Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Brougham wrote: ><Snip> > What kind of manipulations are you doing? ><Snip> Many of us into Leica stuff here are making a serious commitment to our photography and to many of us this involves a controlled output. We talk about enlargers here, Leica especially and all kinds of darkroom stuff optical as well as chemical. There is no Leica Red Dot Dektol but what the heck! And now we find ourselves pioneers in this whole digital thing... Just in the short few years I've been on this list. Like in the 1860s when everyone when to the Pharmacist or Druggist or Chemist to get set up making Daguerrotypes or wet plates... now we are all figuring out on the internet what the heck scanners and printers and software is coming out and how to use them. The whole approach to processing a scanned image can be at first not that different. contrast and density are adjusted. But then "spotting" quickly becomes "retouching" as that clone tool can take a dust glop off as easily as ad a third eye in the middle of your subjects forehead. Unsharp mask is part of the scanning process. Prosumers scanners seem to all need it. I hear a scan in Kodak Photo CD format needs it. But this can be done selectively. As can the softening effect you get from the "dust and scratches" filter. In effect you can dial in your own bokeh. The power of selectivity: selections makes digital processing a whole different ballgame than wet work. Not just a digital metaphor. Once you learn to effectively select a foreground (the subject) from a background each and be adjusted differently as far as: density contrast sharpness (unsharp mask and the sharpening tool) softness (dust and scratches and the blur and blend tools, Gaussian blur) Color saturation (that tool) What else? Plenty of other things I'm sure. Mark Rabiner So far I seem to be guilty of adding some lens flare to the backgrounds of some studio shots to help "improve" things. You can loose your objectivity and have your friends catch you at it and say "You sure *&^%$ed with this picture didn't you Mark?!"