ACCURATE LENS SIMULATION: Finally, you can manipulate focus just like fast expensive lenses with Bokeh™, Alien Skin’s latest Photoshop® plug-in. Bokeh is the only software that accurately simulates the distinctive blurring and creamy highlights of real lenses. We performed careful experiments with lenses famous for their bokeh highlights, such as the Canon® EF 85mm f/1.2 II and the Nikon® 105mm f/2.8 Macro. The result is a photo-realistic look, in contrast to the unnatural blur from other software.
LIMITLESS CREATIVE CONTROL: Turn your f/22 shot into an f/1! After the shoot it’s not too late to decrease depth of fi eld. Bokeh can make distracting surroundings fade into the distance, drawing attention to your subject. You can get creative with full control of a radial or planar sweet spot, just like expensive tilt-shift lenses. Vignetting can help frame a portrait or give that Lomo look. Bokeh is so fl exible that it can even render heart-shaped highlights!
Ultra easy portrait touch-up software for Mac & PC.See it to believe it. Free trial.
Portrait Professional 8 is new, incredibly easy to use portrait enhancement software. Offers complete creative control. Improve any aspect of your portraits instantly, just by moving sliders. Fast. Easy. Great results.
Don’t take our word for it. Download the free trial for Mac & PC at www.PortraitProfessional.com and see for yourself. And from just $79.95 for the standard version, it knocks spots off the competition, as well as your subjects.
SPECIAL 10% EXTRA DISCOUNT FOR PHOTOTECHNIQUES READERS IF YOU ENTER THECOUPON GW394 WHEN BUYING ONLINE.
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In an age of increasingdigital dominance, does a new
color f ilm have anything to offer?
18 Digital PortraitLighting,
by B obbi LaneHere’s how to retain the right
detail while capturing themood you want.
24 PORTFOLIO:The Landscapes
of Michael Kenna
29 Non-DestructiveSplit-Toning
in PhotoshopCS3/CS4,
by Uwe Steinmueller
Discover a quick way toemulate the traditional trick of
giving different tones to shadowand highlight areas of a photograph.
Beautiful SkinTones, 31by Mark DubovoyA quick, effective method for color-balancing skin by the numbers.
Focus Shift, 35by Lloyd L. ChambersSome photographers thinktheir lens is soft when it’snot; here’s how to fix it.
How to Ship 42PhotographsFaster, Cheaper,and Better,by CteinWhether you have a printbusiness or simply sendphotos to friends, thistutorial shows how tobalance safety and cost.
REVIEW: 46Canon EOS 5DMark II,by PaulSchranzA pro camera ata reasonable price.
Table of contents
Features
DEPARTMENTS
Techniques®
PHOTOVol. 30, No. 3 MAY/JUNE 2009
14
24
PHOTO Techniques (ISSN 1083-9070)is published bimonthly (every other month) byPreston Publications, Div. Preston IndustriesInc., 6600 W.Touhy, Niles, IL 60714-4516.Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL andadditional mailing offices. Copyright 2009;reproduction without permission strictlyprohibited.
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eanwhile, Souza was more andmore impressed with the
young senator. “It became apparent tome . . . that Obama was a one-in-a-generation politician. I could foreseethen that someday he might bepresident.” So, Souza commented,“I started to think of the project inthose terms.”
Souza was there when Obamatrotted up the steps of the U.S.Capitol on his way to the Senate f loorfor a vote. And Souza was withObama when he strolled throughMoscow in 2005 and when he visitedother key countries, including Kenyaand South Africa, as well as along thecampaign trail throughout the UnitedStates. Souza points out that thesephotos portray Obama as an ordinaryAmerican—no Secret Service, no TVcameras. “Those types of imageswould never be able to be taken again,”Souza said, and also observed that“Everything around him has changed.There’s all this Secret Service and allthese aides. But when you get in thesame room with him . . . I don’t thinkhe’s changed all that much.”
Souza’s photos of Obama, from hisf irst day in the U.S. Senate to his run
for the presidency, won multipleawards in the Pictures of the YearInternational contest and from theNational Press PhotographersAssociation. The photographsbecame a 160-page book, The Rise ofBarack Obama, which was releasedduring the Democratic NationalConvention in July. Sales of the bookwere moderate during the summer,but it became a best-seller as theelection drew closer, reaching number16 on the New York Times’ best-sellerlist for hardcover nonf iction. Souzadescribes the photographs in the book
as “very unscripted . . . I think thosekinds of moments reveal more abouta person.”
Now Souza has accepted the jobof chief off icial White Housephotographer for President BarackObama. Previously Souza served as aWhite House photographer forPresident Ronald Reagan from 1983to 1989. “I’m excited to go back as thechief photographer, which I wasn’t
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before,” he said. Unlike newspaperphotography, where the focus is onmaking photos for the next day’s edition,the job of the White Housephotographer is “to visually documentthe presidency for history,” he said.
For instance, Souza discusses a photohe made of Obama and his family justbefore Obama publicly announced hewould run for president. In thephotograph, Obama calmly looks off intothe distance, while his wife anddaughters look on with expressionssuggesting some anxiety. “I look at thatphotograph now and I say to myself,‘He’s about to walk out that door, and hislife will never be the same,’” Souza said.
Souza feels Obama chose him for thejob based partly on his ability to be theproverbial f ly on the wall. “It hadeverything to do with the fact that[Obama] trusted me; that I’m not anuisance; that I can move around in asensitive meeting and not trip over thefurniture,” he said. The off icial WhiteHouse photographer has privilegedaccess to places that ordinaryphotographers don’t, such as the Oval
Off ice and high-level meetings.“The White House photographer has
a great job, because you get to go everyplace the president goes,” Souza toldNational Public Radio. “It’s tedious, too,though, because there’s sometimesweeks that go by where you’rephotographing the same guy sitting onthe same chairs in the same room. Andyou’ve got to motivate yourself to knowthat any meeting that you photographmight someday be important. And soyou’ve got to make sure you don’t justblow off the meeting; you’ve got to try tomake interesting photographs of everymeeting, even if they’re in the sameroom they were in the day before andthe day before and the day before.”
“TheWhite House photographer” issomething of a misnomer—as chief,Souza will have a staff of photographers toassist him—and Souza himself will likelyconcentrate on behind-the-scenes aspectsof the presidency. Robin Daughtridge,deputy director of photography for theChicago Tribune, said, “The thing thatPete does so well is anticipate what will bean iconic picture five years from now.
Pete is the type of guy who can takeintimate, storytelling pictures.”
TheWashington Post commented, “Itmay sound counterintuitive, but the bestway for Barack Obama to keep any ofhis life private in this era of cell phone-snaps, Facebook goofs, and long-lensedpaparazzi is to . . . reliably and regularlyrelease pictures of newsworthy, intimatefamily moments in a manner that he cancontrol. That’s because online, the onlyway to control your own image is todrown outsiders’ takes in a media streamof your own creation—and there is nonews agency or paparazzo in the worldwith better access to [the] innerworkings of Obamaland and the Obamafamily than Obama himself.”
As we go to press, the off icial portraitfor President Barack Obama has justbeen released, taken by Pete Souza.The ObamaWeb site comments, “It isthe f irst time that an off icial presidentialportrait was taken with a digital camera.”
For a gallery of Souza’s photo-graphs and a full biography, visitwww.petesouza.com.
olaroid is launching the 7-megapixel PoGo InstantDigital Camera, “the f irst digital camera and instant
printer combination available in the U.S. and Europe that isportable enough to take anywhere. With the push of abutton, consumers can select from among the digital photoson the camera, crop or edit them, and in less than 60 secondsprint full-color, 2×3-inch prints . . .”
Polaroid’s Jon Pollock, vice president and general manager ofdigital imaging, said, “This is the digital version of our traditionalinstant camera, which consumers have loved since the ’70s.With this product, Polaroid will bring the magic of instantphotography to a whole new generation. It’s what consumershave told us they want—a fun, easy way to use a digital camerato print photos and share their memories instantly.”
Polaroid has already introduced the PoGo Instant MobilePrinter for making prints from existing digital cameras. Nowthe PoGo Instant Digital Camera combines printer andcamera into a single convenient unit. Like the Mobile Printer,the camera uses ZINK Paper and ZINK Zero Ink PrintingTechnology, an ink-free printing technology that eliminatesink cartridges and ribbons. ZINK Paper is a compositematerial that has embedded heat-activated dye crystals.
The prints (2×3-inch sticky-backed photos) take about 60seconds to come out of thecamera and are immediatelydry to the touch, durable, and smudgeand water resistant.
The camera is bigger than other point-and-shoot models, but then they don’t have a built-in printer.The PoGo weighs about 10 ounces—without battery,memory card, or ZINK paper. It’s about 4.7 inches wide by3 inches high by 1.3 inches deep—not much wider ortaller than other digicams, but considerably thicker toaccommodate the printer. To insert a pack of 10 sheets ofZINK paper into the camera, you simply pop up the 3-inchLCD screen on the back of the camera and slide the paper in.
One real lack: the PoGo does not have an optical zoomlens (there’s a 4× digital zoom, but we all know the downsideof using digital zoom).
The Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera has asuggested retail price of $199. Ten-sheet packs of ZINKPhoto Paper will retail for $4.99 and 30-sheet packs for$12.99.
The Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera
PThe Polaroid PoGoInstant Digital Camera, a7-megapixel digicam witha built-in printer.
PHOTO NEWS
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ne of the neatest-looking new products at the bigConsumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the
Minoru 3D USB 2.0 High Speed Webcam, a little redgadget looking vaguely like E.T. or Wall-E. The horizontal“head” includes two cameras, spaced roughly the samedistance apart as human eyes, to capture the stereoscopiceffect. Output can be up to 800×600 pixels, with a framerate of 30 frames per second. The 3DWebcam has a
multi-position stand that can sit or stand on adesk, or perch on an LCD or laptop screen.But after all this high-tech stuff, you still have towear 1950s-style red/blue glasses to see the imagesin 3D!
In the U.S. the Minoru 3DWebcam will beavailable from Amazon.com for $89.95. (And bythe way, Minoru means “Reality” in Japanese.)
Cute little 3DWebcam
O
Fisher Price Kid-Tough digital camerahas a secret “plus”
oys used to besimple—
dolls, model trains,bicycles. They stayed
where you left them and didn’tbother you (unless you tripped overthem).
With today’s high-tech toys, thatisn’t true any more. Take the FisherPrice Kid-Tough digital camera,“a real digital camera that’s toughenough and easy enough for kids touse all by themselves—and now it’swaterproof for spills and splashes, too!Two-eye viewing makes it easy forkids to look through the viewf inder;sturdy dual hand grips help themsteady their shot; big buttons are easyfor their little hands to press.”
User reviews range all the way from“GREAT TOY!!” down to “What awaste,” but who knows whether thatvariation is due to the product or thekids using it, or both.
But now the bad news: Some of theKid-Tough digicams come completewith one or more computer viruses.One Minnesota family was about todownload images from the camera totheir computer when their anti-virussoftware warned them it had foundtwo viruses among the photos.
A statement from Fisher-Price saysconsumers should mail the camerasback to the company and they will beprovided with new ones within onemonth.
T
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The last Kodachrome lab—Accordingto news reports, “there is only onephoto lab in the world that stillprocesses 35mm Kodachrome colorf ilm”—Dwayne’s Photo of Parsons,Kansas. Grant Steinle, Dwayne’s vicepresident of operations, said, “We were. . . a specialty photographic servicesprovider for major national retailers:Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Osco, EckertDrug . . . those people were looking fora single outsource point where theycould send all of their specialty work.”Dwayne’s Photo said processingKodachrome f ilm provides signif icantrevenue, but the company also providesprofessional and digital photo services.
10millionLIFE photos and counting—Google has opened an online photogallery that will include millions ofimages from LIFE magazine’s archives,photos that have never been seen by thepublic before. The Web site openedwith about two million photos buteventually Google will scan all 10million photos from LIFE ’s library sothey can be viewed on any computerwith an Internet connection. The Website is images.google.com/hosted/life.Photos can be printed out for free aslong as they aren’t being used for acommercial purpose. ■
SHORT TAKES
Jerry O’Neill has been photographing,
writing, and lecturing about photography for
many years. His photo credits include grip-
and-grin shots for the U.S. Army, photo
f inishes for thoroughbred race tracks, hospital
operating room photographs, and snapshots of
his wife and two children.
s we get further and further intodigital photography, we’re
seeing capabilities that silver-halidephotography just didn’t have. Oneexample is the new Digital Windowsurveillance camera from ScallopImaging, with a unique designfeaturing two left-looking lenses, tworight-looking, and one aimed straightahead. Behind each lens is a relativelylow-resolution sensor (about equivalentto the camera in a typical cell phone),but thanks to digital image processing,the images are instantly stitchedtogether to create a high-resolution7-megapixel, seamless, 180°-widevideo image, in real time. There’s alsoinstant pan and zoom in a rotatingwindow, with no camera movement—it’s all done with image processing.
Scallop Imaging says the camerahas no f isheye distortion or blindspots, and two cameras can be pairedback-to-back to provide a full 360°f ield of view. The image is sharpenough to provide “excellent facialrecognition in place of existing wide-angle solutions that only produce ablur,” the company says. “Distributingthe surveillance task across multiplesmall sensors gives an extraordinaryincrease in capability at lower cost andlower bandwidth requirements.”
Digital Window will be available in
2009 to security and surveillance videocamera manufacturers on an OEMbasis. For more information, visitwww.scallopimaging.com.
Five lenses and clever softwaremake high-resolution, seamless180°-wide images
Faculty comprised of
photographic professionals,
educators and writers
State-of-the-art digital lab
Located in beautiful historic
Mesilla, NM nearWhite
Sands National Monument
Visit: www.mesillaworkshops.comfor class descriptions, faculty bios andeasy online registration.
1755 Avenida deMercado
P.O. Box 1022 � Mesilla, NM 88046
575.523.8713
Educational Partners
•
The crisp, 7-megapixel, seamless 180-degree-wide video image from the Digital Window.
