Digital BW, The Print

Thank you for your suggestions.  They do raise 2 questions:

1-Is the 8 vs 16 bit quality of the image set by the camera/scanner?  
(When I convert color AdobeRGB images to greyscale, using Image->Mode-
>Grayscale in Photoshop, I get 8 bit files.)

2-You mention the limitations of PhotoShop6.  Should I upgrade to 
CS?  Or could I do the same thing with PictureWindow, which some 
people seem to like? (I downloaded it to try; it also has a learning 
curve.  Is it worth using, or after all the time will I be kicking 
myself for having not used CS in the first, or second, place?)

Thanks again,  Tom


> The other thing which really helps is to use a 16 bit workflow.  
With 
> PS6 this will be difficult as you lack many useful features.  
However 
> it gives you more data in the shadow areas, which helps to avoid 
the 
> separation you get when applying a curve.  Working in 8-bit and 
then 
> converting to 16-bit before printing won't help - you can't create 
> data you don't already have.
> 
> Just something else for you to try...  Keep going - you'll get to a 
> set up you're happy with in the end.  It took me about a year of 
> going back to the wet darkroom, remembering all the difficulties I 
> had there, and then trying something new on the computer.  I now 
get 
> results that I'm happy with.
> 
> Chris