Anna Fox

The digital image: post-production

This chapter introduces the essentials of digital post-production, from hardware to software and from input to output. It is not based around a certain computer platform or software package, but is, rather, a general overview of what can be accomplished regardless of hardware or program specificities. For photographers, computers and digital imaging software have created exciting ways to manipulate, retouch, process and generally improve on an original image without the need for potentially damaging chemicals and darkroom facilities. Digital imaging allows one to mimic almost all conventional (chemical-based) photographic tasks such as burning and dodging, spotting and retouching, and colour correction. Results can be seen on screen instantly as most of them occur in real-time enabling one to continually adjust the actions accordingly without the need to print out the image. Motion blur can be inserted where there is no motion; one can repair areas of an image that would otherwise be unsalvageable in a conventional darkroom environment; also several images can be merged into one, either by taking elements from different images into another image or by joining a sequence of images together to construct a seamless panoramic landscape; restoration of damaged and faded photographs can also be carried out by removing its many creases and revitalizing its faded appearance. With the help of a computer and the appropriate software these can be achieved.Publisher Summary This chapter introduces the essentials of digital post-production, from hardware to software and from input to output. It is not based around a certain computer platform or software package, but is, rather, a general overview of what can be accomplished regardless of hardware or program specificities. For photographers, computers and digital imaging software have created exciting ways to manipulate, retouch, process and generally improve on an original image without the need for potentially damaging chemicals and darkroom facilities. Digital imaging allows one to mimic almost all conventional (chemical-based) photographic tasks such as burning and dodging, spotting and retouching, and colour correction. Results can be seen on screen instantly as most of them occur in real-time enabling one to continually adjust the actions accordingly without the need to print out the image. Motion blur can be inserted where there is no motion; one can repair areas of an image that would otherwise be unsalvageable in a conventional darkroom environment; also several images can be merged into one, either by taking elements from different images into another image or by joining a sequence of images together to construct a seamless panoramic landscape; restoration of damaged and faded photographs can also be carried out by removing its many creases and revitalizing its faded appearance. With the help of a computer and the appropriate software these can be achieved.

Black and white printing

This chapter discusses darkroom organization, enlargers and other equipment to enable users to set up a personal darkroom. The chapter discusses the choice of printing materials, and then discusses basic print-processing chemicals and procedures. With well-organized facilities and a basic understanding of darkroom materials and procedures users will be able to get down to printing the work. While it is possible to make successful prints in a temporary darkroom by blacking out a bathroom or a spare room it would be better for printing on a professional basis to establish a permanent darkroom set-up. There are four basic requirements for a darkroom: it must be light-tight; it needs electricity and water supplies, and a waste outlet and care must be taken in how waste chemicals are environmentally friendly disposed of; the room must have adequate ventilation, and a controllable air temperature; and layout should be planned to allow safe working in a logical sequence, including easy access in and out. Darkroom size depends naturally upon how many people use the room at one time, how long they need to be there, and the work being done. T he enlarger and more importantly the lens are your most important pieces of printing equipment. The enlarger is designed like a vertically mounted, low-power projector. There is a range of black and white printing papers, with different types of base, surface finish, size, image “color,” and emulsion contrast. This, together with a variety of different print developers, offers you an enormous range of subtly different permutations.

Black and white printing: facilities and equipment

This chapter discusses darkroom organization, enlargers and other equipment to enable users to set up a personal darkroom. The chapter discusses the choice of printing materials, and then discusses basic print-processing chemicals and procedures. With well-organized facilities and a basic understanding of darkroom materials and procedures users will be able to get down to printing the work. While it is possible to make successful prints in a temporary darkroom by blacking out a bathroom or a spare room it would be better for printing on a professional basis to establish a permanent darkroom set-up. There are four basic requirements for a darkroom: it must be light-tight; it needs electricity and water supplies, and a waste outlet and care must be taken in how waste chemicals are environmentally friendly disposed of; the room must have adequate ventilation, and a controllable air temperature; and layout should be planned to allow safe working in a logical sequence, including easy access in and out. Darkroom size depends naturally upon how many people use the room at one time, how long they need to be there, and the work being done. T he enlarger and more importantly the lens are your most important pieces of printing equipment. The enlarger is designed like a vertically mounted, low-power projector. There is a range of black and white printing papers, with different types of base, surface finish, size, image “color,” and emulsion contrast. This, together with a variety of different print developers, offers you an enormous range of subtly different permutations.

