written by: John ReuterIn my last article I detailed how you can recover the negative from Fuji FP-100C film for scanning or historic process techniques. In this article the focus is on scanning and post processing the negatives. You can use Adobe Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6 (or earlier) to do this processing. I’d say Photoshop has the edge, mainly because cloning is much easier in Photoshop and often a bit of cleanup is in order with these negatives. For scanning, many of the modern flatbed scanners with transparency capability will do a nice job. I still use my Epson Perfection 3200 Photo Read more »
written by: Steve AnchellWhile Adobe Photoshop has many great tools to facilitate creativity, it is first and foremost a production tool for professional photographers, graphic artists and designers. What makes PS a tool for the professional is not just what it can do, but how quickly it can do it. To the pro, and to their clients, time is money. Minutes count when charging by the hour, and minutes can add up if you have to reenter repetitive steps every time you want to call up a particular brush or style.
written by: Tom PersingerThis is a two-part article. Part One in this issue covers how to make a simple large format camera lens. Part Two (in November/ December 2012) explores how to make a large format camera and how to use the camera lens combo to make photographs. Early Lenses In 1839, Charles Louis Chevalier, an optician and instrument maker in France, created a simple one-element lens that was used in the first photographic cameras. This simple, achromatic meniscus lens was invented some years earlier by Charles’ father, Vincent Chevalier, for use in camera obscuras. Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce, an early photographic pioneer, used Chevalier’s Read more »
written by: David SaffirThis article describes managing digital image capture to achieve optimal, or at least intended, dynamic range and how to determine the most appropriate camera range settings to accomplish this. The Zone System The simplest takeaway from the oft-misunderstood Zone System, is that an image should be exposed to utilize most or all of the range from black to white, without unintended clipping of near-whites, or blocking up of near-blacks. If the image does not incorporate the full dynamic range in a scene, the photographer should have done this by intent. In digital photography, the most commonly recommended camera settings involve Read more »
written by: R. Michael WalkerHow many of you are happy with your digital workflow? Are your results repeatable? Are your camera, lenses, monitor, scanner and printer calibrated? If so, you are on your way to making great inkjet prints. Here is what I will be covering in this article: • JPEG vs. RAW • Sharpening techniques for output • What color space to use? • How to load and use a profile • Creating and saving paper profiles • Driver interface setup • Viewing tests and making corrections JPEG vs. RAW In The Field Getting your image as near perfect as possible in the Read more »
written by: Steve AnchellDo you really need to calibrate your monitor? Perhaps you don’t. Read the following scenarios and see if they fit. Scenario #1 You’ve just captured the world’s greatest landscape. When you released the shutter the light, color and composition were perfect. Never mind that your camera wasn’t calibrated, you’ll fix it in Lightroom. You work on the image in LR until it’s perfect, color, saturation, contrast, shadow detail, luminous clouds with subtle detail in a blue sky. You write it to disk and take it to a really good lab to print. Never mind that your monitor wasn’t calibrated. The Read more »
written by: Dan Burkholder“Connected,” that’s the word we’re hearing more and more in our digital lives. Connected via email, Facebook, Twitter, the Cloud…you know the drill. Most recently, Samsung has begun hinting that an explosion of cloud related storage and sharing options might accompany new cameras with built-in WiFi and 4G protocols. Yep, it’s not hard to envision the day when we can permanently retire sync cables and card readers from our photographic lives. But why wait? We crave smaller−but full-featured− cameras now. And we want to move images from our cameras to our iPhones and iPads now, with currently available technology. The Read more »
written by: Steve DreyerPhotographers want to spend most, if not all of their time making photographs. Even though post-processing is a fact of digital photography life, they sometimes shudder at the thought of developing a routine approach to it. I admit that I once fit into the above category. While I loved making photographs, I was often frustrated by the amount of time spent in the digital darkroom. One day I decided to explore ways in which I could create the images to match my vision at the moment I pressed the shutter, but in less time and with more consistency. An efficient Read more »
written by: Tillman Crane“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain With ease of use, sophisticated computer control for focus and exposure and the speed that an image can be electronically available, why would anyone choose to make photographs with film? An outstanding black and white silver print from one of the masters of photography looks different from almost any digital print. A big reason for this is because the materials are different. To photograph with film involves a different discipline, skill set and way of working. Film requires you to slow down and pay more attention to light because Read more »
Revealing the Latent Image
written by: Ted KinsmanEditor’s Note on the term ‘Latent Image’ as used in this article: Photographic paper is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. When it is exposed, a latent image is formed. This image is invisible to the naked eye. When photographic paper is exposed to light for an extended period of time, you are actually able to view an image on the paper. This image that you are able to see is not a latent image – it is an image caused by a chemical reaction of the emulsion to light over an extended period of time. In this article, the image Read more »