A
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GigaPan Systems introduced the GigaPan Epic ($379),based on technology from the Mars Rover. It allowsphotographers to capture large, detailed panoramas withalmost any point-and-shoot digital camera. A digitalcamera is attached to the Epic, a small robotic mountthat automates the picture-taking process. Thehundreds or thousands of resulting images aredownloaded to a computer and GigaPan Stitcher
software automatically combines them into a panorama that can be gigapixels insize. (www.gigapansystems.com)
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Tenba Black Label Camera Bag CollectionTenba introduced Black Label, acollection of premium, handcraftedcamera bags and satchels. The collectionis aimed at the professional or seriousenthusiast who wants a bag with upscaledesign and features, highest-gradematerials, and robust construction.The bags are constructed of a specially
laminated sandwich of ballistic nylon and open-cell foam, giving them shape,body, and exterior protection from abrasion, water, stains, tears, and punctures.Trim and handles are made of perforated upholstery leather, inspired by luxurycar interiors. Seatbelt webbing, military matte-black YKK zippers, Duraf lexclosures, and massively reinforced stress points assure strength and long-termdurability. The collection is launching with two pro-sized camera bags formultiple bodies and lenses, and three slim, lightweight and discreet photosatchels for single-camera setups with room for a spare lens and f lash. Suggestedretail prices range from $114.95 to $179.95. (www.tenba.com)
JOBO Portable Image StorageJOBO announced two new portable image storage devices, theGIGA Vu SONIC and the GIGA one SONIC. For professionalsthat need high-end secure back-up of their digital images, the newGIGA Vu SONIC features an ultra-quick download speed of up to1 GB of data in 30 seconds, decoding of numerous Raw image f iles,four hard-disc capacities of up to 250 GB, a high-resolution
3.2-inch color display, and numerous picture functions. For the more budget-minded, the new JOBO GIGA one SONIC features extremely fast picturestorage (transfers up to 1GB of data in less than one minute), a long-lastingbattery, four hard-disc capacities of up to 200 GB, a 1.8-inch LCD display andconvenient operation via f ive easy-to-use buttons. These devices accommodateall popular media cards featuring slots for CompactFlash (CF) I/II, Microdrive,SecureDigital (SD), SDHC, (Memory Stick) MS, MS Pro, MS Duo, andMultiMediaCard (MMC). In addition, the GIGA Vu SONIC can store anddisplay digital data in popular f ile formats such as JPEG and even variousspecif ic Raw camera formats. The GIGA Vu SONIC is offered with fourdifferent storage capacities: 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, and 250GB; U.S. retailprices are $320, $350, $380, and $430 respectively. The GIGA one SONIC isavailable in four different storage capacities: 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, and 200GB;retail prices are $189; $229, $269, $329. (www.jobo.com)
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Harman CrystalJet RCHarman Photo announced a new line of inkjet paperscalled Harman CrystalJet RC. The paper is said to offer asimilar level of quality to the brand’s higher-end papers for alower price. The paper is resin-coated, rather than f iber-based like Harman’s higher-end papers. CrystalJet RCweighs 260gsm, and the company describes it as “ideal” forblack-and-white prints. (www.harman-inkjet.com).
Linhof Techno-Digital Field CameraLinhof released the Techno digital f ield camera that thecompany says combines the advantages of their Technika f ieldcamera system and their M 679cs universal studio system,which is optimized for digital photography. The Techno is acompact high-tech camera offering all of the necessaryadjustment abilities for extreme-short to long focal-lengthlenses. All currently available digital backs can be adapted.This new design is based on the needs and experiences ofphotographers, with a special emphasis on architecturalphotography. This means shift facilities, use of wide-anglelenses starting with 23mm focal length, and perfect controlof vertical orientation. The camera also features 40mm ofself-aligning vertical shift with exact parallel control, zero
clickstops (which can be engaged whenever needed), spiritlevels on the lens standard and the rear standard for precisevertical orientation, and a special wide-angle bellows forextremely easy adjustments. The self-aligning focusing isoperated via the camera bellows extension, not via a helicoidsystem on the lens. This permits large extensions of up to240mm, which is a requirement for long focal-length lenses.This camera is designed for landscapes as well as for close-ups.The following rollf ilm backs can be adapted to the LinhofTechno: Mamiya RB, Horseman, Linhof Rapid Rollex, and aspecial Linhof Super Rollex 6×9cm back. The Techno is madeof sturdy light alloy combined with carbon f iber.(www.hpmarketingcorp.com)
book corner
Night & Low-LightPhotography
By JillWaterman
Rather than relyingexclusively on her ownwork, Waterman looks at images byabout 30 photographers. The bookoffers their many beautiful nightphotos, as well as tips and techniquesthat went into making the imagessuccessful. Waterman considers thetypical problems in this type ofphotography, such as working withmixed lighting, f ilm development,digital noise, dealing with high- andlow-contrast, exposure times, lightpainting, weather, and so on.(Amphoto, 196 pages, $29.95)
This may be a textbook,but it is full of numerous amazing (andin some cases quite disturbing) photos
that illustrate the important,sometimes awe-inspiring role playedby photojournalists. The bookcontains some standard (though well-explained) information on how tocorrectly expose and light an image,as well as information targetedspecif ically to photojournalists. Itcovers such details as how to deal withthe police, what rights photographershave in what situations, and how todeal with newspaper and magazineeditors. (Focal Press,504 pages, $54.95)
50 Lighting Setupsfor PortraitPhotographers
By StevenH. Begleiter
The title says it all, but still doesn’tcapture this book’s tremendous utility:if you want to shoot portraits usinganything beyond natural light, thisbook contains a wealth of ideas. Theimages range from intimate to formal,the lighting from simple to fairly
complex. Each portrait is accompaniedby a drawing showing where all lights,bounces, and cameras were (see theauthor’s article on page 37 of our lastissue for an example). (Amherst Media,
126 pages, $34.95)
The Sadness ofMen
By Philip Perkis
Representing a50-year retrospective,this book is the f irst publishedcollection by this professor emeritus ofphotography at the Pratt Institute.The 125 duotones here inhabit theterritory between street photography,documentary, and landscape,emphasizing small mundane detailsrather than the glorious. Many of theimages manage to be both specif ic anduniversal, which is no smallaccomplishment. As one might guessfrom the title, most of the images aremelancholy, sometimes even bleak,but also full of a quiet hope.(Quantuck Lane Press, 280 pages, $45)
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Still versus moving imageIn the March/April 2009 issue’s “Editor’s Note” you ask aquestion of particular interest to me. You asked if I wouldbe tempted to try video. For me, a shooter of f ilm anddigital since 1978, the single still image thrills me morethan video. I recently left the newspaper industry, wherethe big push even for small weekly newspapers is to shootnot only stills but video, and to post both online. But thevibrancy of a still image, whether f ilm (which I still shootwith a Yashica rangef inder that belonged to my dad) ordigital, will always have more allure for me than a video.
The “decisive moment” imagery of Cartier-Bresson andthe darkroom artistry of Ansel Adams (along with others)continues to inspire me today. For me, photojournalisticimagery from Cartier-Bresson and Capa to James Nachtweyinspires me to document life in my little corner of theworld. It is also the reason I have been a reader of PHOTO
Techniques since 1995 (the old Darkroom& Creative Camera
Techniques—David Vestal’s column is my favorite).For me, the still image is king.
Rich OwenPanama City Beach, FL
Diffraction and apertureI read with great interest the article “Diffraction: ResolutionTaxed to its Limits,” by Lloyd L. Chambers (PT January/February 2009) and found it very instructive. However, If ind that there is something not very clear. As far as Iknow, diffraction depends on actual aperture, that is to say,the actual dimension of it. What puzzles me is that in thearticle, f-stop numbers are addressed as absolute andindependent of focal length of lens. I think this is notcorrect.
If the f-stop number is derived from focal length/diameter of aperture, the diffraction limit should bedependent on the focal length also. This would explain whyon long focal-length lenses one can have a quite high f-stop
number, and with small digital cameras with sensors around1/6 inch, the maximum f-stop rarely exceeds ƒ/8 to ƒ/11.
Alberto PigolaVia e-mail
Lloyd Chambers answers: The aperture number
incorporates the focal length, given by f /# = ƒ/D, where ƒ is the
focal length, and D is the diameter of the entrance pupil.
A 100mm lens at ƒ/2 would thus have an entrance-pupil
diameter of 50mm, a 50mm lens at ƒ/2 would have a 25mm
entrance pupil. Light must travel twice as far for the 100mm
lens, doubling (linearly) any diffraction effects as compared to a
50mm lens, thus accounting for the 2× factor in entrance-pupil
size. (Entrance pupil and diaphragm are not the same, but they
bear a f ixed relationship that divides out in terms of aperture.)
Diffraction and digital photographyPossibly I can allay the concerns of readers likeEd Schlotzhauer (“Letters,” PT March/April 2009),regarding the impact of diffraction on digital photography.
In simplest terms, nothing has changed from filmphotography. Load up a 35mm camera with a modern,high-resolving f ilm, put a decent prime lens on the camera,and make a series of exposures from wide open to stoppedall the way down. You’ll f ind that wide open, the picturesare less sharp because of lens aberrations and the likelihoodthat focus isn’t absolutely perfect. As you stop down,depth of focus increases and lens aberrations decrease;peak sharpness improves.
With many lenses, the best sharpness will occursomewhere around ƒ/5.6. At smaller apertures than that,depth of f ield continues to increase (up to a point) but thepeak sharpness goes down because diffraction is now thebiggest source of blur.
That’s just the normal state of affairs. Experienced f ilmphotographers know that to achieve maximum peak
sharpness in their photographs, they need to work near theoptimum aperture for their lens.
It’s no different for digital photography. The onlydifference is that digital photography lets everyphotographer blow up the photographs on their computerscreen to the point where they can observe and analyzethese effects, unlike the old days where it required expertslike me with access to microscopes and other fancy gear toplay these games.
So, should you consider buying a super-expensivecamera body? Well, it depends on just how much detail youneed, when you need f ine detail above all else. Thedownside of digital photography is you can’t just swapsensors the way you could rolls of f ilm (and you’re not likelyto ever be able to). But, whether f ilm or digital, you’llalways be weighing increased depth of f ield against peaksharpness. It’s not a def iciency in the medium, the cameras,nor the lenses. It’s just the laws of optics.
CteinVia e-mail
We welcome your letters. Send them to: Scott Lewis, Editor, PHOTO Techniques
6600 W. Touhy Ave., Niles, IL 60714 • e-mail: [email protected] may be edited for grammar or brevity.
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hotographers took up bigprinting somewhat later. Most of
them waited until after photographybecame capital-A, or salable, Art,which happened at the WitkinGallery in New York in 1969, whena show of moderately large prints byAnsel Adams (16×20 inches?32×40?) sold out at $150 per print.Unprecedented! Mind you,photography had always beensmall-a art, the real thing, ever since1839, when Daguerre and Talbotand Hippolyte Bayard and a fewothers separately announced thateach of them had inventedphotography (which was true).Now we move to a later time.
Atget’s contact printsEugène Atget photographed Parisfor about 30 years before he died in1927. As far as I know, he nevermade an enlargement. He madecontact prints from 18×24-cm glassnegatives (about 7×91/2 inches), andalmost always did minor croppingby trimming off edges. In a book ofhis work that reproduces 212pictures and gives their printmeasurements (Eugène Atget:Unknown Paris, by David Harris;The New Press, New York, 2003),
I found only one entirely uncroppedphoto that measured the full 18×24cm. The smallest photo in the bookmeasured 16.9×22 cm, about6.7×8.7 inches. Evidently he did noenlarging, and his constant croppingwas seldom extreme. Yet some ofhis work could stand extremeenlargement. I never knew itsmeasurements, but BereniceAbbott, who preserved much ofAtget’s work for many years, madeat least one f loor-to-ceiling print ofan Atget photograph of a big tree,and it survived that hugeenlargement handily.
Berenice Abbott herself workedlargely with 8×10 and 11×14cameras in her documentarycoverage of New York City from the1930s through the 1950s, thoughshe did not neglect the little 6×6-cmsquare-format Rolleif lex. Her printsfor the WPA (the federal WorksProgress Administration of thedepression years) were mostly 8×10contact prints. But she also made af loor-to-ceiling print of her severelycropped photograph of New York’sExchange Place. In a contact printit’s about 2 inches wide by 10 incheshigh. I saw it in 1949 in her studioon Commerce Street in New York,
and it worked very well at 10 or 12times the size of the negative. Herlater photographs illustratingprinciples of science were alsoprinted big, and that wasappropriate. It is possible andlegitimate to make good large printsof photos that can stand it. Someeven gain by it. See the work ofAnsel Adams for many goodexamples.
Jan Sudek, the crusty old one-armed photo king of Prague,stopped making enlargementslong ago. He wrote about it,saying something like, “See thatdust-covered thing over in thecorner of the room? That’s myenlarger.” He was glad to be donewith it. Edward Weston had noenlarger. When he wanted tomake 8×10s from his Graf lexnegatives, which were 4×5 inchesor smaller, he copied them withhis 8×10 camera to make newnegatives. He didn’t do much ofthat, but some excellent 8×10prints came from it. He felt noneed to print bigger. E. W.’s egowas already comfortably large anddidn’t need inf lation by print size.His son, Brett, rightly went in forlarger prints, which suited his
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Print SizeS o m e t h o u g h t s o n l a r g e p h o t o g r a p h s
Vestal at Large
by david vestal
byS.TinsleyPreston
Painters probably began it after World War II. It was tactical. If just one of your canvases
f illed a whole wall, and three more took up the whole gallery, no room would be left for others.
I suppose the saying, “If you can’t make it good, make it big,” dates from then.
P
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Irving Penn’s ashtraysWhat follows is personal opinionand is not PHOTO Technique’s fault,so don’t sue the magazine. Anyway,it’s publicity, so it must be good for,and therefore welcomed by, IrvingPenn and the Metropolitan Museumof Art.
Some years ago I didn’t go to seeIrving Penn’s exhibition of very largeplatinum prints of the contents ofash trays. I was, and remain, prettysure it was an exercise in appliedvanity. Although Penn is a very goodlarge-format commercial and fashionphotographer, he does seem to go infor empty displays of his staff ’s trulyexceptional technique, his own
ability to think big and cover largeexpenses, and his deep wish to seemwith-it and far-out. Penn came fromthe advertising business, and hisshowmanship is well developed. I’msure that many visitors to that showwere deeply impressed, not least byPenn’s choice of messy gray-on-graytrash for his subject. His message, itseems to me, was “What a genius Iam! In my hands, even the lowly ashtray becomes high art.” You bet. I’mpretty sure those prints were trulyimpressive, and that those pictures,however well executed, didn’t deservethem. I saw reproductions of some ofthem, and that was plenty for me.All that labor and expense! And tomake sure, he placed his greatashtray show in the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, which has a
weakness for shows that it callsblockbusters.
Few of today’s giant-printartists, I fear, are nearly as good asPenn. The way many of theirpictures look in reproduction showsthat the photos are really muchsmaller than their print size tries tomake them.
My experience is that a good bigprint is much harder to make than agood small one. I gave away my16×20 trays in 1972 because by thenI’d learned that prints bigger than11×14 do nothing for my stuff.Sometimes a good small print worksbetter than an equally well-made bigone. And some blow-ups destroypictures by overinf lating them. Notmany of our best photographs reallyneed enormous prints. ■
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The real purpose of the trip was toshow an exchange student from theRepublic of Georgia, who had beenliving at our home for nearly a yearand was about to return to hishomeland, some of the mostspectacular landscapes in the UnitedStates. It gave him a good idea of thescenery that he had seen through myphotographs, but now could seethrough his own eyes.
But I wasn’t just a tour guide forhim. I did a lot of photography alongthe way.Normally I shoot with my 4×5camera, but because we were jumpingfrom place to place fairly quickly to seeas much as possible in the few days wehad for the trip (though we did hikearound a few places to get a moreintimate connection with them),I chose to use my medium-formatMamiya 645 camera most of the time.It allowed me to set up more quicklyand reel off several exposures whenI wanted to do so.
At Bryce Canyon we stopped atseveral of the rim overlooks of thisgeological wonder. Each one isbreathtaking.Generally a short walkaway from the main overlook yieldsthe best view. This was the case atthe location shown here, though Isimply can’t remember which one ofthe overlooks I was at when I madethis image.
It was late afternoon, and a thickbank of clouds had moved over thearea. Sometimes that’s enough torender any serious attempt atlandscape photography useless. Buthere, the situation was different. Thesoft light allowed every crevice andhollow to be visible, while preventingany prominent point from beingblown out with too much light fromdirect sunlight. The problem was thatthe overall contrast was quite low.
