We may casually refer to an image as black and white, but there are subtle distinctions between these types of images and how they should be categorized and processed.
News, Muse and Reviews for Aspiring Lensmen.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Giclée Print Toning the Easy Way
There are two routes you can go when shooting black and white. You can use the monochrome mode of your camera and take what you get, or you can shoot in color and use the color information to optimize your image during processing. Either way, you wind up with neutral grayscale image. You can then convert this image to grayscale mode, or keep it RGB.
If you keep it in RGB mode, you can add a Hue/Saturation layer to give it a slight tint, known traditionally as print toning. This is possible because the RGB image has the capability of storing color information while the Grayscale image does not. But if you have Adobe Camera Raw, you don't need to keep your images in RGB mode to do this. You can use the Split Toning adjustment instead to apply color to a grayscale image.
This technique works best when your color printer is profiled to produce consistently neutral prints.
You can even create presets to simulate different types of toning and apply it consistently. Here are some numbers to get you started:
Start by setting the values the same for both the highlights and shadows. You can then adjust the saturation level of either, and the balance between the two. For example, you might desaturate the lighter tones while keeping the darker tones the same to achieve a three-color or “tritone” effect.
These same Hue/Saturation value pairs can be applied in Photoshop using the Hue/Saturation adjustment panel, where they will be applied to the full tonal range at once.
For museum-quality black and white prints, a dedicated monochrome printer is the best choice. Many new printers have advanced monochrome capabilities, and some even have the ability to adjust print temperature through the use of a “cooling” ink which neutralizes the otherwise warm gray and black inks.
It’s also possible to convert a color printer for monochrome printing with a special monochrome replacement ink set which uses several shades of gray plus black to achieve finer tonal control.
If you keep it in RGB mode, you can add a Hue/Saturation layer to give it a slight tint, known traditionally as print toning. This is possible because the RGB image has the capability of storing color information while the Grayscale image does not. But if you have Adobe Camera Raw, you don't need to keep your images in RGB mode to do this. You can use the Split Toning adjustment instead to apply color to a grayscale image.
This technique works best when your color printer is profiled to produce consistently neutral prints.
You can even create presets to simulate different types of toning and apply it consistently. Here are some numbers to get you started:
- Copper Toning — Hue 25, Saturation 19
- Gold+Sepia Toning — Hue 15, Saturation 20
- Iron Toning — Hue 198, Saturation 11
- Selenium Toning (diluted) — Hue 19, Saturation 7
- Selenium Toning (strong) — Hue 0, Saturation 6
- Sepia Toning — Hue 50, Saturation 15
Start by setting the values the same for both the highlights and shadows. You can then adjust the saturation level of either, and the balance between the two. For example, you might desaturate the lighter tones while keeping the darker tones the same to achieve a three-color or “tritone” effect.
These same Hue/Saturation value pairs can be applied in Photoshop using the Hue/Saturation adjustment panel, where they will be applied to the full tonal range at once.
For museum-quality black and white prints, a dedicated monochrome printer is the best choice. Many new printers have advanced monochrome capabilities, and some even have the ability to adjust print temperature through the use of a “cooling” ink which neutralizes the otherwise warm gray and black inks.
It’s also possible to convert a color printer for monochrome printing with a special monochrome replacement ink set which uses several shades of gray plus black to achieve finer tonal control.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
South Orange Station
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| Detail, South Orange Station Viaduct |
The devil is in the details. With D50 in hand, and 35mm f/1.8 mounted, I snapped this from street level. It’s maybe fifteen feet above the sidewalk. Short of using a very long lens and/or a stepladder, it’s difficult to get this shot without a perspective control lens. With Adobe Camera Raw however, it’s a fairly straightforward matter to correct it for perspective, and the results were quite pleasing.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
What to Name a File
In the course of building a reference library, I am constantly faced with the dilemma of what and how to name an image file. What, as in what information I should provide, and how, as in how should I “encode” this information in terms of format.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Coming soon: the long-awaited Nikon D800
Way, WAY overdue, the successor to the long-lived, entry-level full frame Nikon D700 is on the way. Will it be worth the wait? So far the prognosis looks good.
A full-frame DSLR was always a planned purchase for me. But I never dreamed it would give medium format a run for its money. The D700 was certainly worthy, but it made sense to see what the next generation would bring. And as it turns out, it brings us the highest resolution DSLR on the market at this time. And this puts it on a par with medium format.
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| Here at Last: the Nikon D800 Full-Frame DSLR |
A full-frame DSLR was always a planned purchase for me. But I never dreamed it would give medium format a run for its money. The D700 was certainly worthy, but it made sense to see what the next generation would bring. And as it turns out, it brings us the highest resolution DSLR on the market at this time. And this puts it on a par with medium format.
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