Re: [Leica] dry & wet darkroom :-(

[Johnny Deadman <john@pinkheadedbug.com>]

on 17/10/00 9:11 am, Ted at tedgrant@home.com wrote:

> Hi Guys & Gals,
> After several hours of trying to "electronically" dodge and burn a neg
> to make one decent print, I have to confess out of sheer frustration,
> "read my inadequacies," in coping with the learning curve of
> computer/printer compared to wet/my printing, that it's just driving me
> up the
> wall or around the curves, contrasts, brightness or wiggling lines!

Ted, it's a steep learning curve at the beginning especially as even the
best 'manuals' like THE DIGITAL DARKROOM are pretty out of date.

Once you have the overall tonality right, burning and dodging is best
accomplished in non-obvious ways. You can use the dinky photoshop tools for
a bit of deft bleaching here and there, in the face or whatever, but for
large corrections, like burning in a sky or the corners I favour the
following approaches. (In any event the burn/dodge tools are much easier to
use with a pen & tablet... trying to use them with the mouse is an exercise
in frustration).

Method A. Simpler

1. Press L to select the lassoo tool. Outline the area you want to burn in.
This will now be selected with the famous 'marching ants'

2. Now choose Select>Feather and type in a number from 200-250. This will
stop what you are about to do from having a sharp edge (it basically fuzzes
the edge of the selection you just made. Pressing Q to enter and exit 'Quick
Mask' mode will show you just how fuzzy the selection is)

3. Now choose Image>Adjust>Curves, click in the centre of the straight line
and drag it up and down. You'll see the result previewed on screen. The area
you selected will get darker and lighter.

4. Click OK when you're happy with the result.

The problem with the above is that you can't change your mind once you've
made an adjustment. A more sophisticated approach goes as follows.

Method B. Still simple.

Steps 1, 2 as above.

3. Choose Layer>New>Adjustment Layer and use the pull down menu to select
'Curves' as the layer type. Press 'OK" and you'll get the Curves dialog box
as before. Follow the rest of step 3 to make the tonal change and

4. Click OK when you're happy with the result.

In the layer palette you will now see a new layer called 'curves'. The
beauty of this is that it's editable: you can change the curves adjustment
at any time if for example you want to make the sky lighter or darker. Just
double click the layer and up the Curves dialog will pop.

Hope this helps.

- -- 
Johnny Deadman

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com