[lolyton]

Maybe there is another way to look at it, maybe we should think about what the norms are in a darkroom.
For me, i used to take paper, compressed air test strips etc. So i could alter.....

1. Brightness/contrast.
2. Remove dust (compressed air).
3. Crop (but even then purists said you shouldn't, so we leave that open to debate [well and all the others too]).
4.Correct colour cast (colour printing).
5. Dodging and burning.

How do you go about getting B+W pure, i would never shoot in B+W mode on a digital camera and this follows from film days, i would always shoot colour film then print B+W.

So that would be what i would have done in the days of darkrooms. And it is still pretty much true with the majority of my images. Rarely would i do more (more down to lazyness than anything).

Fiona has got an argument with her Brightness adjustments, but if your camera doesn't have much control over exposure then it may be unfair, but a valid point as you should get it right in camera if you have the control to do so.