We've many photography related articles on the site, and hope you find them of interest. Product reviews are listed on their own page.
Jane Fonda and Me...
A print from previously unseen photographs taken on the set of the making of Barbarella in 1967 - points out how producing prints from scanned film needs different techniques to images from digital cameras. [June 2009]
Read More
We don’t often do print work for other people. Basically we have to like the work, the photographer, and they have to visit us in person,
However, in a change from my normal photography and print work I’ve been working with photographer Paul Joyce to bring to life some of his images taken back in 1967.
Paul was lucky enough to photograph Jane Fonda on the set of the film Barbarella.
The negatives were drum scanned from 35mm film and I’ve been working on producing a set of 42?x 28? prints for exhibition in London. [More info at the Telegraph]
There is quite a lot of work that goes into producing a print that size from a 40+ year old negative.
Film grain has a lot of small detail that you don’t want blowing up to that size of print.
or, in more detail
This shows up in big prints, so takes some care in cloning out. I’ve added a temporary steep curves layer to enhance the visibility of the grain for editing purposes. I carry out ‘repair work’ like this to the scan file, working in 16 bit mode, almost as a first step. You have to keep changing the magnification (zoom level) too, since grain unevenness shows up differently at different scales.
The uneven background lighting in the negative was smoothed out somewhat with a masked brightness/contrast layer (CS3 version of brightness/contrast)
The biggest changes in the overall ‘look’ of the image are the tonal balance and the choice of print medium, getting this right needed quite a few test prints (including the pictures you haven’t seen), one of which makes a nice change from my landscape work that adorns the office walls
Sharpening is something to be done with care, and I’ve use a masked layer with the PS ‘Smart sharpen’ filter to bring up detail in the subject without unduly enhancing the grain.
Here’s Jane’s eye at 100% from the final print file, where I’ve also used a masked curves layer to brighten parts of her eye. This is something that depends on the print size and paper type, so needs a fair amount of testing.
Close
Producing a black and white print...
Keith has written up the process he went through to make a modest sized (A3+) Black and White print from a colour digital camera image. The article covers the basic steps using Photoshop, with links to other related materials on our site.
Read More
you'd expect in mid May, was still pretty empty. The weather was very changeable, and what looked like a big storm was heading my way from inland.
It was a huge sky...
I grabbed my camera (a 21MP Canon 1Ds Mk3) and put an EF 14mm 2.8L II lens on it - now this is very wide angle and takes a bit of care in use. Just for good measure, I also had an EF 24-70 2.8L in my coat pocket.
I had a few minutes before it was likely to start raining very heavily, and even with a decent coat, I have an aversion to getting wet... (I just don't do outdoor stuff like camping/trekking either
My approach to landscape photography is very much like a large scale version of street photography, it is often about capturing a moment, trying to produce a print that conveys some of my feelings for the location at that instant. As such, I rarely have a tripod with me and I trust to my instincts for a good photo (although practice helps
The beach is mostly sandy, with some 2-300 metres of dunes behind it. The sea was quite calm for the North Sea, so composition wise, you have some quite strong lines to work with.
I'd chosen the 14mm lens to try and convey some of the immensity of the clouds.
Since I'm not hanging round too long, I've also set the camera to aperture priority mode, f/8 and focus at infinity. Since I'm planning to include some very brightly lit bits of cloud, I've also put in an exposure correction of about half a stop underexposure. I don't want much of the clouds 'burnt out' even if it means that some of the images might be underexposed elsewhere.
Close
Why use RAW format...
Does your camera have a raw format for saving images? All about what it is and why you should use it.
Read More
This article was first written in 2004, and reviewing it in 2009 I found no reason to change any of the details of what I said. Rather than change it, I've added one or two notes that show new developments.
Think of your camera's RAW files as undeveloped film - waiting for you to decide how to process it.
Think of JPEGs from your camera as prints you've got back from the corner store - it's all been done for you.
Raw format - what is it, and why?
Higher quality digital cameras often have a raw image format available in addition to the normal JPEG and TIFF. Keith has often had people come along to his courses who have found the extra complexity involved in using raw images off-putting.
In general, Keith -only- uses raw format on his digital cameras.
The conversion software discussed here is mostly Adobe Camera Raw which is part of Photoshop. There are links to other software packages as well.
What is the Raw format
Digital camera image sensors create an image from literally millions of tiny light sensing areas on a silicon chip. There are two main types (CCD and CMOS) but all you really need to know is that the image is built up from individual pixels. (CCD/CMOS comparisons, and a useful article on sensor designs)
Each light sensor is receptive to a broad range of colours and has a minute coloured filter in front of it. There are usually three different colours (red, green and blue). Since we see green best the filters are in a particular pattern (one called a Bayer pattern is common) with more 'green' pixels
Arrangement of colours in a Beyer pattenr sensorSome manufacturers have variations on this (Fuji, Sony), and Foveon make chips with each pixel location sensitive to all three colours. Whatever techniques is used, the camera needs to take the raw image data and save it as a picture file.
The sensor can provide data at 12 to 14 bits per pixel (4096 to 16,384 levels of intensity) This is reduced to 8 bits per colour in a JPEG file (24 bits total, 8 per colour R,G and B)
The complete unreduced data is stored in a raw format file.
Technically, the camera has performed minimal processing on the data from the chip including a level of noise reduction, although this varies with different model cameras and settings.
The camera has a lot of other information available when a picture is taken. Along with the date and time it records shutter speed, aperture and its estimate of the white balance setting and other pertinent data. This is recorded with any picture.
EXIF data formatTo produce a JPEG or TIFF file, the computer inside the camera has to do quite a lot of calculations on the raw data to produce a picture file.
These are carried out once, and the result is what you see when you open the file in a picture editor program.
With a raw format file these calculations are not done and all of the original data is saved to the raw file.
Some of the picture data (EXIF data) for the picture of Old John below.
Close
Convert your 8 bit RGB images to 16 bit...
If you are going to be doing much in the way of image manipulation (curves etc) to your black and white image, it -may- be better to convert your 8 bit colour images (such as JPEGs) into 16 bit colour first. Sometimes 8 bit RGB can be equivalent to 10 bit greyscale.
Read More
When is 8 bit not 8 bit?
Why convert your 8 bit (colour) RGB images to 16 bit RGB before converting to black and white?
Actually it can make a noticeable improvement to your black and white images, particularly when you edit them.
Something for nothing? - 10 bit images from 8 bit
In this short article, Keith shows how an 8 bit RGB file (such as a JPEG) can actually be the equivalent of more than 8 bits of greyscale information, when doing your conversions in Adobe Photoshop.
Could the benefits of 16 bit apply to 8 bit images as well?
This technique can have benefits if you are going to be applying many adjustment curves to your images.
As ever, any comments are welcome..
Why 8 bit RGB can be 10 bit greyscale
Lets say I have a JPEG colour photo and I want to convert it to black and white.
Now there are a number of different ways of converting colour to black and white and I covered some of the basic principles in my introduction to digital black and white article.
You would think that converting your 8 bit RGB image to 16 bit RGB before converting to B/W achieves nothing - there is no extra information.
Well it's not quite that simple and if you want to get the best black and white images to work on, then it might be worthwhile...
Close
