Since gas is $2.20/gal, I'm becoming more of a homebody, seeming to get out less. Occasionally I get older movies on video from the public library for entertainment. After doing the B&W bit for a while, I pay more attention to the photo quality of the old B&W movies from the 40s-60s. I'm struck by how good a lot of the 40s-early 60s B&W cinematography was. The exposures, filtration, the sets, and totalities are perfect in a lot of these movies - they work well in B&W and have no need for colorization, and I'm not only talking about the gritty film noir, Orson Wells stuff. Not sure if they used the zone system type development for films, or how good their films and meters were, but it's obvious that the filmmakers and their technicians were extremely skilled when it came to B&W imagery.

I think we'd all agree that getting consistently good B&W negs requires a fair degree of skill and a thorough knowledge of the process. Often for me it's a real struggle as I'm still in the learning mode and make my share of mistakes. While movie making is different in processing, B&W is still B&W. So after seeing the quality of many older B&W movies, I can really appreciate how good these filmmakers were.

Do any of you ever find yourself looking at these old films, or even today's B&W productions, and magazine ads, in terms of your own B&W photographic endeavors?

RJ