An application of multi-dimensional scaling to the re-examination of preferred tone reproduction

Black and white prints were produced of several scenes that varied in both negative contrast and negative exposure. Subjects rated the various prints by categories based on their own personal understanding of what an excellent print was. The boundaries of the categories were found and used to determine the preferred tone reproduction characteristics. Individual differences were also scaled with the use of a proximity measure determined from the categorical data. The preferred contrast (1.46 +0.24) was significantly higher than the contrast that has been found to be preferred in earlier studies. The application of this study to more general situations is also discussed