Digital BW, The Print

This reminds me of the old audiophile arguements. Why have a system
that can reproduce a frequency range beyond our hearing? Another short
answer is- because it sounds better.
So, in spite of all the numbers about how many tones the human
eye/brain can distinguish I'd agree with Bill, as many as possible.
Great platinum prints, despite the limited demsity range, "seem" to
have more grays, seems to be infinite actually, even if it's just an
impression.
I've seen this dicussion many times over the years, and I can't help
but always conclude that there is no reason to say enough is enough.
We are dealing with a glorified half tone process here with our
inkjets, so we're not truly continuous tone to begin with, we are
implying continuous tone. Working toward more and more tones seems wise.
It gets down to making a print that is beautiful, and more available
tones is one factor moving in that direction.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, BKPhoto@a... wrote:
> The short answer is yes, we can see them. The issue is how good are
we at 
> visually distinguishing closely related tonal values. Segmented
tonal ramps are 
> easier to use, for this reason, than continuos ramps. A 256
segmented tonal 
> ramp isn't particularly useful as a visual aid, but its easier
measured with a 
> densitometer or spectrophotometer. The familiar 21-step tonal ramp
is useful.
> 
> What really matters is how much tonal information is necessary to
produce 
> beautiful artifact free prints. It depends on subject matter and
print size, 
> among other issues. The short answer: as much tonal information as
possible, 
> preferably in 16-bit.
> 
> 
> 
> Bill Kennedy
> Associate Professor of Photocommunications
> St. Edward's University
> 512/448-8680
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]