DEDICATION This book is dedicated to my parents, Margaret and Deforrest, with appreciation for their support in many ways. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author acknowledges with gratitude the contributions of the following individuals to this book: My wife, Vivien, for her encouragement, perceptive comments, and assistance. Nevada Wier, for providing an image from her unique portfolio. Editors Michelle Perkins and Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt, and publisher Craig Alesse of Amherst Media, for the editing, layout, and production of this book. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Maurice Hamilton is an award-winning landscape, nature, and travel photographer based in Los Altos and Groveland, California. He has traveled to many countries to explore and photograph remote and exotic locations, but he specializes in documenting the grandeur of the American West. Maurice is also the author of The Digital Darkroom Guide with Adobe® Photoshop® (Amherst Media, 2004) and sponsors workshops that explain the techniques presented in his books. Information on his fine-art images and workshops is available at www.hamiltonphoto.com. Copyright © 2006 by Maurice Hamilton. All rights reserved. Published by: Amherst Media® P.O. Box 586 Buffalo, N.Y. 14226 Fax: 716-874-4508 www.AmherstMedia.com Publisher: Craig Alesse Senior Editor/Production Manager: Michelle Perkins Assistant Editor: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt ISBN: 1-58428-173-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2005926587 Printed in Korea. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior written consent from the publisher. Notice of Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the author’s experience and opinions. The author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information in this book. Contents Introduction . .5 5. Colorizing a Black-and-White Image . .61 Hue/Saturation . .61 1. Basic Concepts . .6 Channel Mixer . .63 The Zone System . .6 Color Balance . .64 The Histogram . .9 Color Fill . .65 Curves . .12 Photo Filter . .66 Layer Style Color Overlay . .67 2. The Digital Darkroom . .14 Adobe Photoshop . .14 Calibrated Monitor . .14 Digital Image Source . .15 Printers, Papers, and Profiles . .17 The Image File . .20 3. The Master Image . .26 Analyze the Histogram . .26 Crop and Rotate the Image . .26 Remove Dust and Scratches . .27 Set White and Black Points . .28 Adjust Brightness . .31 Correct the Color . .32 Adjust Problem Areas . .34 Save the File . .41 4. Converting a Color Image to Black and White . .42 Optimize the Image for Black-and-White Conversion . .42 Convert the Image to Black and White . .43 Apply Final Black-and-White Tonal Corrections . .60 CONTENTS 3 Layer Fill with Color . .69 Lighting Effects . .100 Average Color Tint . .69 Artistic Effects . .101 Blending Layers to Limit Colorization . .70 Framing Effects . .104 Selection to Limit Colorization . .72 Split Tones . .74 7. The Print . .105 Gradient Map . .76 Perform Final Image Adjustments . .105 Duotones . .77 Soft-Proof the Images . .109 Painting with Color Layers . .80 Create the Print Using a Tinting with Selections . .81 Digital Darkroom Printer . .109 Colorizing Layer Mask . .83 Create the Print Using a Commercial Printer . .111 Third-Party Filters . .84 8. Image Gallery . .113 6. Special Effects . .86 Infrared Effect . .86 A Final Thought . .122 High-Contrast Effect . .89 High-Key Effect . .90 Index . .123 Lens Effects . .92 4 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES WITH ADOBE® PHOTOSHOP® Introduction The traditional chemical darkroom provides photographers the means to control the processing of black-and-white images. By using tools such as dodging and burning and techniques that influence the color cast of a print, photographers tap creative talents to convey the feeling of the mo- ment when an image was captured. During this process, knowledge of darkroom chemistry is combined with the sensitivity of an artist to create a fine-art print. This print, the finale to the composition and performance of a visual symphony, represents a synthesis of the physical elements of the scene with the photographer’s visualization of the final image. With the recent advent of the digital darkroom, photographers are now able to utilize a broader range of creative techniques to produce fine-art prints. In addition to the advantages of avoiding personal and environmen- tal exposure to toxic chemicals, the digital darkroom offers a degree of con- trol and reproducibility not previously available. For color photographers, it provides the opportunity to exercise greater control over the creation of the print, rather than delegating it to a commercial laboratory. The digital darkroom also enables photographers to utilize and expand upon tech- niques derived from the chemical darkroom to create black-and-white prints from either black-and-white or color images. The purpose of this book is to describe and illustrate techniques to cre- ate