Choosing Film

[sungho_jun]

<p>Hello, I began using film just a couple months ago, and I was wondering if there would be some <br>

significant difference between BW image taken from BW film, and BW image converted from Color film.<br>

Its so basic question... :)<br>

Thanks.</p>

[Member69643]

<p>It depends on what you plan to do with the negatives. If you're talking about printing the images in a darkroom, it's far easier to start with B&W film. If you're going to scan, it's better to use color film.</p>

[SCL]

<p>The differences can be significant, depending on what you want to achieve and your method of getting there. As the above PNetter indicated, your question needs to be more specific in order to give a reasonable answer. Are you talking about traditional darkroom printing, and if so how do you anticipate converting the color image to B&W, or are you talking about scanning the images and then manipulating them with software. As regards the color film, are you talking about negative film or positive film?</p>

[dave_s]

<p>I agree with what Patrick and Stephen have said. I would add that I think you've asked a darn good question, and you could have a lot of discussion over this. Here's three ways to look at it, and as always, YMMV.</p>

<p>(i) Lately I've been taking a lot of my black and white images using color negative film (Kodak Portra). Because it retains all the color information, I can apply filtration after I get the scans back, by making color separations. This gives a lot of creative power, and it means no more carrying filters on backpacking trips.</p>

<p>(ii) Ilford XP2 may be worth looking into. It's a black and white film processed using color chemistry (C41). It scans beautifully, and you have a negative that you can print on the enlarger, too, so you have the choice of both worlds.</p>

<p>(iii) But if I'm carrying two backs and using two films at once, the second one is usually a traditional silver film, Ilford FP4 or HP5. These are easier to use on the enlarger, and the silver grain gives a little crisper image when printed optically.</p>

[Colin O]

<p>If you are scanning film, it is important to remember that a colour digital image is (generally) a "RGB image", i.e. composed of three channels, one representing the red component of the scene, one channel for the green component of the scene and one for the blue component. If you subsequently convert this colour image to a "grayscale image", there are many different ways you can map the RGB channels to greyscale, allowing for many different looks in the resulting black & white image.<br>

 <br>

I'm not that familiar with black & white films, but I imagine different films (and different developing/printing techniques?) will give the same scene a very different look.<br>

 <br>

Have a look at the Wikipedia article on Grayscale:<br />

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale">

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale</a><br>

 <br>

And I would recommend having a look at a book such as the following in your local library in order to get an idea of the possibilities for conversion from RGB to grayscale:<br />

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Michael-Freeman/dp/190470557X/">

Michael Freeman - Black and White</a><br />

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Digital-Black-White-Photography/dp/1454704195/">

John Beardsworth - Advanced Digital Black & White Photography</a><br />

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photoshop-Lightroom-monochromatic/dp/0240521595/">

Leslie Alsheimer - Black and White in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Lightroom</a><br />

 <br>

 </p>

[dangoldman]

<p>i never really liked the idea of expressly starting with one thing if you wanted another (scanning film for digital excepted...). ie, people who want their digital images to look like Kodachrome should have shot kodachrome - when it was around, etc. Its the same, to me, with BW images in most cases. I prefer to not convert digital or color film images to BW in most cases. There are exceptions of course, such as an image that i dont feel like color correcting or an image that really doesnt seem to work properly in color...but in most cases, if i want a BW image, i will shoot a traditional BW film and wet process it for prints or scan the negative. </p>

[rossb]

<p> Just try both ways for a while. I like the Kodak C41 B/W film. Very low grain and a nice portrait film or wedding film. It has a wider dynamic range then the color films. I cannot prove that but it seems like it to me from using both of them. Illford XP-2 is also a good C41 B/W film but it has a bit more grain then Kodak. I recently shot some tree shots in the fog using the Illford and was very pleased. </p>

[randrew1]

<p>In general (YMMV), traditional silver films are sharper and grainier. </p>

[sungho_jun]

<p>Thanks for the input, I guess I will try them for a while to get my personal favorite.</p>