Chapter 1. Creating Black and White from Color

THE CREATION of black and white, more properly now called “grayscale,” images has nearly always been popular with photographers. There is just something special about them. The way black and white can change a scene and focus attention on form, shape, and shadow is part of their appeal. In the past, photographers had their favorite black-and-white film that they had to use if they wanted quality black-and-white images. Using a normal black-and-white enlarging paper with a color negative or even using a special black-and-white enlarging paper designed for use with color negative films did not give the highest quality results.