Had I made the photograph (or areasonably similar one) with my 4×5camera, I could have developed thatnegative to greatly increased contrast.With my medium-format camera, Ihave three backs devoted to threedifferent levels of contrast, with adifferent f ilm used for each. Forextremely high-contrast scenes (whereI want to lower the contrast) I useIlford HP5 film. For normal contrastI use Ilford FP4 film. For extremelylow-contrast scenes (where I want toexpand the contrast greatly) I useKodak Technical Pan film (no longermade, but I still have some in coldstorage). The question was whetherto use the FP4 or the Tech Pan.Knowing that Tech Pan is able toraise contrast to astonishinglevels—too much, I felt, for the scene
at hand—I chose the FP4, f iguringI could attain the necessary contrast inprinting with high-contrast f iltrationon my dichroic enlarger.
The image was made using a210mm lens. The finished negative isstill very low in contrast, as can beseen in the straight print, whichemulates the look of a gray card. Infact, the contrast was lower than I hadguessed it would be. So when I triedto print the negative, even dialing thefiltration up to the maximum (170units of magenta f iltration on myLPL enlarger), I still fell short of thecontrast needed to make the imagesing.What I wanted to convey is therepetitive, almost rhythmic patterns ofthe rows of pinnacles, topped by theset of three massive pinnacles towardthe upper right corner of the image.To me it had the look of an opticalillusion, one that starts to jiggle yourvision when you stare at it for morethan a few seconds.
Unable to achieve the necessarylevel of contrast, I had to resort to oneof the tricks I learned long ago:selenium tone the negative to achievehigher contrast.
For that purpose I have a quartbottle of 1:1 selenium with water, or
Dealingwith aLow-Contrast Negative
by Bruce Barnbaum
MASTER PRINTING CLASS
I
Photoby
AlanLem
ire
STRAIGHT PRINT:The impressive array ofpinnacles crowding one atop another like peoplein a pre-renaissance painting by Giotto was anawesome sight, but there was astoundingly lowcontrast to deal with.
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approximately a pint of water mixedwith a pint of rapid selenium toner. Iuse this solution whenever I need tokick up the contrast level of a negative.It’s a rare occurrence, but does happen.So I poured the solution into an 8×10-inch tray, and dipped the strip of fivenegatives into the solution. (The otherfour negatives on the strip,made fromthe same location,were views to theleft and right of this set of pinnacles.They all appeared to be of similarcontrast, therefore subject toimprovement by the seleniumtreatment.Had the others not neededthe contrast increase, I would have cutthis negative out of the strip, and
toned it alone.) I leave the negative (orin this case, the strip of negatives) inthe solution for 20 minutes or more,periodically agitating the tray, andmaking sure that the full strip isbeneath the surface of the solution atall times in order to assure uniformityin the contrast increase from theselenium immersion.This, of course, isa far more concentrated solution thanI would ever use for selenium toning aprint.After toning, the negatives arewashed and hung to dry, as if they hadjust been developed.The toningsolution is poured back into the quartbottle to be used again in the future.
The selenium treatment boosts the
negative’s contrast significantly,perhaps more than a contrast grade ofpaper or the rough equivalent of plusone development of the negative…perhaps even more than that.
With the enhanced negative, I wasable to achieve the look I wanted inthe final image, still dialing thecontrast level up to 170 units ofmagenta for printing. It’s nearly astraight print, with minor amounts ofdodging along the lighter tops of thepinnacles, and then a few quickbrushstrokes of potassium ferricyanide(bleach) to open up a dark area or two,or to slightly brighten a few of thelighter areas to bring out a little moreglow.The final print, enlarged toabout 16×20 inches, attains the feelingI wanted of bringing out the rhythmicpatterns of the rows of pinnaclesbeneath and beyond the set of three inthe upper right.
This also proves that it’s foolish to putyour camera away if it’s not just aftersunrise or just before sunset.Photographicpossibilities exist at all times.Even ourexchange student,who was not aphotographer, could see that. ■
Bruce Barnbaum teaches photographyworkshops throughout the year focusing onthe art of seeing and the art of conveyingyour impressions of your photographedworld, real or imagined. Please see his2009 workshop schedule on his Web site atwww.barnbaum.com. Bruce has twoblack-and-white fine-art photographybooks in print,Tone Poems—Book 1 (with90 superbly reproduced black-and-whitephotographs), published in 2002, and Tone
Poems— Book 2 (with 91 reproductions),published in 2005. Both are collaborativeefforts, featuring a CD of classical pianomusic by pianist Judith Cohen. Bruce’stextbook,The Art of Photography...anApproach to Personal Expression, isavailable in a fully revised fourth edition.It is considered to be the finest exposition ofthe technical, artistic, and expressive aspectsof photography available. For completeinformation on Bruce’s books, images, or his2009 workshop, visit his Web sitewww.barnbaum.com, or contact him atP.O. Box 1791, Granite Falls, WA 98252,or at [email protected].
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FINAL PRINT:By selenium toning the negative, printing it at the highest contrast levelavailable to get the darkest grays and blacks where they needed to be, then doing someselective bleaching to further brighten up the highlights, I was able to achieve the excitementneeded for a f inal print.
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odak was once the giant of the photographic market, with a
legacy stretching back to the 1880s. The company reigned
supreme for a century until the advent of digital
technologies challenged their position. Kodak slowly recognized
the power of digital and has been investing in digital cameras
and media. Yet even when we all thought f ilm was dead, Kodak
has released a new f ilm type—something that no one would
expect. Why would a company that is closing f ilm plants release a
new f ilm? Kodak has recognized that some users continue to use
f ilm, and through careful analysis has identif ied customers that
will remain loyal to this format for at least a few more years.
K Fine grain and vivid colorTransparency f ilm for a long time hasbeen the professional’s choice for richdetail, high saturation, and very f inegrain. But as more and more labs shuttheir doors or only operate their E-6machines on certain days of the week,what are photographers to do withtheir slide f ilm? Kodak feels they havefound an answer for them with theirnew Ektar 100 color negative f ilm.Ektar 100 is a 35mm, acetate-basef ilm that is daylight balanced, uses C-41 processing, and only is available as
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Review:
Film in the Age of Digital Domination:
Kodak’s New Ektar 100 Color Negative Film
We liked this close-up of nails in a telephone post;the detail and shadows are reproduced with Ektar 100.
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100 ASA. It was released in late 2008,with production beginning in early2009.
As part of our review, we talked toScott DiSabato, of Kodak’s Film,Photof inishing, and EntertainmentGroup. He described how Kodak hasrevamped their range of portrait f ilms,and asserted that Ektar 100 f ilm“helps the photographer captureunprecedented detail in remarkablyvivid color.”
Those with a long memory knowthat the Ektar name has always beensynonymous with f ine-grain f ilm suchas Ektar 25. Due to its low speed andlimited exposure latitude, Ektar 25usually needed a tripod. Kodak hasrecycled the Ektar name and used thebrand awareness of the early Ektar 25.The new Ektar 100 offers the samef ine grain as its predecessor, but withimproved latitude—two stops overand one stop under. Ektar 100replaces Kodak’s Professional Ultra
Color f ilm 100UC, and we think maycompete (or co-exist) with portraitf ilms—Professional Portra 400 NC(Natural Color) and Portra 400VC(Vivid Color).
GammaFor hard-core f ilm buffs, we provideinformation relating to the gamma ofthe new film. You will recall thatgamma is based on the characteristiccurve, which represents thecharacteristic response of the f ilm.The curve shows how the f ilmresponds to light (i.e., exposure). Asthe light hitting the f ilm increases,(from left to right on the horizontalaxis), the developed density of thef ilm increases (vertical axis). Thesteeper the curve, the higher contrastthe f ilm. Thus Kodalith Ortho f ilms,used for line drawings, have a verysteep curve, while the response ofgeneral purpose f ilm, for exampleT-Max, is much gentler.
The shape of the characteristiccurve changes with development timeand temperature, thus the gammavalue too, depends on development.The slope of the characteristic curvecan be calculated using a simple
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Figure 1. The gamma of the Ektar 100characteristic curve was measured from Kodakdata sheets. Ektar 100 is more contrasty thanPortra NC, but has less contrast than Portra VC.
formula, gamma = densitydifference/log exposure, as shown inFigure 1. You can easily calculate thegamma value from Kodak’s data sheetsusing this formula. Figure 2 displayssome gamma values we calculated forwell-known film types.
GrainEktar 100 is a f ine-grain f ilm. Kodakpromotes it as the “world’s f inest-grain color negative f ilm.” ScottDiSabato explained that Ektar 100 is amixed-grain f ilm combining the lightcapturing eff iciency of the f lat,tabular, T-grain emulsion with a morecubic silver-halide crystal. We notethat many of the modern f ilm typesare “mixed” grain emulsions that enjoythe benef its of different grain types.Ektar 100 has borrowed technologyfrom the motion-picture f ilmindustry, where the mixed grain helpsto reduce the scattering of light and
improve sharpness. Readers shouldnote that color f ilm does not reallyhave silver-halide grain. Duringdevelopment, exposed silver-halidegives off oxidation by-products in eachlayer, which react with nearby dyecouplers to form dye clouds. It is thedye clouds that form the image, andthe size of the dye cloud determinesthe graininess of the f ilm. Tiny dyeclouds are magnif ied and this is whatyou see in a big enlargement or a veryhigh-resolution scan. For color f ilmwe may therefore measure grain usingthe newer “Print Grain Index” and notthe traditional root mean square(RMS) granularity.
Field testingDoes the new Ektar 100 live up toKodak’s hype? The only way todetermine this was to take it into thef ield and conduct tests on real-worldsubjects. A series of tests were
performed on this f ilm, includingexamination of grain, color saturation,and effects on skin tone whencompared to other Kodak products.
We compared Ektar 100 to PortraNC160 and Portra VC160. Thef ilms were shot, processed in C-41,and the negatives were scanned usingan Imacon scanner. If you zoom inclose enough, there is a def initelyf iner grain in the Ektar 100, but thismay be attributed to the slightlyhigher speed of the Portra f ilms.
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Figure 3. This wall mural included contrast between snow and dark shadows.
Figure 5. Ektar 100 is not strong on skintones, but with digital scanning andprocessing, we were happy with the results.
Figure 4. Warm winter lighting created aplay of shadows on a brick wall.
Figure 2. The gamma of several f ilm types.
Film type Gamma (contrast)
High-contrast copy f ilm (e.g. Kodalith Ortho) 12.0
General purpose f ilm (e.g. Kodak T-MAX 100) 0.87
Kodak Portra VC 0.63
Kodak Ektar 100 (reviewed here) 0.60
Kodak Portra NC 0.57
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There was, however, a great difference in the colorsaturation of the Ektar 100 when compared to the160VC. In our tests, Ektar 100 outperformed the PortraVC creating richer, brighter colors.
Generally we found Ektar 100 had good, punchy,saturated colors and excellent sharpness, equivalent to thebest slide f ilm. The contrast was great for our photo shootthat took place during winter days with bright sunshine(Figures 3–5). We would be happy to use this f ilm fornature, travel, outdoor, fashion, and product photographyin a consumer or professional context.
Ektar 100 did not work for us when used for portraiture(Figure 5). This f ilm is not designed for f lesh tonesbecause it tries to make colors more vibrant. In our usage,it accentuated the natural hues of Caucasian skin tones intoalmost comical bright colors. In all fairness, the Portraf ilms are intended for portraiture, and that is probably thebest option for the professional photographer at themoment.
For resolution testing, we used the USAF test pattern(Figure 6) to see if this f ilm had f iner grain than PortraNC and VC. The test pattern was photographed using acopy stand under very controlled guidelines. The distanceand exposure were all exactly the same with each of thethree f ilm types. We would conclude that the Ektar 100does have f iner grain than the other f ilm types tested.
Digital scanningMany photographers now operate in “hybrid” mode—shooting on f ilm, then scanning to digital. It is necessaryto consider the scanner color settings in this process.Scanners have a “prof ile” or conversion table that they useto scan negative and positive f ilm. For negatives, thegeneric color f ilm setting is a good starting point: thescanner seeks to convert the negative to a positive imageand remove the orange color cast at the same time. Usersmay adjust the scanner setting depending on theirpersonal preference, or if they think the base setting doesnot do a good job. Many higher-end scanners have somebuilt-in settings for different f ilm types. For Ektar 100,the nearest f ilm type Kodak recommends is the setting forPortra VC160. For mini-labs, Kodak recommends thatlabs use the Gold 200 f ilm setting.
Kodak claims that this f ilm is “ideal for scanning,”but really we saw nothing that makes this f ilmparticularly suitable or unsuitable for scanning.Something that would have made this claim credible isaltering the colors of the spectral dyes used in the f ilm tobetter match typical scanner CCD sensitivities.If the dyes in the f ilm stock correlate well with thescanner’s CCD sensors, this gives the possibility of thebest possible color reproduction. Because of the widerange of scanners from different manufacturers, there
exists no standard, and thus no way to align scannerresponse to f ilm-dye spectral curves. In this situation it isdiff icult to see how any f ilm can be particularly suited ornot-suited for scanning.
The bottom lineThe price for a roll of Ektar 100 is $5 with a typicalprocessing cost of $7 (negatives in sleeves only). Thetypical cost of transparency f ilm is $7 a roll, add processingand mounting for about $7. Is f ilm-based photography stillworth it? According to Kodak, more than half of thephotographers they polled still use f ilm, while a majorityuse both f ilm and digital in their work.
Film is still used in the motion-picture industry, and ifKodak can add a few tweaks to motion-picture f ilm andlaunch that f ilm for still-photographers, why not? Overall,Ektar 100 is a very f ine-quality f ilm coming from themasters at Kodak. It helps to f ill the void of the dying E-6f ilms, and allows the photographer to get the f ilmprocessed at any photographic lab. Ektar 100 provides away for Kodak to remain loyal to its followers, but howlong can this last? As more and more analogphotographers grow old and retire, what will become ofthis market? Considering that many of the newestgeneration of photographers have only met digitaltechnologies, the remaining life span of f ilm could bequite short. And should Kodak pour funding intotechnologies that have a very limited shelf-life? This newproduct gives the traditional photographer hope that f ilmwill not totally disappear and may continue for a bit longeras a specialized niche market. In short we think that thef ilm is excellent, but the party is over. ■
Paul Sergeant and Abhay Sharma work in the Photographic
Preservation and Collections Management, Ryerson
University, Toronto.
Figure 6. The USAF test chart was imaged using Ektar 100,Portra NC160, and Portra VC160.
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ExposureA good exposure makes all thedifference in creating a full-tonalityimage that retains details in thehighlights and captures noise-freeshadows. I still use my incident strobemeter, currently the Sekonic L-358(which can trigger Pocket Wizards)when I work in the studio or withavailable light. It’s absolutely necessaryworking with strobes, especially withmultiple-light setups. Yes, you can set
up the lights, shoot, look at thehistogram, adjust, and shoot again.Unfortunately, this requires a lot oftrial and error, and you still may notknow if you are getting the amount oflight necessary and in the right place.
