Gritty

Aah, those evenings in the darkroom with the enlarger. What strange alchemy was worked with Ilford RC multigrade paper and those strange hued rectangles you dropped in the enlarger filter tray. Out of the other end of all this foolishness you were supposed to get a high contrast gritty black and white print to put on the wall.



Of course, hard black was quite difficult to achieve, and there were the ever present dust spots to contend with. On a good day something worthwhile could be created...


I suppose my question is this: Is it easier to make a black and white image these days. I guess you would take the picture as a raw (colour) image and then convert to monochrome in Photoshop. Even that first step has a myriad of choices, how much red, how much blue?


Should you use tone mapping to adjust the look of the image? An finally, how would you get it printed so the result were truly black and white with no tint at all. Deliberately tinting a monochrome image is a completely different idea...



Wouldn't it be easier to do it the old fashioned way, with film and chemicals after all?  Oh, and by the way, no I don't have a thing for old petrol pumps. Well I think I don't...

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