Light: how images are formed

Understanding how light behaves and how lenses form it into images gives a broader view of the possibilities of photography. The principles involved are very simple and easily demonstrated in this chapter starting with a discussion on light, as it is the very essence, the basic substance of photography. The basic features helpful to know when illuminating a subject, using lenses and learning about color is discussed. How surfaces and subjects look the way they do, and how light can be bent (refracted) with glass to create a usable image is also elaborated. The lens is the heart of any camera or enlarger. Starting with a simple magnifying-glass lens one can begin to see how photographic lenses form images. The word “photography” itself means “drawing with light.” Visible light is a stream of energy radiating away from the sun or similar radiant source. It has four important characteristics. What is seen as light is just part of an enormous range of “electromagnetic radiations.” The closer a small light source is to a subject the brighter it will be illuminated. Halving the distance from light to subject makes the illumination four times brighter. The light-bending power of a lens is shown by its focal length . The stronger the power of the lens, the shorter its focal length.

Organising the picture

This chapter is concerned with composing the image of the subject as a picture focusing on recognizing and exploiting visual features of scenes and framing them up in the strongest possible way. The ability to know when all the visual elements look right and “hold together” in a way that gives an outstanding visual result is very essential. Picture structuring is very subjective—open to individual style and original interpretation—so there are strong arguments for not having rules of composition. However, long-established guidelines are still very valid and often used to make successful pictures. The basic visual qualities are shape; texture, pattern, form, and color and tone values. Movement, content and meaning is also essential. Meaning can be simple or highly complex: it is determined by content and how this content has been photographed. A bold shape or outline is one of the strongest ways of singling out an object or person, giving it or them a sense of separation from their environment. This kind of separation can be done dramatically using a silhouette or a shadow. Picture composition must be done looking through the camera, because this brings in all kinds of other influences. One must be able to see and structure pictures within the frame of the viewfinder and give due thought to balance and proportions of tone or color, the use of lines, best placing of your main feature, and so on.

Black and white printing: techniques

This chapter focuses on the basic controls possible in making prints from black and white films. It also looks at some chemical methods of altering the final result. Having a good negative is always an advantage, but it is the final print which people see. While it is difficult to make good prints from poor negatives it is all too easy to make poor prints from good ones if one lacks the basic skills. By practicing the printing techniques one will be able to distinguish really good print quality from the adequate, and develop skills to control the results fully. Other requirements, such as speed and economy, come with experience. Many professional photographers use printing labs for their work but have learned to print first in the darkroom so that they can understand how to advise the printer to achieve the best quality print. Most photographers make contact prints—small prints made direct from the film held flat against the paper—from all their negatives as soon as they are processed. This is a good idea as it allows you to preview all your exposures as positive prints, making it easier to pick and choose which shots to enlarge, mark up possible cropping, etc. Various controls during enlarging, variations, common print faults, toning, tinting, retouching, and permanence and archiving is also discussed.