Or there’s the dreaded “I’ll f ix it inPhotoshop” approach. I don’t believein that, and here’s why: Do you wantto spend more time at the computerthan shooting? I thought not—photographers are creators. So use
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Digital
PortraitLightingRetaining the right
detail while capturing
the right mood
Figure 1. Rachel, a high-key image.
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your meter to measure the light andplace the light ratios close to whereyou want them in the f irst place. I usethe meter with natural light as well,especially when the amount of lightvaries a bit throughout the frame. Butthe truth of your exposure is revealedin your histogram.
Come clean: How many of youuse your histograms to judge yourexposure? It’s okay, most people usethe monitor on the back of thecamera, so you are forgiven. But youare about to take the pledge, so raiseyour right hand and repeat after me:“From this day forward I will use myhistogram to judge my exposure forevery scene I photograph!”
A camera’s LCD monitor is alovely courtesy to help you get ageneral idea of what an image lookslike, but it is not a true representationof image information. There are somany variables that if you comparedf ive different cameras, all shooting thesame scene at the same exposure, youwould get f ive different results on themonitor.
I’ll explain how to read thehistogram to know when it’s a correctexposure. You may have heard that a“good” histogram is one that has awave of information from the left side(which is black) to the right side(which is white). That’s true only ifthe scene you are photographinghas a full range of tonalities. If youare shooting high key (whitebackground), then there will be ablack line against the right side andextending all the way to the top. Thatmeans you have lost detail in thehighlights. But in that situation, wewant to lose detail in the highlights.(I suggest setting your camera’shighlight warning f lasher so you knowexactly where highlight details arebeing lost.) Conversely, if the image islow key, with a black or dark-graybackground and darker tonalities, thehistogram is pushed to the left. Ifthere is a black bar on the left side thatextends to the top, shadow detailshave been lost. Again, that’s okay if
it’s what your intentions are.Three very important points:
The f irst is that a camera’s histogramis based upon a JPEG, so if you areshooting Raw, you actually have moreinformation than is indicated in thehistogram. That is an importantreason why you should always shoot inRaw. Second, and this is reallyimportant: in a digital f ile, 50% of theinformation is contained in the top25% of the histogram. This meansthat it’s best to give as much exposureto your image as possible withoutblowing out the highlights. (Unless it’sokay to blow out the highlights, aswith the white background.) If the f ileis underexposed, when you lighten itlater with image-processing software,noise is created in the shadowsbecause there is little or noinformation there. It is better to take alight area and darken it than try tolighten a dark area. The third item isto learn to use the Info palette on thetop right panel of Photoshop. Whenyou put your mouse over an area, theInfo palette numerically displaysexactly how much information is inthat area in the Red, Green, and Bluechannels, with 0 being black, 256being white, and 128 being middlegray. Know your printing parameters.If the number is less than 12–15, thearea will print as black; if it’s morethan 240–246, it will print as white.
Lighting techniquesI’ve chosen some challenging subjectsfor the images accompanying thisarticle in order to show the ability of adigital sensor to capture depth anddetail. There are several images ofAfrican-American men shot low key,
some pale Caucasian women in highkey, and a few in between. Most ofthe images were shot in Raw, someare JPEG, but all were carefullyexposed and then processed inPhotoshop to ensure detail where Iwant. Let’s start with high key.
High keyA high-key background can be lit inmany ways, and every photographerhas a favorite. The background lightsmust be equal in power, provide broadcoverage, and be one stop hotter(stronger) than the main light in orderfor the white paper to render white.For example if the main light readingis ƒ/8, the background reading shouldbe ƒ/11. If this seems backwards,remember that you always set thecamera for the main light reading.(If you took an incident light readingof a scene and it read ƒ/11, then youmistakenly set the camera at ƒ/8, thescene would be overexposed byone stop.)
For a headshot or three-quartersshot, I use two white umbrellaspositioned a bit wider than 45° to thebackground, with the umbrellas f lat tothe background (so the center pole isparallel to the f loor). I set them toequal distance and equal power. Thisprovides wide coverage. Make sureyour subject is far enough away fromthe background and in front of theumbrellas so the light doesn’t spillover onto their face or body (althoughsometimes that spill is nice, providinga soft edge-light).
In the shot of Rachel in Figure 1,she is close to the background so lightis bouncing back onto the left side ofher face, giving her a soft slash-light.
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A c a m e r a’s LC D m o n i tor i s a
lov e ly co u rt e s y to h e l p yo u g e t
a g e n e r a l i de a of w h at a n i m a g e
lo ok s l i k e , b u t i t i s n ot a t r u e
r e p r e s e n tat io n of i m a g e i n f or m at io n .
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The main light is a Sunlight Ref lector(by Bowens for Calumet). It’s a largeparabolic dish with the light pointedstraight out (no baff le bounce, as in abeauty dish) and with a diffusercovering. This is a medium-contrastlight, resembling hazy sunlight.A light with this much contrast makesthe highlights brighter, and shinyspots on the skin can lose detail,especially with pale skin. This is easilycorrected by blotting the face witheither blotting paper or translucent
powder, both available at the makeupcounter of most drug stores.
Melissa, in red on the whitebackground (Figure 2), is lit by twostrobe heads bouncing into a “V”(made from two sheets of 4×8-footwhite foamcore board taped together)coming from camera right. On cameraleft is another “V” with one strobehead, set to be one stop less brightthan the main light, so the shadows aref illed in and soft. This lighting createsbeautiful skin tones, necessary withMelissa’s pale white skin, and providesan even exposure covering her fulllength. The background is lit bybouncing two strobe heads, with justthe bare bulb in a standard ref lector,placed on either side of thebackground near where the sweep hitsthe f loor, pointed straight up at awhite ceiling. They are about three feetfrom the ceiling, so the headsilluminate a large area that bouncesback down, covering the sweep of thebackground paper all the way up to herback. This eliminates the shadow fromthe main light. The subject must be farenough away from the backgroundlights that the bounce doesn’t spillonto her. This is my favorite way tolight a full-length portrait.
The headshot of Lindsay (Figure 3)is also ref lected from two sheets offoamcore board in a “V,” with twoheads bouncing into them comingfrom camera right. On camera left isanother “V” of foamcore acting as abounce f ill. There are no lights in thecamera-left boards, so it’s a subtle andsoft f ill. Using the bounce as a mainlight makes smooth and very f latteringskin tones and is great for softeningany wrinkles or defects in the skin,because the light source is so large.Look at the catch light in her eyes andyou can see how big the light source is.
Low keyLow key means that all the tones aredark—usually below middle gray,except for Caucasian skin—and theshadows are darker, so the mood ismore dramatic and evocative. The
light source can be more contrasty andthe direction can be more from theside. But that’s not a hard-and-fastrule, and the light source can be softand smooth, as long as the shadowsand overall tonality are darker.
Strip lightsLet’s look at two examples of striplights on African-American men withdark skin. The mood for both isdramatic, but the placement of thelights is crucial to def ining the feelingof the image. Both of these imageshave medium and small strip boxes setto the same power, but very differentfeelings. The quality of the light issoft, but very directional because ofthe quick fall-off from the box.
The prof ile of Rick (Figure 4) isalmost spiritual, with his face turnedinto the larger strip box to make ashort Rembrandt light. TheRembrandt is a light that creates a
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Figure 2. Melissa, a high-key image litmore strongly on camera right.
Figure 3. Lindsay, with a bounce f ill oncamera left.
Figure 4. Rick, in Rembrandt light createdby a strip box.
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feeling of dignity and honor. His poseis very centered with his arms crossinghis heart. The second smaller strip isbehind him, showing off the form ofhis body and providing separationfrom the background. Both lights areplaced to really show off the depthand dimension of his body. Theblack-and-white portrait of Alpha(Figure 5) is done with two strips oneither side of him, but in this case heis looking directly at the camera. Thetwo lights make a double slash, againoutlining his body to show his form,but the light on his face is very intense
and spooky. The center of his face isdark and the catch lights are small andoff to the side, adding to this feeling.In both of these images there are areasthat go black (the shadowed center ofRick’s skin, and Alpha’s hair in themiddle), but it doesn’t matter. Theimpact of these images doesn’t dependupon detail in shadow; in fact it woulddistract.
FresnelThe Fresnel is a focusing spot lightthat has a round and ridged piece ofglass, also called a lens, in front of the
bulb; it’s similar to lighthouse lights.Fresnels have more contrast than mostother light attachments, but areconsiderably softer than a straight grid.A slider moves the bulb closer orfurther from the lens, so as the lightwidens it gets softer, and when it’stighter it gets harder. Mole-Richardson makes the hot lights, andthe great portrait photographer GeorgeHurrell, among others, used theselights exclusively to sculpt the faces ofhis subjects. Several manufacturersmake attachments for strobe lights. Iuse Calumet Elite strobes andTravelites, and they make a medium-sized and very useful Fresnel.
The shot of Douglas (Figure 6) hasthe Fresnel as the main light in theRembrandt position, a 20° grid as aslash, set one stop hotter, and a wide 40°grid on the background at one stop lessthan the main light. Douglas is wearinga black leather jacket, which requires aharder light to get highlights anddimension, otherwise it would just fadeaway. There is plenty of detail in theskin, so it’s not blown out, but the slashlight is beginning to lose detail. It’s achoice, and I decided the slash was foreffect and I didn’t need a lot of detail init. No, it’s for effect. Don’t driveyourself crazy trying to put detail intoan area that doesn’t really require it.
The photo of Melissa (Figure 7) is
Figure 5. Alpha illuminated by two strips on either side.Figure 6. Douglas with a Fresnel as themain light, and two grid lights.
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an ode to Hurrell. He would alwaysuse a butterf ly light pattern, put thehair light directly on top, and add oneor more background lights, dependingupon the exact tones he wanted.Melissa’s skin tones are very brightfrom the hard light on her pale skin. Alot of beauty lighting is done this way,so there is still tonality in the skin, butnot much detail. The hair light is setto be the same as the main lightbecause she has dark hair, and there isa 40° grid on the background, also setto the same f-stop. It’s positioned lowso there is a glow behind her and itfalls off as it goes up.
Big soft light—OctoboxThe next couple of images maintain alow-key feeling, but are lit with much
softer light sources. The couple-shotof Mizahn and Paul (Figure 8) is litwith one light, an Octobox, made byElinchrome. It’s a giant umbrella,about six feet in diameter. The lighthead mounts inside and bounces backinto the umbrella, while the entirefront of the umbrella is covered indiffusion material. This makes a verylarge, soft, and even light source that’svery f lattering and provides widecoverage. Because of the umbrella-likequalities, the coverage is huge, carriesto the background, and can easily do afull-length portrait. With the box-likediffusion, you get gorgeous skin tones,smooth, rich, and glowing. There isno f ill on this image, so the shadowsfall slowly into dark, adding to thedrama of low key.
The MolaWithout a doubt my all-timefavorite lighting attachment, theMola is a beauty dish with uniquecharacteristics. Beauty dishes areparabolic ref lectors; the head mountsfrom behind, pointing forward, with abaff le located directly in front of thebulb so the light bounces back intothe ref lector. Many manufacturersmake them; they can have white orsilver interiors and come in a varietyof sizes. They are proprietary to themanufacturer, so a Profoto beautydish only f its a Profoto light. TheMola can be attached to any strobesystem with the proper speed-ring-like attachment. What makes theMola unique is that the baff le iscolor-corrected translucent glass, sothe same amount of light comesthrough the glass as is bounced back,creating more even coverage with nodead spot in the middle. Combinethat with the pearlescent paint of theinterior and the rippled shape of theparabola, and you have gorgeous lightwith creamy skin tones. Every time Iuse it I sigh with the beauty of thislight quality.
These two images of Melissa are
Figure 7. Melissa illuminated with a Fresnel light. Figure 8. Mizhan and Paul lit with an Octobox.
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both taken with just one light, theMola Setti (the Mola comes in fourdifferent sizes). The headshot withMelissa turned into the light (Figure9) looks like a Vermeer painting. Themore modern shot with Melissa inthe black dress (Figure 10), displaysthe great skin tones and beautifulcoverage, showing off the curves ofher body, and still throws a bit oflight onto the background. No f ill oneither of these images.
Ring flashThe tight portrait of Everard (Figure11) has an edgy feeling because themain light is a ring f lash, with the
slash light on his right side. A ringf lash circles the lens, and providesa hard light (although diffuserattachments are available). Ringf lashes shine straight onto the subject,so there are no shadows, and you seethe light in the dead center of thepupil. The slash light here is a 20°grid set 1½ stops hotter than the mainlight so that it blows out thehighlights. The stark edge-light addsto the out-of-the-ordinary feeling—not natural, but effective. It may notbe a happy light, but it’s strong andpowerful, showing the tougher side ofthe man.
Natural lightThe last shot is natural light, with ahuge range from a bit of direct sun todeep shadow (Figure 12, page 34).Lindsay is posed in a window with justan edge of direct sun on her rightcheek. Most of the light on her face isbounced off the stucco building, so it’sa smoother and warmer light. There isno f ill card on her left side, and theinside of the room is large and dark, sothe shadows go to black. Thehighlight on her cheek is just on theedge of losing all detail, reading about250 in the Info palette, and her hat
Figure 9. Melissa turned into a MolaSetti.
Figure 10. Melissa lit with a Mola Setti. Figure 11. Everard lit with a ring f lashand a slash light.
Continued on page 34
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Not that his work seems out of control.Perhaps that’s because, as he points out,“It really doesn’t take long to f igure out howto photograph at night.” (Kenna says hisexposures range between a few seconds andmany hours.) Still, many photo aff icionadoshave indeed found somethingmagical abouthis images—he’s represented by some 17galleries throughout the world, has publishedmore than 30 books, and recently had30-year retrospectives onmultiple continents.
Kenna attributes the lack of full controlto the unpredictability of lengthy exposures.“While the shutter stays open,” he says,“objects and elements may move at anytime, and the Earth is moving all the timerelative to the planets and stars. Contrastmay shift due to reciprocity failure and theidiosyncrasies of particular f ilms. Weatherconditions may vary or change dramaticallyduring the exposure. Light can appear inmany forms and from unforeseen andmultiple directions.”
Some photographers would find thesame circumstances maddening, but Kenna,who also photographs extensively during theday, f inds themystery of photos taken atnight to be suff iciently alluring that he has
by Michael kenna
Portfolio:
Questions AreMore Interestingthan AnswersText by Scott Lewis
There is something magically
seductive about a creative
process that is not fully in our
control,” Michael Kenna says
of his work, particularly his
night photographs.
“
Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 40, Nottinghamshire, England, 2003
Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 31, Nottinghamshire, England, 1987
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tried to carry over the feeling of night to someof his daytimework. “Photographsmade insunshine, I printed as though they weremadeat night, with deep shadows and high contrast,”he relates. “The result was a certain enigmaticquality that questionedwhen the image wasmade. And as we all know, questions aremuchmore interesting than answers.”
All of which may help explain why he soseldom photographs people. “People, I f ind,make my images too specif ic in time and place,perspective and scale,” he says. Perhaps that ispart of why his images of power station coolingtowers seem almost medieval, or why his viewsof the often-photographed Mont St. Michelappear so fresh. But plenty of old-fashionedhard work also has gone into creating his bodyof work. The cooling towers and Mont St.Michel are both subjects he has gone back torepeatedly over a period of many years. Kennabefriended the Benedictine monks who live inthe monastery atop Mont St. Michel, andactually stayed there and had access to theabbey and the area around it day and night.
