Black and White Delema

[Hugh Sakols]

I first developed my interest in photography by working in the wet dark room at home and while in high school over 20 years ago. I have an extra film back for my field camera and have been thinking about making BW images on my epson printer (4800). My delema now is whether to use black and white film that I would develop myself or use color negative film like Kodak 160 NC. Of course I want to use negative film to get the benefits of greater dynamic range. However, I only have a dedicated film scanner and have no idea how I would make a contact sheet. I'm curious how other digital bw photographers work with negative film. No I don't own a flatbed scanner. Also if I am not working in the traditional darkroom would I gain anything from using a fine grained bw film vs using color negative film other than saving $$ on processing.

[Marko]

I first developed my interest in photography by working in the wet dark room at home and while in high school over 20 years ago. I have an extra film back for my field camera and have been thinking about making BW images on my epson printer (4800). My delema now is whether to use black and white film that I would develop myself or use color negative film like Kodak 160 NC. Of course I want to use negative film to get the benefits of greater dynamic range. However, I only have a dedicated film scanner and have no idea how I would make a contact sheet. I'm curious how other digital bw photographers work with negative film. No I don't own a flatbed scanner. Also if I am not working in the traditional darkroom would I gain anything from using a fine grained bw film vs using color negative film other than saving $$ on processing.

Hugh,

Once you scan your film and have all the images in a dedicated directory/folder, you can easily create contact sheet, as well as various other picture packages, in Photoshop. You can also create a quick web page (again in Photoshop) and use it for local viewing, including basic information for each image.

[Ron Marshall]

I use b/w and color neg, scanning with an Epson 4990, correcting in PS, then printing on an Epson 2200.

I prefer b/w for some subjects and color for others. I am very happy with the results from Fuji Pro 160S, but have not tried a 400 speed color. Some people shoot only color and are happy.