Black-And-White Tone Targeting ||
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C HAPTER Black-and-White Tone Targeting || OBJECTIVES After completing this chapter you will be able to: ■ define and explain the purposes of tone targeting and tone correction. ■ describe and utilize the systems used to measure tones and tonal range in photographs. ■ convert a measurement taken in one tone-measuring system to another system’s measurement units. ■ use Photoshop’s tools to measure the tones and tonal range in a photograph. ■ explain the variables in printing processes that impact tone targeting. ■ use Photoshop’s tools to perform tone targeting. ■ use Photoshop’s tools to compensate for dot gain. ■ automate the tone targeting process using the Actions palette. ■ improve poor originals through the use of tone targeting. ■ perform tone targeting and correction on an image to be reproduced by a specified printing process. | 73 74 | C HAPTER TWO || ■ tone correction Although Photoshop has tremendous power to improve color ■ tone targeting photographs, the vast majority of printed photographs are still reproduced in black-and-white. Photoshop has several features that will allow you to vastly improve the appearance of printed black-and-white photographs. For example, using Photoshop you can make photographs appear lighter or darker and compensate for the changes that are caused by inherent attributes of varying printing processes. Tone refers to the darkness or lightness of areas within a black-and-white photograph. The process of making photographs appear more pleasing by lightening or darkening particular tones is called tone correction; the process of compensating for changes that are caused by inherent attributes of varying printing processes is called tone targeting. Tone correction is covered in depth in Chapters 5 through 9. This chapter deals only with black-and-white tone targeting. The skills that you will learn in this chapter by targeting black- and-white photographs lay the foundation for the color targeting and correction activities you will perform later in this book. An Introduction to Black-and-White Tone Targeting Reproducing images involves a series of simulations (Figure 2.1). Consider a photograph of the Grand Canyon printed in a magazine. A photographer uses a camera and film to capture a representation of the canyon—the image on the film is a simulation of the real scene. Next, a photo processing lab develops the film and uses it to print the image onto a sheet of photographic paper, called a photographic print. The print is a simulation of a simulation of the Grand Canyon. A scanner operator then places the photographic print onto a scanner to create a digital file that represents the photograph. The digital file is a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of the Grand Canyon. The Photoshop operator then makes changes to the digital file resulting in, you guessed it, a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of the Grand Canyon. Finally, the completed file is output to make a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of a simulation of the Grand Canyon. When the image is subsequently printed using a printing press, several more simulations may occur. By this point, it is a wonder that the picture even resembles the original scene! || Black-and-White Tone Targeting | 75 Figure 2.1 Grand Camera Photo Scanner Edited Computer Printed Item Simulating an Canyon Film Print File File Output Sheet original scene Level of Real First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Simulation Thing Level Level Level Level Level Level Effects of Simulation Each of the steps outlined above can cause the image’s quality to deteriorate. For example, film itself cannot capture all the subtle variations in tone in nature and also has built-in deficiencies that cause ugly patterns called grain. In addition, making a photographic print from film provides an opportunity for dust and dirt to become part of the image. On the positive side, the making of photographic prints also allows skilled and talented photographic technicians to improve parts of the image. Scanners, especially low-end desktop scanners, cause image degradation, especially in the shadow areas. Laser printers and imagesetters may be incorrectly calibrated and yield halftone dot sizes that do not match the values that exist in the digital file. Finally, each printing process, in combination with the substrate, causes halftone dot sizes to fluctuate. Fortunately, Photoshop allows you to take all these variables into account and adjust a photograph so that, when printed, it more closely resembles the original scene. Unless an image is to be viewed only on-screen, the primary goal of tonal manipulation is to account for the various attributes of a particular reproduction process/ink/substrate combination using tone targeting. A secondary goal is to improve the overall appearance of the photograph using tone correction. Optical Density An original scene may have an almost infinite tonal variation, from very white whites to very black blacks. Original black-and-white photographs are continuous tone images that have an infinite number of tones, but the film and photographic paper on which an image is reproduced can reproduce far fewer tones than exist in the original scene. ■ optical density The relative darkness of a particular tone is called optical density or (density) simply density. The density of a given area is measured with a special ■ densitometer measuring device called a densitometer and is expressed using ■ densitometric densitometric values. Densitometric values are logarithms and, in printing value and publishing applications, range from about 0.00 to 2.00 (for ink on 76 | C HAPTER TWO || paper). A detailed explanation of the mathematics used to calculate densitometric values is beyond the scope of this book. However, you should know that values close to zero are very white areas and values close to 2.00 are very black. In fact, an area that has a densitometric value of 0.00 reflects all the light that strikes it and is not black at all. An area that has a densitometric value of 2.00 reflects only one percent of the light that strikes it and is very black. ■ highlight There are two particular densitometric readings that are very density important to tone targeting—the highlight density and the shadow density. ■ shadow The highlight density is the densitometric value of the lightest spot in a density photograph—it has the lowest densitometric value to be found anywhere in the photograph. The shadow density is the darkest spot—it has the highest densitometric value to be found in the photograph. ■ tonal range If you subtract the highlight density from the shadow density, the ■ flat photograph result is the tonal range. The tonal range is the range of tones—from high to low—that an image possesses. A normal photograph usually has ■ contrasty photograph a tonal range from about 1.60 to 1.80. If the tonal range is less than 1.60, the photograph does not contain much contrast and can be considered flat. If the tonal range is above 1.80, the photograph is contrasty and contains tones that are too dark. Very dark tones may be impossible to reproduce on a printing press. Even though the tonal range may be normal, a photograph may still appear either too light or too dark depending on where the tones in the photograph are clustered. If too many tones are dark, the entire photograph will appear dark. Calculating the Gamma Ratio White paper and black ink are customarily used to print a reproduction of a black-and-white photograph. A typical white paper may have a densitometric value of about 0.10, and a solid layer of black ink may measure about 1.60. Therefore, the printing process using this paper and ink combination would be able to reproduce a tonal range of 1.50 (1.60 to 0.10) or less. If the original photograph has a tonal range of 1.95 and the press can only reproduce a tonal range of 1.50, the range of tones in the printed reproduction will be compressed by at least 0.45. This means that about one-fourth of the tonal range of the original photograph cannot be adequately reproduced using this ink and substrate combination. || Black-and-White Tone Targeting | 77 Changing the ink and substrate for a given photograph will change the reproduction’s tonal range. Using less-dense black ink or a less-white substrate will decrease the reproduction’s tonal range while using blacker ink and a whiter substrate will increase the tonal range. Use of a colored substrate or colored ink will also decrease the tonal range of a halftone reproduction. ■ gamma ratio The ratio of the tonal range of an original photograph to the tonal range of the reproduction is called the gamma ratio. The formula for calculating the gamma ratio is: tonal range of original gamma ratio = tonal range of reproduction If the tonal range of the original is 1.60 and the tonal range of the reproduction is 1.60, the gamma ratio would be 1.00. In such a case, every tone in the original would be reproduced with a matching tone in the reproduction. However, if the original has a tonal range of 2.00 and the reproduction has a tonal range of 1.50, the gamma ratio would be 1.33. tonal range of original gamma ratio = tonal range of reproduction = 2.00 1.50 = 1.33 The higher the gamma ratio number, the flatter the reproduction. The lower the gamma ratio number, the more contrasty the reproduction. Gamma ratio can be plotted on a graph called a gamma curve, with the tonal range of the original shown on the x-axis and the tonal range of the reproduction shown on the y-axis.