With Ratcliffe Power Station, which Kennabegan photographing in themid-1980s, hestarted by pulling over his car and taking out hiscamera as he passed it on his way to and fromLondon. After getting questioned by the securitypolice a few times, he contacted themanagerand asked permission to photograph inside andout. The result was a tour of the station, andsomething approaching carte blanche tophotograph it. Not that it was a vacation.
He spent many frigid nights alone with hiscameras, including “One wintry night [when]I had set up two tripods with two cameras indifferent parts of the power station,” herelates. “Upon returning to one I found it hadbeen blown over by severe winds, the coolingtowers acting almost like a wind tunnel. I ranback to the second camera to f ind that it hadalso gone over. Both cameras were destroyed.It was a most expensive and dismal night.”
Eglise Abbatiale, Mont St. Michel, France, 1998
Twin Towers, Study 2, New York,New York, USA, 2000
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Kenna has been farther afield as well,including many photo trips to Japan, whichhe feels especially drawn to, and has doneseveral series of images there since 2001.“I like to think my work in Hokkaido, in thenorth of Japan, echoes Japanese inkpaintings, Sumi-e, black strokes on a whitecanvas. I am very happy about that.”
Wherever he’s working, his usual
approach to photographing a landscape “is tocircle from a distance and then slowly movecloser. I try to repeat this pattern in differentweather conditions, times of year, during theday and night, etc. I don’t exactly know whatI look for, but I sometimes recognize it whenI see it. There is a resonance, an interest, afeeling, an atmosphere... .”
Kenna says he uses two “old and battered
Hasselblad 500cm cameras. They are fullymanual, no batteries, no digital displays,fancy bells, or whistles.” He always carriesf ive lenses, ranging from 40mm to 250mm.He usually has his f ilm processed intrustworthy labs and prints the negativeshimself, “as I believe it is an integral part ofthe creative process.” His prints usually are“fairly small and intimate, reflecting the way
Portfolio: CONTINUED
White Copse, Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan, 2004
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I like others to viewmy work.”Overall, it’s been an amazing ride for
someone who was drawn to photography byan unromantic motive. “I initially chosephotography for survival reasons,” Kennaadmits. “I wanted to be an artist but knewthe possibilities in England at the time werevery limited. Photography could be a meansof expression as well as a way to make a
living. It was a good choice for me. I havebeen able to survive since then doing whatI love to do. Imagine being out at night,alone, under starry skies, listening to silence,watching the world slowly move, all sensesalive, thinking, imagining, dreaming. Thecamera is recording, creating, documenting,seeing what the eye cannot see—cumulative time. Or the sensation of being in
a f ield as the snow falls on a single, exquisitetree. White all around. Just the sound ofsnow falling. Or the crashing of angry waves,pre-dawn, against white sand, clouds in thesky, a glow on the horizon from the slowlyawakening sun. Then call that ‘work.’ I feelvery, very, very fortunate to have stumbledon this path through life and I am sothankful.” ■
Forest Edge, Hokuto, Hokkaido, Japan, 2004
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his column was prompted by aquery from a reader in Thessalonica
seeking a good Photoshop techniquefor darkening weak skies, especially inblack-and-white. After exploring avariety of tactics, we settled on the useof Selective Color adjustment layers.This is a hugely versatile commandthat receives rather short-shrift inmost textbooks and Web discussionsdealing with Photoshop. Given itsversatility, it takes some time tounderstand its operation. Our approachwas to explore its many options using aphotograph of the familiar MacbethColorChecker Chart.
Go to the Layers palette, chooseCreate New Fill or Adjustment Layer,and click on Selective Color. This
opens the menu seen in Figure 1.A choice must be made whetherto invoke relative or absoluteadjustments. Click on the Relativebutton. In the descriptions to follow,we work only with relative, as thisensures changes made to a color’sRGB values are in proportion to howstrongly they are represented in thatcolor. Changes made in absolute modecan be overwhelming, promptingundesirable changes in a color’s hue.
Creation of the actual layer is atwo-step process: Select a color tooperate on (reds, greens, blues, cyans,magentas, yellows, whites, neutrals, orblacks), then adjust the four sliders(cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Thef irst step, color selection, is whatmakes the tool uniquely powerful.For example, if we select blues, anysubsequent slider adjustments alteronly image colors with a strong bluishcast. In the case of our color-checkerphotograph, the choice of blues allowsus to alter the appearance of the chipsidentif ied as blue sky, blue f lower,purplish blue, blue, and cyan. Theother 19 chips remain absolutelyimpervious to any slider adjustments.Had we selected greens as theoperative color, we would be free to
alter only the chips labeled foliage,bluish green, yellow green, and green.
With the color selected,adjustments are made by moving thesliders. All colors contain R, G, and Bcomponents. Moving the cyan sliderchanges only the selected colors’ Rcomponent; magenta alters only G,and yellow only B. The black slider is aspecial case and a useful shortcut.Setting this to, for instance, +50%, hasexactly the same effect as setting theother three sliders to +50%.
So how to darken a sky? Open anadjustment layer, select relative mode,select blues, and shove the cyan,magenta and black sliders all the way tothe right (+100%, or less if desired).Now select cyans and make the samethree slider adjustments. Flatten theimage, convert to Grayscale, andvoila!—a greatly darkened sky withoutrevision to other colors (Figure 2).Not dark enough? Add anotherSelective Color adjustment layer.The comparison in Figure 2demonstrates the consequences of asingle adjustment layer as just describedrelative to the original photograph(with thumbnails of the color versions).
We have focused on skies inresponse to the original query, but thesame versatile tool may be used toselectively lighten foliage, improvetonality of furniture, achieve an old“ortho look” to portraits (for men atleast; the grey-skinned, dark-lipped lookis not generally f lattering on women),and so on—all the while preserving theappearance of other colors. ■
Figure 2. Photoshop’s Selective Color adjustment layer is a great tool for darkening skies, asseen above in the difference between the original (left) and modif ied images.
Figure 1. The menu for a Selective Coloradjustment layer.
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inPhotoshopCS3/CS4In April 2007, Photoshop C3 introduced the new, powerful Black-and-White tool. It can be used as an adjustment
layer and features toning (or “tinting”). At the time, I was surprised that Photoshop did not implement the more
powerful and useful split-toning of Lightroom. Toning is, after all, a popular treatment for photographs; many
photographers tone shadows differently than highlights, and sometimes give the midtones yet another tone.
ou could say that Photoshopfeatures the ultimate toning tools:duotones and quadtones. This is
true, but this method has its price.Once you use duo-/quadtones,Photoshop switches to a different colormodel, leaving the RGB workf low.I want to stay in the same color model(RGB), and I also like the toningprocess to be non-destructive. Whilean alternative would be to use the
split-toning provided by third-partyprinter drivers, I want to do the toningand print the toned image from insidePhotoshop.
Because I like the Lightroom split-toning model, I looked for a way toget the same effect in Photoshop. I doa lot of post-processing (call it f ine-tuning) in Photoshop, and wanted tohave the option of staying within it.I f inally settled on a method that isbased on the Photoshop Photo f ilter.These Photo f ilters can be used asadjustment layers and are thereforenon-destructive.
Single-color toningTo understand the basis of thismethod, let’s start by toning with asingle color. Begin by simply addingan adjustment layer using the Photof ilter. Using the Photo f ilter is easy;my settings are shown in Figure 2and explained below:
• Color (not one of the presets):
I select a very light tone.
• Density: I set the density to 100%
and then tune the layer strength
via the Layer Opacity slider.
Y
The original (left) and toned (right) versions of the same image.
Figure 1. Photoshop’s Black-and-White tool. Figure 2. Settings for the Adjustment layer using the Photo f ilter.
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I made the effect a bit strongerhere than I do on real prints so thatit is easier to see in a magazinereproduction. Very subtle toning canbe seen on prints from today’sprinters.
Dual-color split-toningNow I create two of these layers withdifferent colors for the highlights andshadows. I used the Photo f ilter forthe highlights and the settings inFigure 3 for the shadows, employingtwo layers to do so. You also can seethat I have the opacity down to 20%.As it stands now this is not reallysplit-toning because both layers affect
the whole tonal range (and wouldactually add two different single toneson top of each other). Here is what weneed to do:
• Restrict the shadow layer to a
shadow tonal range.
• Restrict the highlight layer to a
highlight tonal range.
• Def ine a reasonable overlapping
blending range.
The solution is provided byPhotoshop’s Blending Options featurewithin the Layers dialog. I set themdifferently for each layer, as in Figure4, to split the tones. The sliders in thered-marked area control the blending.(It may initially appear as if there are
only two sliders, but Option-clickingon these sliders allows each to bebroken into parts.)
Let’s examine the highlightblending. The left-most black trianglestarts at 105 and the next blacktriangle is at 157, while both whitetriangles are at 255. This means thatif the tone in the layer is below 105,the Photo f ilter has no effect.Between 157 and 255, the effect is100% of whatever the Photo f iltersettings are. From 105 to 157, thiseffect gets gradually stronger (this isthe blending range).
Similarly, the shadows display thePhoto f ilter’s effect at 100% strengthbetween 0 and 115, and not at allbetween 176 and 255. The blendingrange is 115 to 176.
Further split-toningUsing the same methods, you cancreate split-toning with more thantwo colors. I’m not sure it makes sensebeyond a three-color scheme,however, as the results become toocomplex.
I have taken the method I’veoutlined one step further and created afree Photoshop CS3/CS4 script thatcreates these layers based on inputdata. This way you can def ine yourstandard toning just with a fewparameters, can store multiple imagerecipes, and easily share them withother photographers.
More information and thefree script can be found athttp://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_workf low_basics_2009/20090120_DOP_SplitToning/index.html ■
Uwe Steinmueller is a f ine-art
photographer and the publisher/editor
of Digital Outback Photo
(www.outbackphoto.com), an online
photography magazine. He has written
numerous books on printing, Raw
processing, and digital workflow for
f ine-art photographers.
Figure 3. The f ilter, color, and layers usedfor the split-toned image.
Figure 4. The settings for blending in the highlight and shadow layers.
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believe that almost everyphotographer has been confronted
by a photograph of one or morepeople, shot either under unknownlighting conditions or mixed lighting.Meaning that either a white-balancecard (or other device) was not used,or that the lighting might be acombination of two or more of thefollowing: daylight, f lash, f luorescent,or incandescent light. The camera isusually set to Auto White Balanceand the f inal result is an image thatis not properly color balanced.
I have a quick method for dealingwith this situation. Everything thatfollows also applies to f ilm shooters,where again, the image is highly likelynot to be properly color balanced(I’m assuming that if shot on f ilm, theimage is subsequently scanned andedited digitally.)
Over the years, I have observedand spoken to a number ofphotographers on this topic. Eitherusing Photoshop or another editingprogram or a Raw converter, most ofthem do an adjustment to the colortemperature, followed by adjustmentsin tint, color, and curves until things“look good.” Somehow, I always feltthat this ad hoc method wasineff icient, inaccurate, or notparticularly appealing.
Therefore, I decided to f ind outwhat expert retouchers do to see ifthere might be a better and moreeffective way to address this issue. Asanticipated, there are a number ofinteresting and more effective ways toachieve beautiful skin tones, and theyusually correct the tones in the rest ofthe image at the same time. I describebelow a personal variation on aparticularly effective methodology.
The crux of the methodThe percentages of yellow andmagenta in any skin tone areapproximately the same. This is anextremely important fact toremember. Please note that the word“any” is in italic letters. The reason isthat this statement applies regardlessof whether the person is Asian,African, Middle Eastern, Latino, orCaucasian. I have not yet found a skintone that does not have approximatelyequal percentages of yellow andmagenta. I do not say that they areexactly equal because the amount ofyellow is usually slightly higher.
So let’s jump right in and open ourimage in Photoshop without anycolor- or white-balance corrections.Figure 1 is a portrait of my goodfriend and contributing editor toPHOTO TechniquesMichaelReichmann. It was taken in late
afternoon in Toronto, with aPhaseOne camera and a P45+ back inAutoWhite Balance mode.
The f irst step is to choose theEyedropper tool and then open a newCurves adjustment layer. Make surethat the Info palette is visible in yourmonitor. Pick a point in thephotograph where the skin tone islight, but not blown out. I usuallychoose the forehead or the chin, beingcareful not to pick a highlight.
While pressing the Shift key, clickon the selected point. This puts acircle on that point and records theRGB reading in the Info palette.Now, go to the Info palette and clickon the small triangle under theeyedropper (Figure 2). From thedrop-down menu choose CMYKColor because this method is farsimpler when working with CMYvalues rather than RGB values.
Beautiful Skin Tones:AQuick and EffectiveMethod by Mark Dubovoy
Figure 1. The original capture without color-balancing.
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Remember that we are working withthe CMY percentage values, not thevalues shown to the left of thepercentage values. Also keep in mindthe complementary colors: curves inPhotoshop are marked Blue, Red,Green, and RGB. However, sincereducing a primary color is equivalentto adding its complementary color,think of the color curves asBlue-Yellow, Red-Cyan, and Green-Magenta adjustments.
Going back to Michael’s portrait,the initial values in the image are: C:44%; M: 46%; Y: 28%. So the f irst
step is to click on the drop-downmenu at the top of the curves windowand select the blue curve (always startwith Blue-Yellow adjustments). Theeasiest way to edit this curve is toselect the Targeted Adjustment tool(TAT) by clicking in the small squarewith the hand symbol above the threeeyedroppers in the curves window.Next click on top of the image in thecircle marking the selected point, andwhile holding down the mousebutton, move the mouse up or downuntil the Yellow value slightly exceedsthe Magenta value. You can also edit
by modifying the curve itself, but If ind the TAT much easier to use. Myf irst adjustment is shown in Figure 3.
More tipsFigure 4 shows the image after thisf irst adjustment. It is immediatelyobvious that the color is much betterthan the original. In fact, it is somuch better that there might be atemptation to stop right here, but theimage can be made better with a littlemore work.
Here is where the second set ofrules-of-thumb come in:
• For light Caucasian skin, theCyan value should beapproximately 1/4 of the Yellow andMagenta values.
• For ruddy skin, the Cyan valueshould be approximately 1/3 of theYellow and Magenta values.
• For Asian or Brown skin the Cyanvalue falls somewhere between 1/3and 1/2 of the other two.
• And for dark or black skin it is veryclose to 1/2 of the Yellow and Cyanvalues.
Note that these numbers areapproximate; slight variations arequite acceptable at the end of theprocess.
So, going back to our image, mysecond step was to force the Cyanvalue (editing the Red curve) to 1/3of the other two. This is the ruddyskin rule of thumb. Doing thisunfortunately changed the Magentavalue, and the image looked terrible.So I had to adjust the Magenta valueto be close to the Yellow value, butthis changed the other two values,so I had to adjust the Cyan again andthen the Yellow again.
Once you get the hang of it, youcan do several iterations very quicklyuntil the numbers converge around theproper values. Once this has happened,you can do a final visual (small) tweakat the end. My final tweak in thiscase also includes a slight increase inbrightness via a small adjustment inthe combined RGB curve.
Figure 2. Choosing CMYK Color fromPhotoshop’s Info palette.
Figure 3. The f irst adjustment to thephoto in Figure 1.
