>
>>>The other difference with SFX is that it is not necessary to emulate the
>>>look of wet darkroom. You’re
>>>working on a new plane of black & white. You can go for the look you think
>>>best fits the image.
>>
>> So essentially, SFX takes digital B&W beyond what is routinely possible
>> with film/wet B&W. If so,
>then this sounds promising.
>
>I'm going to answer a qualified "no" to this.
>
>A raw file is an image file with no gamma or color bias applied. It's
>very blah in every way. This blahness allows you to then take it
>almost any direction. You can bias the color as though you are using a
>red filter, a green filter a cyan filter, etc. It also allows you to
>apply a contrast curve that mimics the "S-Curve" characteristic of
>film and paper. To a point.
>
>Once you load that file into your computer, the world is your oyster.
>
>Provided that you know in your mind what the pearl is supposed to look like.
>
Which is where I have been from the very start.
I just gave Exposure 6 (Exp6) a try, and at first glance I can say that I
REALLY like this. By just adjusting the sliders in the COLOR editing window
while converting to B&W, I can see on the fly how I would experience the photo
with all sorts of B&W films, with Kodak P3200 coming very close to what I was
anticipating, though it comes out a bit grainy (can't find PanX and TriX).
It's amazing to see how the various B&W films perform using this as an
emulator, and looking at this image with emulated wet plates is quite
interesting.
Choosing IR films and doing the same results in IR images from the JPEG
original that are far better than what I can do with a glass filter as they
come out just as sharp in focus as the colour original instead of the soft
focused RAW colour to JPEG B&W I have experienced thus far.
The trial version of LR 3.3 lasts for another 28 days and the trial
version of Exp6 lasts for another 15 days, so I'll have to get busy taking
typical images and evaluating them.
Needless to say, I can see that there is considerable value in at least
this processing software, but I do want to look at a few more. At least these
trial versions give you the opportunity to judge the performance before
spending any real $$.
Chris
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
- Hunter S. Thompson
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