Lenses: controlling the image

This chapter explores the ways the controls on a camera lens allows users to alter an image. The principal control is the aperture (commonly referred to as f -number). The aperture adjusts image brightness and the range of subject distances one can focus sharply at one setting. It is very important in image-making to know when and how to create total sharpness, or to localize image detail. Some differences between cameras of different format (picture size) start to appear. The main principle of photographic equipment design and manufacture is to produce lenses that minimize optical defects while at the same time gaining the highest possible resolution of detail and image brightness. Lenses can capture varying amounts of the scene before them from a very wide angle to an extremely narrow view. The shorter the focal length, the smaller the image the lens produces. A series of relative aperture settings can be felt by “click” and are shown on a scale of figures known as f-numbers. The f -number system means that any lens set to the same number gives standard image brightness, irrespective of the focal length or the camera size. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest parts of a subject that can be realized as a photographic image with reasonably sharp detail at one focus setting of the lens. Depth of focus refers to how much you can change the lens-to-image distance without the focused image becoming noticeably blurred.

What is photography

This chapter explores the role photographs play in everyday life and the various elements involved in photography. Some of photographys possibilities are discussed, with the understanding that photography is a combination of subjective thought, creative imagination, visual design, technical skills, and practical organizing ability. A broad look is taken at what making photographs is about, to put in to context and perspective thoughts. On the one hand there is the machinery and the techniques themselves. The variety of approaches to picture making is explored—aiming for results ranging from documenting an event, or communicating ideas to a particular audience, to work which is self-expressive, socially or politically or commercially informed for the family album or perhaps more ambiguous and open to interpretation. Photography is thought of as evidence, identification, a kind of diagram of a happening. The camera is a visual notebook. The opposite attribute of photography is where it is used to manipulate or interpret reality, so that pictures push some “angle,” belief or attitude of your own. Photography is to do with light forming an image, normally by means of a lens. The image is then permanently recorded either by: chemical means: using film, liquid chemicals and darkroom processes, or digital means: using an electronic sensor, data storage and processing, and print-out via a computer. Composition is to do with showing things in the strongest, most effective way, whatever the subject.

Using different focal length lenses, camera kits

This chapter explores the different focal lengths and their various uses. Almost all camera types can be fitted with accessories—from tripods and other supports to flashguns and camera bags—many of which are worth considering as useful practical kit for a specific kind of photography. Changing the lens in the camera to a longer focal length makes the image detail bigger. Changing instead to a shorter focal length lens gives all the opposite effects. Perspective alters according to the distance of the viewpoint from the subject. One should use steep perspective to exaggerate distance. Similarly it can be used to create a dynamic angle shot looking up at a building and exaggerating its height. The greatest variety of interchangeable lenses today is made for single-lens reflexes, especially 35 mm and digital formats. Often the most useful second lens is a wide-angle, giving about 70–80° field of view. Another feature of a wide-angle lens is that it gives greater depth of field than a standard lens at the same aperture. While short lenses are useful for getting more into the picture, longer lenses allow you to select a smaller area of the scene than a standard lens. A zoom is a lens of variable focal length—altered by shifting internal glass elements. They are built into most modern compact cameras where the lens cannot be removed. There are several worthwhile accessories for view finding and focusing, which are discussed in the chapter.

Finishing and presenting work

This chapter discusses completing the photographic work and presenting it to other people in the most effective way. Finishing off means mounting, spotting (if necessary), and deciding how pictures might be brought to the attention of potential clients and/or audiences. In all forms of presentation, communication skills are important: one needs to be able to select images to show and be able to back them up with verbal or written information. Over time a great deal has been learned about the permanence of prints on silver halide papers. Less is known about the permanence of digital prints, inkjet or dye based type prints claim to be archival and it is clear that for any degree of permanence archival inks must be used at the printing stage. A long-lasting print is one that is as free as possible of residual thiosulphate (fixer) and silver by-products, and has extra protection from chemical reactions with air pollutants. One form of protecting the silver image is to coat it or convert it to a more stable material by toning. Mounting is an important stage in presenting professional-looking work. In addition it can help to protect the photographic image from chemical deterioration and handling damage. Often prints have a few white spots that are to be “spot in” by using diluted dye or watercolor—either black or the appropriate tint—and applying it with an almost dry, fine-tipped brush. Spotting is easiest with a grainy image on matt or semi-matt paper.