Figure 4. The effects of the adjustment in Figure 3.
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Figure 5 shows the f inal image.I hope magazine reproduction canshow the difference. At f irst theoriginal image might look decent,but the f inal image is dramaticallybetter. I am totally convinced thatI would not have achieved suchwonderful skin tones and colorbalance by using the standard ad hocmethod of playing with the ColorBalance and Tint sliders, followedby Color and Curves adjustments.Besides, this method is muchquicker and easier to use.
Figures 6 and 7 show the f inalnumbers and the f inal Curveadjustments respectively. Note thatthe f inal numbers of C: 13%;M: 43%, and Y: 44% are extremelyclose to the ruddy skin rule of thumb.
More examplesLet me show you two otherexamples. Figure 8 is an interiorportrait taken with a Leica M8 underincandescent light. The originalCMY readings are: C: 0%;M: 39%; Y: 36%. Using the abovemethodology for light Caucasian skin(Cyan approximately 1/4 of the othertwo values), I edited the CMY valuesto: C: 9%; M: 35%; Y: 37%. Thischange produces the much improvedimage in Figure 9.
Similarly, Figure 10 was shotunder mixed light with a Canon G10. When I f irst saw the image,I thought that the camera did asurprisingly good job of f iguring outthe correct white balance. Theoriginal values read: C: 40%;M: 68%; Y: 66%.
However, using the abovemethodology and editing the curvesto produce the values C: 36%,M: 70%, Y 73% renders the clearlyimproved image in Figure 11. Notethat the Cyan value is approximately1/2 of the other two, as it should befor dark skin. This is typical;sometimes I see an image that atf irst seems to be very well balanced,but when I apply this methodologyI always end up with a much better
Figure 5. The f inal color-corrected image.
Figure 6. The f inal numbers for thecorrected image.
Figure 7. The f inal Curve adjustmentsfor the corrected image.
image. I believe you will too.With a little bit of practice, and a
few quick iterative curves adjustments,it is relatively straightforward toproduce gorgeous skin tones andexcellent white balance in images ofpeople using the CMYK correctionmethod I’ve described. ■
Mark Dubovoy specializes in large-formatcolor landscapes. He uses traditional anddigital printing methods, and hisphotographs can be found at the SanFrancisco Museum of Modern Art, theMonterey Museum of Art, the Berkeley ArtMuseum, and the National Museum ofContemporary Art in Mexico City. He has aPh.D. in physics from U.C. Berkeley.
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Figure 10. A portrait shot under mixed lights.
Figure 11. The photo after correction with the CMY method.
and hair are losing detail at the shadowend, reading about 9. Does it matter?No, not every photo needs to havedetail in the extremes. In this image,the transition from white to blackworks well.
Lighting is all about def iningthe mood and form of your subject.A digital sensor has the ability tocapture a wide latitude of light as longas you carefully expose to guaranteeinformation in the f ile. Lighting fordetail in the highlights and shadowsmeans nothing unless it f its with theconcept of the photo—so be clearabout the effect you want to create. ■
Bobbi Lane is a commercial
photographer with 30 years’ experience.
She photographs people and travel for
assignment and stock. Bobbi teaches
workshops for the Santa Fe Workshops,
the Maine Workshops, and the
International Center of Photography in
New York City. Bobbi’s book CreativeTechniques for Color Photography,published by Amherst Media, is
available nationwide. Her Web site is
www.bobbilane.com.
Figure 12. Lindsay in natural light.
Digital Portrait Lightingby Bobbi Lane
Continued from page 23
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Precise focus is critical to realizing the full resolution potential of today’s high-resolution digital cameras,
yet the little-understood phenomenon of focus shift undermines that goal, whether focusing with autofocus
or manually. Understanding focus shift will help you get the most out of some very good lenses that exhibit
it. (Most of the material in this article applies to f ilm-camera lenses as well; it’s just not as critical.)
n a previous article (PT January/February 2009), I explored howdiffraction can quickly degradeimage contrast and then
resolution when one steps down toofar. Yet stopping down also helpsmitigate optical aberrations of variouskinds, including spherical aberration,a commonplace aberration that oftenresults in the confusing problem offocus shift, whereby optimal focuschanges (shifts) as the aperturechanges. Undoubtedly, focus shift hascaused many photographers to thinkthat a lens is “soft”—lens testing is avery tricky business.
In the good old days of f ilm,focus shift was somewhat less of anissue than today, because f ilm has
Somephotographers
think their lens is
soft”when it’s not;
here’s what’s wrong—
andhow to fix it
“
I
Focus precision matters with some subjects, and focus shift can wreak havoc. Here, theproblem was avoided by focusing and shooting at ƒ/1.4, and getting the focus precisely onthe moving mallard’s eye at left. (Zeiss ZE 85/1.4 Planar)
by Lloyd L. Chambers
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signif icant thickness; a shift of focusmight remain within the thickness ofthe f ilm. But with digital sensorshaving essentially no thickness for thephotosites, even a slight error isrecorded as blur. Film forgives(a little), digital does not.
Consider that the number-onecomplaint from those renting theCanon EF 50mm ƒ/1.2L lens is thatit is soft (according to LensRentals.com). I own the Canon 50/1.2L, andit most certainly is not soft; in fact it isvery sharp even wide open. Yet that isthe complaint. What is going on? Theanswer is focus shift: the EF 50/1.2Lshifts strongly as the lens is stoppeddown from ƒ/1.2 through ƒ/5.6 (seeFigure 3). As a practical matter, this isa very undesirable property of the50/1.2L, but in optics, compromisesmust be made; there is no free lunch.Many outstanding lenses have focusshift. The user of such lenses mustaccept that and work around it, orchoose another lens (usually one witha slower maximum aperture).
As an interesting comparison, theCanon EF 85mm ƒ/1.2L II does notfocus shift as does the Canon EF50/1.2L (at least close-up), but theZeiss ZF 85mm ƒ/1.4 Planar exhibitsstrong focus shift at close range! Focusshift depends on the optical designas well as the focus distance. Manylenses, especially those of ƒ/1.8 orslower (darker) do not exhibitsignif icant focus shift. However, evenan ƒ/4 or ƒ/5.6 lens can havesignif icant spherical aberration; olderview-camera lenses come to mind.
Spherical aberrationyields focus shiftSpherical aberration is the differentialfocus of light rays from different zonesof the lens. Rays from the outer andintermediate zones of the lens focus atslightly different distances than thosenear the center, resulting in asmearing of focus. This is one majorreason there is so much of a hazeeffect with ƒ/1.2 and ƒ/1.4 lenses shotat those apertures; the haze is the
same detail being focused slightlydifferently by light rays from thecenter to the periphery of the lens. Itis a continuous effect from opticalcenter out to the corners of the lens.
The best focus is therefore acompromise, with a geometric bestcenter. Wide open, the majority ofrays are from the outer zones;stopping down from ƒ/1.4 to ƒ/2eliminates half that outer area,stopping down to ƒ/2.8, another half,and so on. (It is the lens diaphragmthat blocks the peripheral rays.) Byƒ/5.6, only central rays remain, whichare all in close agreement on focus,along with increased depth of f ield.At ƒ/5.6, only 1/16 of the light of ƒ/1.4is admitted; 94% of the outer zonerays have been eliminated; thesmearing of focus is gone.
In reality there is no actual shift offocus when stopping down; it’s justthat the image-forming rays deliveredto the sensor/f ilm are now conf inedto more central rays that are in closetolerance of focus. Stopping downcontinues to narrow the ray bundlewhile increasing depth of f ield;generally by ƒ/5.6, spherical aberrationis eliminated as a practical matter, butsometimes as soon as ƒ/2.8,depending on the particular lens.
Spherical aberration is muchharder to control with “fast” lenses—e.g., ƒ/1.2 and ƒ/1.4 models—due totheir very large diameter lenselements. Lenses with aspherical
element(s) can still exhibit substantialspherical aberration (see the CanonEF 50/1.2L example); eliminatingspherical aberration for fast lenses isimpractical within size/weight/costconstraints.
Figure 1a shows an example ofpronounced spherical aberrationusing the Nikon 105mm ƒ/2DC, aspecialty lens with an adjustment ringthat allows inducing sphericalaberration for a dreamy effect(presumably in portraiture). The ringallows under-correction or over-correction of spherical aberration.The examples in Figure 1 use thering at the F and R 5.6 settings (notan f-stop). Note the pronounced hazeor fog-like effect of such strongspherical aberration; this is the sameeffect observed with ƒ/1.2 and ƒ/1.4lenses shot wide open.
Focus shift and MTFGraphs 1a and 1b (which are courtesyof Carl Zeiss Inc., from How to Read
MTF Curves, by Dr. H. H. Nasse) area type of MTF (Modulation TransferFunction) graph, showing MTFabout the geometrically best focuspoint. Note that “best focus” isn’tnecessarily the same for f ine detail(40 line pairs/mm) as for coarse detail(10 lp/mm). Stopping down fromƒ/1.4 to ƒ/4 increases MTF (contrast)substantially, especially for f ine detail,and also increases the depth of f ield,but notice how peak performance at
Figure 1b: Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/2 andƒ/5.6 with DC control ring at R = 5.6.Stopped down, blur is more to the front.
Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/2 Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/5.6
Figure 1a:Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/2 andƒ/5.6 with DC control ring at F = 5.6.Stopped down, blur is more to the rear.
Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/2 Nikon 105/2DC at ƒ/5.6
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ƒ/4 is no longer centered about thefocus point; the zone of focus hasshifted. The net effect (in the generalcase) is a slightly soft result wheremaximum sharpness is expected,and possibly unwanted sharpnesselsewhere (usually in thebackground).
In object space (vertical scale atright), the center of the zone of goodcontrast has shifted from 3.0 meters to3.25 meters, a shift of 25 centimeters,or roughly the diameter of a person’shead! That may be acceptable forsubjects where no particular area hascritical importance, but when there isa goal to draw attention to a particulararea (e.g., eyes), then this degrades theintended visual impact. It is onlybecause depth of f ield partiallycompensates that the situation is not acomplete disaster (note the scale atbottom changes between graphs).
Referring to Graph 1b for ƒ/4,observe that if focus is adjustedappropriately, peak performance canbe shifted so it is centered on thedesired area. How to do so isdiscussed further on in this article.
PortraitureConsider a portrait. In most portraits,sharp eyes (surface of the eyeball to beprecise) are all that really matter. Wedon’t need crisp eyelashes or hair, butthe eyes had better be sharp. Focussomewhere inside the eyeball means ablurred eye, a throw-away. Do this asa professional more than once andmaybe you’ll have to f ind a new job—it’s probably one reason so manyportraits are shot at ƒ/11 or ƒ/16with strobes.
Shown on the right is our verycooperative model, able to holdperfectly still, and very patient withour efforts. The shooting distancecorresponds roughly to a head-and-shoulders portrait. Focus was carefullyplaced on the eye at right using LiveView. At ƒ/1.2 the eye at right lookssharp, albeit with low contrast; by ƒ/2there is a strong shift of focus to theeye at left, moving further to the leftat ƒ/2.8. Depth of f ield does helpcompensate, but even at ƒ/8 the righteye remains slightly blurred; a printlarger than about 19×13 would clearlyshow the right eye as not quite sharp(Figure 2).
Clearly, stopping down is not apractical solution. In particular, theentire zone of focus is not whereintended; this may result in distractingbackground elements being moredef ined than intended, a blurry nose,and when coupled with “not quitethere” eyes, the desired separation ofvisual elements is lost. The solutionlies in ensuring that crisp focus isachieved where intended.
The images in Figure 2 werecaptured using the apertures ƒ/1.2,ƒ/1.4, ƒ/2, ƒ/2.8, ƒ/4, ƒ/5.6, ƒ/8.Magazine reproduction may makeit somewhat harder to see thedifferences; see the diglloyd.comWeb site for easier viewing.
Detecting focus shiftDetecting focus shift at close range(1:20 to 1:40 magnif ication) isstraightforward. Any target similar to
the ones shown in the examples willwork; high contrast black-and-whitewith regular lines or patterns workbest. It is not important to measurethe absolute amount of focus shift;one need only observe the amount ofshift relative to the aperture beingused so as to be able to compensateapproximately.
To test for focus shift:1. Set up the target and choose an
unambiguous high-contrastpoint of focus. Autofocus shouldnot be used, because it is oftenambiguous, and the focus mustremain the same for eachaperture. A black-and-whiteruler works well.
2. On a tripod, set your camera touse mirror lockup. Focus the lensmanually by eye or with LiveView at maximum (brightest)aperture, and leave it f ixed at thatfocus. Using a remote release toavoid camera shake, shoot a framewide open, and at each whole stopthereafter until ƒ/8 or ƒ/11.Adjust the exposure accordingly.
3. Process all images identically,then layer them in Photoshop orsimilar program for easy clickon-off for comparisons. If thereis focus shift, you’ll see the centerof sharp focus jump from oneaperture to the next.
The examples in Figure 3 use a ruledtarget with numbers at 1-inch intervalsThe camera was angled to the target, sothe actual difference in distance issomewhat less, perhaps 2/3 inch formarked 1-inch intervals.
Graphs 1a, 1b: Focus shift and MTFperformance.
Graph 1a
Graph 1b
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ExamplesIn the examples in Figures 3 through8, focus wide open was aimed for the“10” mark. Note that all results are at ahead-and-shoulders portrait distance,about 42 inches for a 50mm lens.
In Figure 3, which uses a Canon
EF 50mm at ƒ/1.2L, notice that thefocus shift is strong, moving accuratefocus back about 1.5 inches (marked)at ƒ/2.8. Even ƒ/5.6 cannotcompensate for the shift. Notice thenear lack of focus shift with theCanon 85/1.2L II (Figure 4) versus
the 50/1.2L. This shows that focusshift is not a given, even with a super-speed lens. Also worth noting is themagenta/green color bokeh, verycommon with fast lenses on out-of-focus areas (but it’s mostly neutral byƒ/2.8).
For the Canon EF 500mm ƒ/1.4(Figure 5), the focus shift is modest,pushing accurate focus back about 1/2inch at ƒ/2.8. With the Zeiss ZF50/1.4 Planar (Figure 6), focus shift is
Figures 3a–3c. Canon50/1.2L: apertures ƒ/1.2,ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6, focused atthe “10” mark at ƒ/1.2.Focus shift is strong, movingaccurate focus back about 1.5inches (marked) at ƒ/2.8.Even ƒ/5.6 cannotcompensate for the shift.
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moderate, moving accurate focus backabout 3/4 inch at ƒ/2.8.
With the Nikon 50mm ƒ/1.4D(Figure 7), focus shift is moderate,moving accurate focus back about oneinch at ƒ/2.8. Aperture ƒ/5.6 does notcompensate for the shift.
With the Sony Alpha 50/2.8
macro (Figure 8), I found a veryunusual slight forward focus shift,possibly indicating overcorrectedspherical aberration.
The outdoor example in Figure 9,which examines inf inity focus, showsthe severe disagreement between whatthe eye sees and what the autofocus
system sees. The 21.1MP Canon EOS1Ds Mark III was used along withZeiss ZE 85mm ƒ/1.4 Planar, withthe exposure at ƒ/1.4 (wide open).
