Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Jim Laurel's Laos and Vietnam
From: grduprey@rockwellcollins.com
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 08:10:36 -0600

Jim I like the Berber shot, but it looks a bit flat to me, an increase in
contrast would improve it just right.

Gene



                                                                                                                                             
                      Jim Laurel                                                                                                             
                      <jplaurel@nwlink.com>               To:       leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us                                        
                      Sent by:                            cc:                                                                                
                      owner-leica-users@mejac.palo        Subject:  Re: [Leica] Jim Laurel's Laos and Vietnam                                
                      -alto.ca.us                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                             
                      02/18/2004 06:19 PM                                                                                                    
                      Please respond to                                                                                                      
                      leica-users                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                             




Thanks to everyone who took the time to look at the Laos and Vietnam
images.  Feedback from as accomplished a group as the LUG is very
instructive.  I especially appreciate when people list favorites.  Some
of the favorites have surprised me.  Anyway, the feedback was a big
help in whittling down the images to show at the ASMP portfolio night
coming up in a couple of weeks.

Since some have asked offline...These images were all shot on the new
Fuji Velvia 100, mostly with Leica M6s.  I think 3 or 4 were done with
a Canon EOS1n.  They were scanned with a Nikon LS-4000.

I'm becoming a believer in shooting color transparency film, even if
the final goal is a black and white print.  You can apply b&w filters
after the fact, and adjust the RBG levels with the channel mixer before
turning the image into monochrome.  From there, I made them into
quadtones, using Ken Lee's bronze profile for Photoshop.  You can get
it here: http://www.kenleegallery.com/bronze.htm

I have also been playing around with making quadtones from digital
captures taken with the digital cameras.  Oddly enough, I'm finding
that these seem to require a lot more manipulation than the film scans
to get the tonality right.  I am especially having problems in getting
smooth tonal gradations.  Take the photo of this Berber fellow, for
instance, captured in RAW format with a Canon 1Ds at ISO 200 at full
11mp resolution:

http://www.spectare.com/gallery/saw/20cw0927.jpg

If you look at the dunes in the left area of this photo, there are lots
of gentle tonal gradations.  I had a really hard time getting these to
appear smooth, without a kind of "stepped" look.  I tried all sorts of
things - lowering saturation and contrast during raw conversion, etc.
I'm sure there's a way, but this photo proved very challenging and took
as much time to adjust as all the Laos/Vietnam film scans combined.

Any tips from the LUG's digital experts?

- --Jim

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