Color to B&W or just B&W film?

cande56755 · Jan 6, 2009

Should I buy B&W film? Does it make a difference?Can I just convert after scanning and putting into Photoshop? Are the tones better in B&W?

ksmattfish · Jan 6, 2009

If you are printing in the traditional darkroom you will probably find regular BW film better. The orange film base of color neg film isn't suited for most commonly used papers.

If you are scanning you will have more options converting color to BW.

Whatever method you choose the quality of the tones and tonal range will have more to do with your processing skills and eye than the materials you choose to use.

djacobox372 · Jan 6, 2009

The main reason to use B&W film is price. With B&W it's easy and CHEAP to develop it yourself--cost me about 20 cents a roll.

Also, there are a lot more choices in B&W film--with color you have the $7+ roll of the "good stuff" and the $2 roll of drug-store film... not much else.

Patrick · Jan 10, 2009

djacobox372 said:
The main reason to use B&W film is price. With B&W it's easy and CHEAP to develop it yourself--cost me about 20 cents a roll.

Also, there are a lot more choices in B&W film--with color you have the $7+ roll of the "good stuff" and the $2 roll of drug-store film... not much else.

I'll ditto that!
Plus B&W film just has that "look" in my opinion you can't get from any Plug-in or photoshop.

Not to mention Black and White Negs will last a long long looonnngg time if stored properly. I imagine alot longer than our digital will.

christopher walrath · Jan 10, 2009

Do yourself a huge favor. Buy the film. Do shortcuts later if you decide to but you at least have to give it a go. See what it's like.

bhop · Jan 29, 2009

djacobox372 said:
The main reason to use B&W film is price. With B&W it's easy and CHEAP to develop it yourself--cost me about 20 cents a roll.

Also, there are a lot more choices in B&W film--with color you have the $7+ roll of the "good stuff" and the $2 roll of drug-store film... not much else.

Yep..

compur · Jan 29, 2009

djacobox372 said:
The main reason to use B&W film is price.

Not for me it isn't.

My reasons for using B&W are its beauty, its longevity and the range of
pictorial effects that can be created with the myriad of B&W developers and
developing techniques that can be used with it.

jrtcbmw · Feb 27, 2009

compur said:
My reasons for using B&W are its beauty, its longevity and the range of
pictorial effects that can be created with the myriad of B&W developers and
developing techniques that can be used with it.

I love black and white, it brings a whole new aspect to the photo. I prefer taking B&W film. Personally it looks amazing. When college is over, i plan on building a darkroom and continuing my B&W photography.

cande56755 · Feb 27, 2009

ksmattfish said:
If you are printing in the traditional darkroom you will probably find regular BW film better. The orange film base of color neg film isn't suited for most commonly used papers.

If you are scanning you will have more options converting color to BW.

Whatever method you choose the quality of the tones and tonal range will have more to do with your processing skills and eye than the materials you choose to use.

Do you just develop the negative and then just scan it or do you make prints and then scan those? I kind of wanted to know what the B&W enthusiasts usually do.

I also wanted to know if it's possible to just use a flat bed scanner w/o attachments to scan the negatives. What do you think?

randerson07 · Feb 27, 2009

Your scanner will need to be specifically designed for film, meaning the light source is in the lid of the scanner.

Most folks scan the negatives, I suppose you could also scan prints, but you will get larger files from the negs. Better prints from the negs than from the scans in my opinion.

I suppose it all depends on what you desire for your final result.