The Canon AF system effectivelysees only light rays equivalent toƒ/5.6, which means that when animage is made at ƒ/1.4, about 93% ofthe image-forming light rays arecoming from other areas (ƒ/5.6 =1/16 the area of ƒ/1.4). In Figure 9,the green-dot autofocus assist thinksinf inity focus lies in front of even theseagull in the foreground, rather thana mile or so away on the tower! Thisbehavior can be reproduced at will;the green-dot focus assist feature isuseless with the Zeiss ZE 85/1.4Planar, as well as with many otherfast lenses. The Nikon AF systemtends to be less sensitive this way,but it also suffers from inaccuracy.
Working around focus shiftThe Canon autofocus system sensors“see” the image at effectively ƒ/5.6.When the image is shot at a wider(brighter) aperture, the focus ends upfar forward of the intended area.Conversely, when focusing by eye atƒ/1.2, but shooting stopped down, thefocus moves behind the desired area.
Whereas diffraction degradesimage contrast and resolution by theimplacable laws of optics, focus shift isnot so cruel: we can adjust focus tocompletely mitigate the issue: it mightnot always be practical or convenient,
but it is possible, especially for workrequiring critical sharpness.
Focus shift might or might not bea problem with the lenses you use. Infact, it’s not a problem with a majorityof lenses, especially ƒ/2 and ƒ/2.8lenses. But if you’ve concluded a lens issoft, test your premises—you mightactually have a sharp lens that can yieldexcellent results with a little extra care.
Here are useful working tips fordetecting and mitigating focus shift
• Test your lens. Use a focusingtarget at a distance similar to how youuse the lens. A target can be anything(such as a ruler or a newspaper) for
4a:Canon EF 85mmƒ/1.2L II at ƒ/1.2
4b:Canon EF 85mmƒ/1.2L II at ƒ/2.8
4c:Canon EF 85mmƒ/1.2L II at ƒ/5.6
Figure 4a–4c. Canon85/1.2L II: apertures ƒ/1.2,ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6, focused atthe “10” mark at ƒ/1.2.Notice the near lack of focusshift with the Canon85/1.2L II vs the 50/1.2L.This shows that focus shift isnot a given, even with asuper-speed lens. Also worthnoting is the magenta/greencolor bokeh, very commonwith fast lenses on out-of-focus areas (but it’s mostlyneutral by ƒ/2.8).
5a:Canon EF 50 mmƒ/1.4 at ƒ/1.2
5b:Canon EF 50 mmƒ/1.4 at ƒ/2.8
5c:Canon EF 50 mmƒ/1.4 at ƒ/5.6
Figure 5a–5c. Canon50/1.4: apertures ƒ/1.4,ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6, focusedat the “10” mark at ƒ/1.4.Focus shift is modest,pushing accurate focus backabout ½ inch at ƒ/2.8.
6a:Zeiss ZF 50/1.4
at ƒ/1.4
6b:Zeiss ZF 50/1.4
at ƒ/2.8
6c:Zeiss ZF 50/1.4
at ƒ/5.6
Figure 6a–6c. Zeiss ZF50/1.4 Planar: aperturesƒ/1.4, ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6,focused at the “10” markat ƒ/1.4. Focus shift ismoderate, moving accuratefocus back about 3/4 inch atƒ/2.8.
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closer work, or a row of buildings orlandforms for more distant work. Focuswide open and shoot from wide openthrough ƒ/8, examining the sharpnesswhere peak sharpness should lie. Testfor more than one subject and look forconsistency in your findings. Use of LiveView is best, if your camera offers it, butbe sure to be aware of the aperturebeing used during Live View focusing.
• Test autofocus or AF assist.Don’tassume that autofocus is accurate, orthat the equivalent focus-assist (e.g.,green dot) is accurate. Sometimesautofocus is just inaccurate; fix this firstby using your camera’s fine-focusadjustment feature, if available.
• Focusing aperture. For lenses thatfocus shift, focus at the shootingaperture, or closer to it. See Table 1.Manual focus or Live View usually offera means of stopping the lens down forthis purpose.
• Focusing screens. Lenses with
7a:Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4D
at ƒ/1.4
7b:Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4D
at ƒ/2.8
7c:Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4D
at ƒ/5.6
Figure 7a–7c. Nikon50/1.4D: apertures ƒ/1.4,ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/5.6, focusedat the “10” mark at ƒ/1.4.Focus shift is moderate,moving accurate focus backabout one inch at ƒ/2.8.Aperture ƒ/5.6 does notcompensate for the shift.
8a:Sony Alpha 50/2.8
macro at ƒ2.8
8b:Sony Alpha 50/2.8
macro at ƒ4
8c:Sony Alpha 50/2.8
macro at ƒ8
Figure 8a–8c. Sony50/2.8 macro: aperturesƒ/2.8, ƒ/4 and ƒ/8,focused at the “10” markat ƒ/2.8. Very unusualslight forward focus shift,possibly indicatingovercorrected sphericalaberration.
Figure 9a–9c. An example of inf inity focus shot at ƒ/1.4, along with crops. The sharp cropis with the lens set at the inf inity mark, sharp in the viewf inder as seen by eye. The blurredframe is what the Canon 1Ds Mark III indicates as in-focus with its green-dot focusassist—and it looks blurry through the viewf inder.
9a
9b
9c
Table 1. Table showing recommendedapertures for focusing versus shooting.
Shooting aperture Focusing aperture
ƒ/1.2 ƒ/1.2ƒ/1.4 ƒ/1.4ƒ/1.8 ƒ/1.8ƒ/2 ƒ/2ƒ/2.8 ƒ/2.8ƒ/4 ƒ/2.8–ƒ/4ƒ/5.6 or smaller ƒ/2.8–ƒ/4
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ƒ/1.2 or ƒ/1.4 apertures can actually bemore diff icult to focus manually, andcan have awkward interactions withthe stock focusing screen, which isusually designed for AF operation.Sometimes a different focusing screen(super matte) can help with by-eyemanual focusing.
• Live View can be used to focus atthe shooting aperture with somecameras. This bypasses the issue solong as the aperture is not too small(where depth of f ield makes precisefocus ambiguous).
• Anticipate and mitigate.Knowingthe behavior of the lens in conjunctionwith manual or autofocus allowsadjustment to be made. For example,one might focus an ƒ/1.4 lens justslightly in front of the desired subject,knowing that when shot at ƒ/4 thefocus will have moved back an inch orso; perhaps focusing on the nose willyield sharp eyes.
• Stop downmore.This is not thebest solution, but it can help.
Recommended focusing aperturesA camera that can stop down to theshooting aperture in Live View modeis your best bet for accurate focus.Table 1 summarizes therecommended apertures for focusinga lens that exhibits focus shift,bearing in mind that focusing at asmaller (darker) aperture than ƒ/2.8may itself introduce error due to adarker image and increased depth off ield, making it more diff icult tojudge precise focus. These f igures areguidelines; specif ic lenses might focusshift steadily with each smalleraperture, others might jump suddenlyfrom ƒ/2.8 to ƒ/4 (for example).
ConclusionsFocus shift is one of those mysteriousproblems until it’s understood, then alot becomes clear, literally andf iguratively. Especially with fast ƒ/1.2and ƒ/1.4 lenses, checking for focus-
shift behavior can lead to superiorresults. For some users, it might meanselecting an alternative lens, shouldthe working aperture be on unfriendlyterms with the camera’s autofocussystem or photographer’s workinghabits.
Unlike the strict rules ofdiffraction, focus shift can be dealtwith; it is not a hard and fast physicallaw with no workaround. Stoppingdown is generally not the answer, butappropriate adjustments to techniquecan yield superior results. ■
Lloyd L. Chambers enjoys all-digital
photography after shooting film for
years in 35mm, 4×5, 6×7, and 617formats. His Web site diglloyd.com
offers a wealth of material on advanced
photographic techniques, and his Zeiss
ZF Lenses review is a reference work
on those f ine lenses.
photographyguides from PHOTO Techniques
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ESSENTIAL LIGHTINGTECHNIQUES –A PRO GUIDE TOPHOTOGRAPHICLIGHTINGCommercial photographerBobbi Lane guides readersthrough a logical progressionon using light to create moodand character. You’ll learnabout: lighting patterns,umbrellas vs. boxes, bouncinglight, shadow depth and fill,portrait lighting, filters andgels for color correction, andmore. 44 pages, 2007.
MASTERING DIGITALPHOTOGRAPHY:ESSENTIALSInformative, how-to articlesfor perfecting your digitalworkflow and achievingsuperior prints. You’ll learnabout: toning, digital colorcorrection, the power ofPhotoshop adjustment layers,photo software, better color& contrast control andmore. 44 pages, 2006.
B&W MASTERPRINTING CLASSProvides articles by masterphotographer andprintmaker Bruce Barnbaum,on darkroom techniques.It includes example imagesso that readers can seeBarnbaum’s techniques inaction. 44 pages, 2006
MASTERING DIGITALPHOTOGRAPHY:ADVANCEDTECHNIQUESContains informative, how-to articles about advancedscanning techniques,Photoshop maskingmethods, creating digitalpanoramas, understandingdigital color, testing noise:digital vs. film, restoring oldphotos digitally and more.44 pages, 2005
ADVANCED B&WPRINTINGFor nearly three decades,Vestal was a B&W darkroominstructor at the famedPratt Institute in New YorkCity. “Advanced B&WPrinting” is a complete set ofall 24 Vestal Pratt Institutehandouts. Penned in hisunique (and often humorous)writing style, the result is aninformative and enjoyable“working manual” of B&Wdarkroom procedures andtechniques. 56 pages, 2002
PRINTING WITHVARIABLECONTRAST PAPERSTells you everything youneed to know about theincreasingly popular VCB&W papers.What they are,how they work, and how touse them. Complete witheverything fromsensitometric analyses toreviews of VC light sourcesand specific papers. A “musthave” for every B&W printer.68 pages, 1995
PHOTOGRAPHICPROCESSES THECHEMISTRY OFPHOTOGRAPHYIncludes chapters oncolor-negative/color-reversal processing,shooting, and developingB&W photographs.Answers questions aboutcolor and B&W filmand print processing.68 pages, 1987
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positive consequence of the digital printing revolution is that more
photographers than ever are making their own fine prints in both color and
black-and-white. Furthermore, more photographers are making some effort to sell their
prints, usually at modest prices and with some modest degree of success. Keeping the
price low, however, means keeping all the expenses (including your time) low.
Otherwise it’s a losing proposition—or at least one that doesn’t bring in a living wage.
As a professional photographer,custom printer, writer and editor, andphoto restorer, I’ve been shipping andreceiving photographs for more than30 years. My business has beencustom work, with orders runninghundreds or even thousands of dollars.Until recently, I’ve rarely shippedmore than a few packages a week.Consequently, it hasn’t bothered meto err on the side of caution; it maytake me an hour to package work forshipping and end up costing me $20or $30 in materials and postage, butit’s worth it to me not to havesomething damaged in transit. It’s nota big investment of time or moneycompared to the rest of the job. I’mhappy to say that I have never, everhad a photograph I shipped destroyedin transit.
I can’t say the same for otherphotographers. Most of the
photographs I get in the mail areeither woefully underpacked (theclassic situation of the photograph ina manila envelope with no stiffeningboard and the hopeful legend “DoNot Bend” written on the outside) orso overpacked that it took thephotographer twice as long and costtwice as much as it should have.
Recently I had to completelyrethink my methods. A special low-price print offer I tendered last fallwas too successful! I needed to shipsome 450 orders in three months.Without question, $20–$30 shippingand handling costs and an hour of mytime per order was not going to cut it.
With a little planning and practice,I reduced the time required to handlean order from start to f inish to 15minutes. Total cost, both the packingmaterials and postage, was $7. Ofthose 450 orders, only one had
contents that were slightly damagedin transit (and not unacceptably soaccording to the recipient) and onemay have been lost in transit—anentirely tolerable failure rate.
That low an expenditure of timeand money opens up all sorts ofmarketing possibilities. Any of youcan take the same approach I did.The specif ic shipping products andmethods I describe herein weredesigned for 10×12-inch prints; theywould work for anything up to10.5×14-inch prints. With anappropriate substitution of materialsthey should scale up just f ine to13×19-inch prints and possibly even16×20-inch prints. The cost ofshipping and handling wouldapproximately double, but that’s stillpretty economical for large prints.The processing time would hardlychange.
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AFigure 1. These packaging materials cost less than two dollars, weigh less than a pound, andwork well for prints up to 10.5×14-inches.
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OverviewAll my photos, whether going to theUnited States or a foreign destination,are sent via Priority Mail. Forlightweight packages such as these, it’ssubstantially cheaper than any othershipping service.
I don’t buy additional insurance; theloss rate is so low that the insurancewouldn’t pay for itself. Insurance costsanywhere from 1.5% to 3.5%,depending on the value of what I’msending. Additional insurance meansf illing out additional forms (moretime) and standing in line at the postoff ice so the clerk can log in each andevery package (more time, still) thusmaking the proposition even lessattractive. Also, for internationalorders, Priority Mail Internationalincludes a certain amount of insurancecoverage. For the packages I wassending, I received $60 worth ofcoverage automatically, with noadditional paperwork to be f illed out.
There are even cheaper shippingmethods than Priority Mail, but Iwon’t use them. Delivery times aremuch less certain, handling is muchless reliable, and there’s some level onwhich I’m just not willing to cutcorners any further. Furthermore,Media Rate shipments within theU.S. are subject to being opened forinspection by the Postal Service, andFirst Class International shipping hasproven, in my experience, to have avery erratic delivery schedule. For themodest savings, it’s not worthabandoning the reliability of PriorityMail, in my opinion. But, if you’retrying to sell really, really inexpensivephotos, there’s nothing to prevent youfrom giving these other classes of maila try. I just can’t recommend thembased on personal experience.
Keeping the handling costs downmeans speeding up the process asmuch as possible and buying yourshipping supplies in quantity fromcompanies that specialize in suchproducts. I’ve got word processortables and templates that generatemailing labels for me so there’s nohand-addressing of packages. I get
most of my tape and label suppliesfrom Quill (www.quill.com) andpackaging supplies from Uline(www.uline.com); their prices are asmall fraction of what you’ll pay atyour local off ice supply store.
The one way in which I’m still inthe Stone Age is that I use stampsinstead of purchasing postage onlinefrom the U.S. Postal Service Web site.There’s a couple of percent discountfor buying your postage online, but Ihaven’t gotten together the printertemplates and mailing label sheets Ineed yet. Something for you readersto consider, though, instead of sheetsof stamps.
That’s the big picture. Now let’slook at the details.
AddressingAlmost all my orders for booksand photographs come to meelectronically these days: e-mail with acredit card number, a PayPaltransaction, or an order via GoogleCheckout. Regardless, it means I’vegot the buyer’s address in thecomputer, so why not make use ofthat instead of tediously addressingpackages by hand? I just highlight thename and address text in the order,copy it, paste it into my word-processor mailing list table, and selectand move the information into theappropriate columns.
Either way, it’s a short hop, skip,and jump to having the mailinginformation organized in a table,where there’s no risk I misread ormiscopied something by hand. Mymailing label template takes the datain that table and automaticallygenerates sheets of mailing labels forme. Personally, I like Avery 8164labels. They’re big enough to hold allthe important information in highlyreadable form, and they’re smallenough to f it on the parcel regardlessof how big or small the packages.
