I've been lurking in this forum for a few days now, so I guess it's time I said 'hello'. I'm from England and I would guess at 50+ I'm somewhat older than the average person here :) Health and age had put paid to my days in a wet darkroom, so I've been looking for somewhere to practise my digital techniques. The image I'm posting is scanned from one of my old negatives and has been processed in PhotoShop. Guess if I had found you earlier, it might have slipped in under the 'hands' topic :)

Mike

Welcome aboard Bandred. Don't forget to fasten you seatbelts and stay in the bumpercar during this wild ride we call a forum! Bsteph

Welcome, Mike. As you undoubtedly have noticed by now, this is a beautiful group of people here - a great community. NICE portrait work! Dang - would I like to be able to do that! (I'm workin' on it). It shows up on a monitor pretty good - it must look dynamite as a photographic print. I have two questions, if you don't mind: 1) How much of that great 'aura', or 'halo' effect on the background was in the original LIGHTING, and how much was in the digital POST WORK? 2) Being that the original was done in B&W, by a darkroom pro - were ALL the 'levels' adjusted in PS, or did you do some of the adjustment in the processing (I mean 'Ansel-style', like over-expose, and then under-develop for more exposure lattitude, for intance)? ..Think you could provide some more stats on this shot? OK, I'll quit buggin' ya. Looking forward to seeing more of your work soon (with some tips on technique maybe!). Joe

Joe, the original shot was taken about 10 years ago now at a photographic club studio session, using a couple of models we coaxed in off the street :) If you know what those sessions are like... you don't get much chance to play around with the lighting. The film would be Ilford FP4 with standard home processing in Ilford chemicals.

I've attached a crop from the staright scan I used for the image. The main thing I wanted to do in PS, apart from sharpening it up, was to darken the upper corner areas. To do this I added two extra layers. I used the linear gradient tool to produce gradients from black to transparent, running from each corner towards the centre. I then used the 'dodging' tool to clean out the gradients where they ran into the models. I did this pretty hurriedly, which caused the 'halo' effect. I would guess there are ways to do it more carefully, but I'm on the bottom of the learning curve for PS :) I used Gaussian blur to soften the edges of the gradients and Gassian noise to simulate the film grain in them ..... LOL ..well you did ask :)

No problem about buggin' me... hope the reply makes sense... let me know if it doesn't.

take care,

Mike

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Excellent! Thanks, Mike. I well understand what you've explained. This kind of information is very valuable to me. Have you met Nplus? If you dig B&W and darkroom work, checkout his post from the tenth of last month - The post is called "Swept Clean". Wow. Seeya, Joe

Heya, and welcome to the group. Nice pic you got there. .n

Hi Bandred!

Hi Bandred and welcome, thats a nice photo you've posted! Glad you've hopped on board, it's a fun ride here! :-)>

With all those details of texture, I may even see this as an entry for this months contest... :) Beautiful pro photography, and you're welcome...

Bandred, welcome to Renderosity Photography forum and to the site! What part of england are you from? I hope you stay for a long while, and share your talents with us...This is a wonderful place to be. Syyd

Mike!! Whoa - (TwilightZone music fills the air) - From ENGLAND?!? (Music moves up and octave)....... Cool, man - not only from a decent country among these decendants of criminals and other various reprobates, but what must undoubtably be the best name in the universe. Gice your parents a clap on the back from me!! oh, and btw - welcome.....cool pic.... Mike (The First, Goddit?) lol (",)

Newcomers is what keeps this place hoppin'! Glay you're here!