Hello Geoffrey,
I’ve had long and deep practical experience with this sort of problem in my work with publishers such as Rizzoli, Phaidon, Taschen, Saraband, Chronicle, Harry Abrams, WW Norton… I’m currently working on an art book with MIT Press.
Appropriate press techniques and work flows depend, more than anyone wants to admit, on budget, your communication and working relationships with the publisher and their technical producers, contract or your 3rd party relation to it—as much as they depend on the techniques and constraints of the particular press.
Under certain increasingly common circumstances—typically and counterintuitively with generic, high volume and economy driven presses—you can find this design and aesthetic outcome of color-toned black and white photography more easily and predictably attainable than is often the case with boutique presses and processes.
There are no categorical right answers in this matter of systemic design-build and gestalt affect. There are plenty of nuanced dependencies.
I’m happy to phone with you if you’d like more detailed discussion.
Christian Korab