Some helpful tips. First, manymail-merge programs (like the onebuilt into Microsoft Word) cangenerate post-off ice barcodes fromthe ZIP code information. Be sure to
include that f ield in your mailing labeltemplate. It makes shipping faster andmore reliable.
Second, include a f ield that printsthe contents of the order unobtrusivelyon the label. That way, when you’repackaging up orders and applyingmailing labels to them, you don’t haveto refer to a separate order sheet tof igure out who is getting what item.
Third, print out a duplicate set ofmailing labels on plain paper. Eachtime you slap a label on a package,check off the corresponding label onthe printout. It’s an easy way to keeptrack of what you’ve shipped and whatyou haven’t.
Fourth, some services such asPayPal let you get a history transactionreport: a formatted text f ile of yourrecent orders f iltered any of severaldifferent ways. That formatted textcan be brought into a word processoror spreadsheet program. There you canstrip out the unwanted information,retaining the buyer’s name, address,and what was ordered, neatly brokendown into columns. It’s awfully nicewhen you’ve got lots of addresses toprocess in a short period of time.
PackingYou’ve got orders, you’ve got prints,you’ve got mailing labels. Now youhave to make packages. Here’s whereeff iciency really makes a difference.Figure 1 shows the packing materials Iused for my 10×12-inch prints. On theleft are precut sheets of 11×14-inchcardboard that I purchased from Uline(catalog number S-3962) for 25 centsapiece. In the middle is a pad of11×14-inch acid-free drawing paper.On the right are some cut-downsheets of cardboard on top of a Uline15×111/8-inch white easy-fold mailer(S-345). The mailers run less than onedollar apiece and are scored to beeasily folded to a depth of anythingfrom 1/2 to 2 inches (for these orders,1/2 inch was what I needed). For largerprints, Super B up to 16×20 inches, I’duse the 18×24-inch (S-13354) size.
I prefer white mailers, because Ithink they stand out a little better in
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shipping and look a little moreprofessional. So maybe, just maybe,they get handled a little morecarefully. Possibly wishful thinking onmy part; can’t hurt, might help. Forinternational orders, I use whiteliterature mailers from Uline (S-277).They’re about the same price and theyweigh just an ounce more. They’re alittle more trouble to fold up, but theyprovide a really secure packing andthey look very professional. This line
of boxes is available in sizes up to24×30 inches. For up to 16×20-inchprints, catalog number S-7871 lookslike the best way to go.
First, sandwich the prints betweentwo sheets of cardboard for rigidity,using the acid-free paper to protectthem from contacting the cardboard(Figure 2). For long-term storage, youwouldn’t want to rely on thin paperlike that to keep the cardboard fromcontaminating the print; it’s entirely
adequate for shipping purposes. Youcan pack multiple prints this way,interleaving them with the acid-freepaper. Tape the edges of the sandwichtightly with four strips of tape (Figure3). You want the tape tight so that thecardboard exerts enough pressure onthe prints that they won’t slide aroundinside the sandwich.
Center the print sandwich in theunfolded mailer (Figure 4). I includean instruction sheet with my prints, soI put that on top of the sandwich andput a half-sheet of cardboard on topof that (Figure 5). The additionalcardboard makes the contents thickenough that when the package istaped closed the print sandwich won’trattle around.
Fold over the left and right innerf laps (Figures 6 and 7), checking tomake sure that the sheet of spacercardboard is positioned so that thef laps rest on top of it. Then fold overthe outer f laps (Figure 8). Make sureall the f laps are tight and nice andsquare before taping them down.
Tape all the seams in the packagestarting with the outer f laps (Figures9 and 10). Make sure that the tape onthe back runs around the edges of thepackage and holds the outer f lapsdown tightly. Then tape up the endseams, again making sure that thestrip of tape wraps around completelyfrom back to front. Almost anypackage becomes immensely strongerand more rigid when all the seams aretaped. This is one of the keys to reallysolid packaging without excessiveweight or bulk.
Figure 10 shows me using thehobby knife to cut the tape. That’sbecause that’s the way I’ve been doingit my whole life and I’m prettyeff icient with it (and still have all myf ingers). But if you’re new to this, it’smore sensible and a lot safer to buy atape dispenser or tape gun. They don’tcost much and with a little practiceyou’ll be laying out strips of tape morequickly than you thought humanlypossible. Don’t try to use regularscissors to cut the tape. You won’twrap more than a few packages before|P
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Figure 2. Sandwich the prints betweensheets of acid-free paper, centering them inthe paper and cardboard sandwich. You canpack multiple prints this way, interleavedwith acid-free paper.
Figure 3. Tape the cardboard togethertightly, to exert pressure on the prints so thatthey cannot slide inside the sandwich.
Figure 5. Use half a sheet of cardboard asf iller to make the contents thick enoughthat they’ll be held tightly and can’t slidearound easily when the mailer is tapedclosed.
Figure 6. Fold over one of the inner flaps,holding the f iller board so that it doesn’t slipout of position.
Figure 4. Center the print sandwich in themailer so that there is a little “breathingroom” at both ends.
Figure 7.When both inner flaps are folded,they should be resting on top of the f illerboard, not directly on the print sandwich.
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the scissors blades will start to gum upand make it really slow and diff icult tocut the tape.
The last step is to add a mailinglabel, a Priority Mail sticker, andappropriate postage to the front of thepackage. Now it’s ready for shipping.
ShippingUnfortunately, security paranoia hasmade shipping less convenient thanbefore. Any packages that weigh morethan 13 ounces have to be hand-checked by a clerk at the post off ice.The good news, though, is you don’thave to be present for this (unless youneed the receipt from the cashregister) if the parcels are properlypackaged, addressed, and have theright amount of postage on them.
All I had to do was let the clerksknow that I was leaving a stack ofprepared packages for them to check inat their convenience, and walk out. Nowaiting in line, and it allowed them tohandle the packages when there wasn’ta queue of customers waiting forservice. Kinder for everybody.
There’s a small chance of thechecker accidentally tossing a packagein the sorting bin without giving it theoff icial stamp. It has happened to metwice with some 600–700 parcels. Ifthat happens, a day or so later theparcel will come back to you and you’llhave to carry it down to the postoff ice again. Worth the minor risk, inmy opinion.
The f lats I assembled were right onthe edge of the 13-ounce limit. Infact, if there was one print in thepackage they were under 13 ounces,and if there were two or more theywere over. Because I had to clear avery large number of orders in a shortperiod of time, I decided that my timewas worth a little more than themoney and that carefully weighingand sorting the parcels wasn’t worth itto me. Consequently, I shipped
everything Priority Mail, at the one-pound postage rate (currently $4.95).Had I been willing to do the weighingand sorting or had more consistentweights, I could have knocked abouttwo dollars off the postage for thepackages that fell under the 13-ounceFirst Class limit.
If you’re sending parcels of this sortout of the U.S., you’ll have to make outa Customs multipart “white form.” It’sa real pain and very time consuming forboth you and the poor clerk at the postoff ice. Whoever designed those formsdid not think about workf low oreff icient use of people’s time. Thedesign of those forms requires you tostand in line while the clerk checks ineach package individually, and it willtake them a couple of minutes toprocess each package. If you have a lotof foreign orders to ship, be preparedto spend a lot of time at the post off ice,and it would be a kindness to the othercustomers if you didn’t bring in morethan 8–10 at a time.
ConclusionsIs this the best that could be done tominimize shipping and handlingcosts? Absolutely not. I’m not the f irst(nor even the 10,000th) person on theplanet to set up a mail order business.I won’t be the last. There are lots andlots of people out there who do thismuch better than I.
For the present, though, this isgood enough for me. My streamlinedapproach has reduced my time andcosts way below what they werebefore. And if the packages I receivein the mail from other photographersare any guide, it’ll work a lot better formany of you than whatever you’redoing now. ■
Ctein has been a writer and f ineprintmaker for 30 years, and is one of thefew remaining expert dye transfer printers.His books DIGITAL RESTORATION
and POST EXPOSURE—Advanced
Techniques for the Photographic Printer,
are available from Focal Press.Autographed copies may be purchased andhis photographic work can be seen onlineat ctein.com.
Figure 8. Close the outer top and bottomflaps and make sure all the flaps are tightand square.
Figure 10. Tape up the end seams on thepackage, wrapping the tape from back tofront. Taping all the seams on a packagegreatly increases its strength.
Figure 11.The addition of a mailing label,Priority Mail sticker, and appropriate postageto the front of the package makes it ready todrop off at the post off ice. Packages weighingmore than 13 ounces have to be checked in atthe post off ice by a clerk, but you don’t have tohang around while they do it.
Figure 9. Tape over the rear seam,wrapping the tape around the ends to thefront of the package. Cinch the tape downtight around the ends.
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sing the formula of dividingyour sensor size by your output
resolution to f ind the largest optimal-quality print size, the older 5D (withits sensor of 4368×2912 pixels) yields(at 300 ppi) an ultimate enlargementof 14.6×9.7 inches. The Mark II at5616×3744 pixels yields an optimalprint of 18.72×12.48 inches. Weall know that digital capabilities—
through the use of high-end printersand sharpening software—allow us togo much larger, but this affords anobjective comparison.
The Mark II offers a hugeimprovement in physical resolutionand tonal rendering because it offers14-bit conversion (16,383 tones perchannel), while the older 5D offered12-bit conversion. The Mark II also
includes a feature called HighlightTone Priority that adds one stop ofcritical tonality in the brightesthighlights.
Speed improvementsThe other signif icant change from the5D to the 5DMark II is the DIGICIV processor, which is considerablyfaster than the 5D’s older DIGIC II.
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U
This image, shot at ISO 6400, illustratesthe 5D Mark II’s low noise at high speeds.
An image from Tumacacori National Historical Park, Tumacacori, Arizona, 2009, acombined, extended-focus image using Adobe CS4 and shot with the 5D Mark II.
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As a result, it did well in burst tests,despite its hefty sensor size. Shootingfull Raw, I was able to get a burst of 16frames on a non-UDMA card and 19frames on a UDMA card. The time toprocess a full non-UDMA card was10.5 seconds; with the UDMA card, ittook only 8.2 seconds. On full-sizeJPEGs (smallest compression value),the camera was virtually continuous.I rattled off more than 200 highest-quality JPEGs, and it just keptcranking. For pros needing that kindof speed (which can be important foraction photography), the 5DMark IIis again amazing. Canon reports thatyou can run a continuous 310 JPEGframes using a UDMA card. The 5DMark II also shoots two smaller Rawformats that some wedding or portraitphotographers may f ind advantageous.
A word of caution: given the 5DMark II’s capabilities, you mightwonder why you would buy a 1DsMark III, which costs $5,000 morethan the 5D Mark II. The answer isreally a combination of climate useand abuse. The 5DMark II is solidlybuilt, but can be affected by severeweather, while the 1D Mark III isbuilt to withstand it, includingextremely cold temperatures (thoughI live in New Mexico, so that featureisn’t a real concern for me). The 5DMark II has been tested up to 150,000frames—again indicating that it ismore robustly built than the 5D.
The 5DMark II can shoot 3.9frames per second. That may notchallenge the approximately 5 fps ofthe more expensive 1Ds Mark III, but
compares well with the 3.0 fps of theolder 5D.
These are some nice improvements,but this is only the beginning. There areseveral new AFmodes, including QuickMode, Lens Mode, and Face Detect(even in Live Mode). Live Mode is theability to use the 3-inch viewfinder tocompare and shoot your images fromthe rear display rather than theviewfinder. The display’s resolution is920,000 pixels compared to the 5D’s230,000 pixels. The nine AF cross-typepoints and six assisted AF points areshared between theMark II and itspredecessor, as is the 35-Zone meteringsensor. This is significantly lower thanthe 1DsMark III’s 19 cross-type and26 assist AF points. The menus in thedisplay have been expanded, are muchlarger, and are extremely clear andunderstandable. It’s easy to search forthe function you need.
Another huge improvement is theISO range. It has increased from the5D’s 100–1600, up to 100–6400 inthe Mark II, with the capability ofextending it to 25,600, a sensitivitythat boggles my mind. Digital noise isvery different than f ilm grain, soI have a hard time comparing theamount of noise to that of, say,T-Max 3200. But I can say that theMark II’s noise is much better thanthat of its predecessor at speeds up toISO 1600—a result of a better sensorand more powerful processor.
The 5DMark II, while slightlylarger than the 5D, weighs the same.Its improved battery weighs the sameas its predecessor’s, but provides more
power and more detailed batteryinformation. The 5DMark II has aself-cleaning sensor and dust-deletefunction through Canon’s DPPsoftware. Self-cleaning isautomatically activated every time thecamera is turned on or off.
High-definition videoAll of this makes the 5D Mark IIan excellent second-tier pro camera.And then Canon adds somethingcompletely different. In Live Mode,the camera shoots full HD(1920×1080 pixel) video at 30fps.The quality is superb. The built-inmicrophone won’t get many raves, andit does pick up noise from the auto-focus lens, but I found that using anexternal microphone solved theseproblems. The movie I made whentesting the camera was excellent.According to Canon, the cameraproduces 12 minutes of 1080 HDvideo on a 4GB card.
I went to the dxomark.com siteto see the test results on sensordifferences between the 5D and the5D Mark II. DxO found that theMark II’s sensor, color depth,dynamic range, and low-light ISO allshowed marked improvement over theearlier model. It fared better than the1Ds Mark III in low-light ISO andwas rated much higher in every othercategory. Again, note that the 5DMark II’s one Achilles heel is that itdoesn’t have the 1DS Mark III’s tank-like build, and is more touchy inclimate extremes.
Still, I found that for about $3,000the Canon 5DMark II is an amazingcamera, one that yields pro quality andextras at an extremely reasonableprice. Even if you own a 1Ds MarkIII, you may f ind the 5D Mark II isan ideal backup that includes morefeatures. ■
Paul Schranz, a PT contributing editor,is a professor emeritus at Governors StateUniversity in Illinois. He lives in NewMexico, where he is director of the PrestonContemporary Art Center and runs theMesilla Digital Imaging Workshops.
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The Canon EOS 5D Mark II
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THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND®
Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next PageTechniques®
PHOTO
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THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND®
Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next PageTechniques®
OMNI-BOUNCEUsed by Professionals around the world, to achieve softnatural lighting with most of the popular brand flashunits. Ideal for wide angle shots, macro work, portraitsand news coverage. Custom mounting with no Velcrorequired.Specify your strobe when ordering.
ACCURATE LENS SIMULATION: Finally, you can manipulate focus just like fast expensive lenses with Bokeh™, Alien Skin’s latest Photoshop® plug-in. Bokeh is the only software that accurately simulates the distinctive blurring and creamy highlights of real lenses. We performed careful experiments with lenses famous for their bokeh highlights, such as the Canon® EF 85mm f/1.2 II and the Nikon® 105mm f/2.8 Macro. The result is a photo-realistic look, in contrast to the unnatural blur from other software.
LIMITLESS CREATIVE CONTROL: Turn your f/22 shot into an f/1! After the shoot it’s not too late to decrease depth of fi eld. Bokeh can make distracting surroundings fade into the distance, drawing attention to your subject. You can get creative with full control of a radial or planar sweet spot, just like expensive tilt-shift lenses. Vignetting can help frame a portrait or give that Lomo look. Bokeh is so fl exible that it can even render heart-shaped highlights!