professional-quality black-and-white prints in the digital darkroom. Familiarity with Adobe Photoshop or a similar imaging program is assumed. Because Adobe Photoshop is such a powerful program, it repre- sents the primary imaging program I use in my digital darkroom. None- theless, for those photographers not yet ready to commit to the full Pho- toshop program, Adobe Photoshop Elements and other imaging programs can be utilized to achieve similar results. The requisite background infor- mation on using these programs is available in a number of publications, including my book entitled The Digital Darkroom Guide with Adobe® Photoshop® (Amherst Media, 2004). INTRODUCTION 5 CHAPTER 1 Basic Concepts THE ZONE SYSTEM Ansel Adams is widely recognized for his codification of the Zone System to describe the range of tonalities within an image. This system is consid- ered to be composed of three components: visualization, exposure control, and contrast control. Visualization occurs in the mind, exposure control in the camera, and contrast control in the darkroom. Using the Zone System, Adams was able to visualize a desired final image and then expose, devel- op, and print the negative to achieve an appearance that captured the essence of the moment. Through visualization, the photographer determines the desired ap- pearance of the print even before the image has been exposed. “Vis- ualization,” writes Adams, “is a conscious process of projecting the final photographic image in the mind before taking the first steps in actually photographing the subject.”1 Those elements that will appear as shadows, midtones, and high- VISUALIZATION OCCURS IN THE MIND, EXPOSURE lights are decided in advance. With this image in mind and exposure meter in hand, the photogra- CONTROL IN THE CAMERA, AND CONTRAST CONTROL pher adjusts the camera aperture and shutter IN THE DARKROOM. speed for the proper exposure and records the image. Within the darkroom, the photographer brings the visualized image to fruition by controlling contrast during neg- ative development and selecting a paper with the appropriate contrast grade for printing. As summarized by Adams: The Zone System allows us to relate various luminances of a subject with the gray values from black to white that we visualize to repre- sent each one in the final image. This is the basis for the visualization procedure, whether the representation is literal or a departure from reality as projected in our “mind’s eye.” After the creative visualiza- tion of the image, photography is a continuous chain of controls involving adjustment of camera position and other image manage- 6 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES WITH ADOBE® PHOTOSHOP® ment considerations, evaluation of the luminances of the subject and placement of these luminances on the exposure scale of the negative, appropriate development of the negative, and the making of the print.2 Central to this framework is the concept that all tones from black to white can be represented as values ranging from 0 to X (Roman numerals). A middle-gray print value corresponding to the 18% gray card is assigned a value of V. An exposure reading taken from a single-luminance surface and used to produce a middle-gray print Value V is known as a Zone V expo- sure. This produces a negative density defined as negative density Value V. Adams differentiated between zone, which he used only to refer to the exposure scale, and value, used for the other concepts. Although the print value is fixed, the subject value it represents is not fixed. Instead, the pho- tographer assigns the zone to the subject, regardless of its original tonality, so that the “subject luminances [are] represented as we want them to be by a range of gray values (or color values) in a print.”3 With the midpoint established, Adams then defined each of the remain- ing zones as a one-stop exposure change from Zone V. Darker exposures yield lower zone numbers and lighter exposures higher zone numbers. Value 0 is completely black, the darkest density VALUE VIII IS VERY LIGHT BUT SHOWS SLIGHT TEXTURE, possible with the paper used. Value I is almost full black, with very little detail. At the other ex- AND VALUES VI AND VII SHOW treme, Value X represents the pure white of the paper base, and Value IX is almost pure white. THE DETAIL AND TEXTURE OF THE SUBJECT. Intermediate values reveal a corresponding pro- gression. On the darker side, Value II shows only a bit of texture, whereas Values III and IV clearly reveal the detail and tex- ture of the subject. On the lighter side, Value VIII is very light but shows slight texture, and Values VI and VII show the detail and texture of the subject. Adams realized that these values were discrete points on a contin- uous scale, with each single value representing a range of grays. Within the full tonal range represented by Zones 0 to X, Adams defined the dynamic range as the first useful values above Zone 0 and below Zone X, corresponding to Zones I to IX, the zones with at least a little texture or detail.