Black-and-White Tonality

© Mike Johnston 2002

I'm a little schizophrenic these days. I just bought another new digicam. I'm quite high on it‚ I really enjoy shooting with the thing and I'm getting some marvelous results. I've been making a book of pictures for some friends and really enjoying myself.

I'm also continuing construction on my new darkroom. Digital can be beautiful; but conventional black-and-white is also beautiful. Too beautiful to abandon in the onrush of the new technology.

I got asked a question recently about how to test the variables in manipulating tonality with conventional black-and-white materials. Since this is topic that is widely misunderstood, I wanted to say a few words about it. So, this week at least, back to classic, traditional black-and-white.

Remember the Acronym: F-D-P

Some properties of black-and-white prints are overrated and some are underrated in the conventional wisdom. Everybody likes to talk about sharpness and grain,...