Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Brian Ellis <bellis60@...> wrote:
> According to Fred Picker in one of his darkroom videos, a maximum of about 
> 50 distinct shades of gray can be printed on silver based photographic paper 
> in a tradional darkroom. [SNIP]
>... was Fred just wrong (I never cared enough to test his 
> claim myself)?

Fred used to have a rubber stamp with which he responded to people who wrote to him 
asking things like, "What would happen if..." or "Why do you say that...." .  He'd stamp on 
their letters and mail them right back "Try it and see". 

His 50 step grey scale was mostly a teaching exercise. If you could figure out how to make 50 
*equally spaced*  little prints that spanned the scale from black to white you'd have a much 
clearer understanding of how your paper responds to light, and how to produce the tones 
you want in your prints. But the key was all in actually doing the work. He could be a prickly 
SOB, but what he told you was based on *his* actually doing the work. He'd try it and see.

Mark Stracke