I’m primarily a film shooter — despite my experience with and affection for computer technology, film has a certain je ne sais quois, a visual quality that is difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce in a digital capture.
Nevertheless, I do have digital photographic equipment, and I have become quite enamored of my Leica M8’s visual qualities.
The M8, as well as the other digital cameras I’ve used (the Kodak DCS-760 and the Nikon D-200) all capture in a 3-channel Red/Green/Blue color format.
I work exclusively in black and white (for various reasons, which may or may not be a topic for another day), so I’m faced with having to digitally convert the color images produced by the camera into the black and white output format.
Over the years I’ve experimented with many different techniques for converting color to black and white, before finally settling on what I call the “dual Hue/Saturation Layer” method, which is both quick and flexible.