ! Go with it.

Seabastes

[quote=Curmudgeon]Interesting post. Way back in the 60s I switched from B&W, mostly Plus X and Tri X, to Kodachrome 25.

Per Kodachrome 25

I remember when I was shooting Kodachrome !0 ASA in the late 1957's. Suddenly having Kodachrome 25 and 64 was a jump speed wise but could in my heart never quite replace the Original Kodachrome.

But getting back to B&W where this thread started.

I started out with B&W in 1956 in a High School photo class that changed my life, first as the schools Yearbook Photographer then a newspaper photographer working my was through college, a stint as an Associated Press staffer, another stint on a daily newspaper and then 50 years as a freelancer for national publications.

It all started with a 1930's folding camera and brown finger nails from too much Dektal (sp)

None of this would have happened if I had not flunked chemistry in my Junior year and my chem teacher, Mrs. Glady Heron allowed me into her Spring semester photo class at Klamath Union H.S. in Klamath Falls, Oregon,

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

I would never let someone else process my B&W film.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

So, would you allow someone else develop your Kodachrome???

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Completely different. First if all I was never big on shooting slides, but mainly with B&W film I was shooting a version of the zone system modified for roll film. Processing times and temperatures could vary for each roll.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

To me they are the same question; no variation in B&W processing expected or wanted.

User ID

Absolutely. If you can make an easy breakfast then you can soup your own BW.

OTOH, its understandable that enlarging really may be problematic depending on "lifestyle".

Acoarst, there are bipeds who are hopeless at making breakfast, and so they should NOT let misguided peer pressure push them into film !