I used black and white almost exclusively from when I started taking photos in March 1983 until the Digital SLR days of 2003 ( with the occasional colour shot )

I used a Pentax K1000 and from 1990 onwards a medium format Pentax 6x7, as well.

Films ranged from the early days of using Kodak Plus-X (125asa) and Tri-X (400asa) to using Ilford films exclusively with FP4 (125asa) and HP5 (400asa). These were commercially developed until I started to develop films myself from 1988 onwards.

The negatives were scanned with a Nikon CoolScan IV (2900 dpi) and more recently with an Epson V700 (4800 dpi) which I find a superb scanner. Photoshop Elements were used for adjustments.

A sad fact you find with scanning negitives is just how much detail is really in them !! Those fuzzy and dark prints you got back from the 2 major printing labs at the time should be ashamed at the quality they dished out. You find that your shots were well exposed and sharp from edge to edge, after all.

Although I did find this out doing my own printing, it was time consuming and fiddly doing test strips, not to mention the chemicals, gloves and tongs, all in the glow of the darkroom light. Nowadays, just a quick "levels" adjustment makes all the difference. The old "30 seconds in Photoshop" does more than I ever could ever do in the darkroom.

Some of the detail in the night shots is incredible, but this just shows how advanced the "old technology" really was, the details WERE there, but it was the output medium that couldn't cope.

I hope to update the B&W Galleries on a regular basis, indeed all years from 1983-2003 will be provided soon, as I've scanned negs from all era's, on a random basis, although the cataloging takes time.