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| Figure 1: Original Scan |
Reprinted from Photo Techiques Magazine (Sep/Oct 2001)
Alabama Hills, California
DIGITAL MASTER PRINTING CLASS
By Ron Harris
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The Alabama Hills on the eastern side of the Sierra in California is an interesting area of rock outcroppings and shadows, and is the location of many old cowboy movies. This photograph was taken with a Hasselblad in the late afternoon when the lighting was dramatic and the shadows were changing quickly.
Obtaining a good
scan
I scanned my 6x6 cm Kodak Tmax 100 negative into Photoshop as a positive
grayscale transparency at 1,000 pixels-per-inch using a Lino Saphir Ultra
flatbed and SilverFast software. I had bracketed the exposures of this scene,
and chose the best negative after the preliminary scans. In the darkroom
the photographer works with the negative, which has all the information in
the image. However, the scanned image file is only representative of the
negative--some information in the negative may be lost or distorted. Therefore,
it is most important to get the best possible scan.
Test scans were made, their histograms examined, and the possible range of tones in the image was explored using Levels and Curves. Figure 1 was the best overall scan. One exploration of the image is shown in Figure 2. These explorations are the darkroom equivalent of making test prints on different grades of paper with different densities. However, I did find it difficult to get good tonal separation in the deep shadow area (Figure 3a). In the prescan an S-curve was used to increase tonal separation in the midtones, and the shadow area of the curve was tweaked to increase separation.
Optimizing the image
The first area of concern was the sky, which was bright
blue in the original scene. To darken the sky a yellow filter was used on
the camera, but I would have preferred a red filter. To achieve the effect
of a red filter, I selected the sky and filled it with a gradient from black
to light gray. Levels and Curves were used to get just the right
tonality.
The large rocks, (Figure 3b) were selected excluding the shadow area (Figure 3a). Levels and Curves Adjustment Layers were created and applied. The other areas shown in Figure 3 were optimized separately. In addition to Levels and Curves, Contrast Adjustment Layers were applied sparingly to Figures 3c-f. The large bright rock at top right was also selected and adjusted, but is not shown in Figure 3.
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Problem areas
The hill at top right in Figure 3f looked dull and
uninteresting after the entire selection was adjusted. Returning to the original
scan, I zoomed in on the hill, and selected it. I moved this selection to
a new layer on top of the work image, and applied Levels, Curves, and Contrast
Adjustment Layers. Then, I adjusted the Layer opacity to 65% and used the
Multiply option. These values were obtained by trial-and-error until I achieved
the desired detail and tonality.
In the final image, the small rocks in Figure 3d did not look good. Again, I returned to the original scan, selected this region, applied adjustments, and placed this new layer on top of the same region in the work image.
The overall adjustments applied to the region in Figure 3c also needed improving. I made a new selection of just the top portion and applied adjustments to optimize it.
The curved shadow area at the bottom left of the image also needed refining. The weeds in the lower right portion shown in Figure 1 were removed by cloning, then Levels and Contrast Adjustment Layers were applied (Figure 3e).
There were some small roads and bright bushes that needed removing (see Figures 1 and 2). Also, some of the boundaries between the different Adjustment layers produced undesirable artifacts. These corrections were done using the cloning tool on a new layer placed above the other layers. The advantage in doing this is that you can easily remove this layer and start over if necessary, or use the eraser to remove part of the retouching.
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Finishing up
Unsharp Masking was used to sharpen the image. A test
print was made on my Epson 1270 printer, using Epson Matte paper, which is
said to have a 25+ year life. The image required minor adjustments. Individual
areas were tweaked, followed by a small amount of retouch cloning. A total
of 21 Adjustment Layers and five regular layers were created in producing
this image.
As a final step, I created a Duplicate Image and changed the Mode to RGB, , choosing Flatten. Next I made a Color Balance Adjustment Layer, adding three units of Magenta to the midtones and the shadows, and one unit of Red to the midtones and the highlights. This made the final print appear to have a tone similar to a selenium-toned darkroom print.
| Ron Harris is a Louisiana-based photographer. |
Postscript
Epson has changed it's color ink formulation. Please
see Printer Tips on the main page.
e-mail Ron: harris@sprynet.com
