Project 52 - Q2 - David (Rufus)

[Rufus]

Week 25, nice capture and edit, regarding the darkness, because the obvious question of monitor calibration, under what lighting conditions are you viewing the image? Are you backlighting or viewing under daylight lamp? If not, try either method and see if you still feel image is too dark.

Thank you for your comment on the image.

I have followed a few threads on CiC that speak of colour management and calibration. I use a Spyder 3 on my screen which is an HP and about 8 years old. I know the walls and desk of my study reflect a yellow/brown tint. The lighting (which is too bright) is from so-called daylight bulbs. So all in all the conditions are far from ideal. And when printed the images will never be seen under ideal conditions either!

Consequently I am not looking for perfection but just a means of brightenng the image, but I am not sure whether this is best acheived through some form of luminosity, exposure, saturation or some other adjustment immediately prior to printing.

[Shadowman]

Thank you for your comment on the image.

I have followed a few threads on CiC that speak of colour management and calibration. I use a Spyder 3 on my screen which is an HP and about 8 years old. I know the walls and desk of my study reflect a yellow/brown tint. The lighting (which is too bright) is from so-called daylight bulbs. So all in all the conditions are far from ideal. And when printed the images will never be seen under ideal conditions either!

Consequently I am not looking for perfection but just a means of brightenng the image, but I am not sure whether this is best acheived through some form of luminosity, exposure, saturation or some other adjustment immediately prior to printing.

David,

The bulk of the work is done in-camera, especially when shooting RAW, then in post production you should be able to nail the exposure in ACR, if you can get your midtones within acceptable range you can concentrate on your highlights and shadows, and if needed a levels adjustment should put you in good working order for your final print. Do you optimize for printing through LR or PS?

[Rufus]

David,

The bulk of the work is done in-camera, especially when shooting RAW, then in post production you should be able to nail the exposure in ACR, if you can get your midtones within acceptable range you can concentrate on your highlights and shadows, and if needed a levels adjustment should put you in good working order for your final print. Do you optimize for printing through LR or PS?

Yes, I shoot in RAW and import to Lightroom for some global adjustments and then often use PS, saving back to Lightroom. I use the LR print module as I prefer that. I am afraid I have no idea whether I "optimise for printing", so presumably I dont!

I am also not sure I undertand the concept of getting the midtones within acceptable range in order to concentrate on the highlights and shadows. My limited understanding was that it is best to first adjust for blown highlights and the lost detail in the blacks before sorting out the midtones.

[Shadowman]

Yes, I shoot in RAW and import to Lightroom for some global adjustments and then often use PS, saving back to Lightroom. I use the LR print module as I prefer that. I am afraid I have no idea whether I "optimise for printing", so presumably I dont!

I am also not sure I undertand the concept of getting the midtones within acceptable range in order to concentrate on the highlights and shadows. My limited understanding was that it is best to first adjust for blown highlights and the lost detail in the blacks before sorting out the midtones.

David,

You can either do all three at once by using the AUTO function in ACR or set WB, then Exp/Contr, then b/w pts, highlights/shadows before moving onto the finishing effects. One other thing to consider is setting the background in LR to a middle gray so it gives a neutral appearance that doesn't fool your eyes on overall image tones. You should can try adjusting the exposure slider until the main subject looks acceptable for your vision.

[Rufus]

David,

You can either do all three at once by using the AUTO function in ACR or set WB, then Exp/Contr, then b/w pts, highlights/shadows before moving onto the finishing effects. One other thing to consider is setting the background in LR to a middle gray so it gives a neutral appearance that doesn't fool your eyes on overall image tones. You should can try adjusting the exposure slider until the main subject looks acceptable for your vision.

Hmm...Lightroom is set to apply the AUTO function and lens corrections on import to give me a starting point. I then tweak the sliders in the Basic panel and consider other panels. I pretty much follow all you say in the first sentence and the background is set to mid-grey.

I am happy enough with what appears on screen and other devices such as my iPad. It is just a question of identifying a short workflow to "brighten up", for want of a better expression, the resulting printed image.

I have now amended the "Brightness" slider in the LR print module as going to +50 provides a better outcome than +25. And I can combine that with +25 for Contrast. I shall experiment more with these print module sliders to establish what works best as a default starting point for my prints.

[Geoff F]

Your latest edit, David, is exactly what I had in mind. Now those figures become part of the scene and add a little bit of mystery to the image. What are they doing there and are they about to enter the building, etc ?

[Rufus]

This week I came across another vintage car in a car park. I have removed a modern car parked to the left and the white lines for the parking space, addded some foreground at the bottom and background at the top.

I would have liked a 3/4 viewpoint to include the side at a less oblique angle, but the shot was taken as far to the right as I could go and as far away from the front of the car as I could get.

I think age of the wall in the background is appropriate for the age of the car and I feel the star bursts on the highlights add sparkle!

Unfortunately the shot is spoilt by the reflection in the windscreen (no polariser to hand) and I have not been able to make that recede.

C&C very welcome.

Week 26 - Image #62 – Austin Six (1/250 sec at f/13 and ISO 100):

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, the reflection is not that much of an issue as the foliage in the background, I would try to darken that and you could also use a levels adjustment on the reflection.

[Rufus]

Nice effort, the reflection is not that much of an issue as the foliage in the background, I would try to darken that and you could also use a levels adjustment on the reflection.

Thank you for your suggestions, John. It is surprising how noticeable the pale foliage was, now you have pointed that out! I have now darkened it and used a different source to clone the foliage in the centre, above the roof of the car.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of foliage in the shot as taken. That limitation meant that the Content Aware Fill tool did not do a very good job and I had to revert to cloning which also suffers from the limited amount of source material.

[Geoff F]

Maybe try a black and white version ?

[Rufus]

Maybe try a black and white version ?

The mono version helps the background and reflection to recede. I have also added a very gentle vignette:

[Rufus]

And a sepia interpretation...

[Wavelength]

This last one has come out the best!!!

[Rufus]

So...Q2 has drawn to a close. Thank you to all who have looked at my endeavours over the last six months. I have really appreciated your interest and helpful comments and am very grateful.

I have learned a lot along the way from being able to visualise areas the two lenses are likely to capture to understanding more about depth of field. And as a bonus you have helped me improve my understanding of some editing techniques. So it has been a great success!

Q3 now beckons with a new focus for my attention and a new thread...

[Shadowman]

Nice processing in post #90 and 91, only thing that keeps the capture from looking vintage is glossiness of the presentation.

[Rufus]

Nice processing in post #90 and 91, only thing that keeps the capture from looking vintage is glossiness of the presentation.

Thank you, John. The car was in showroom condition and it was a very bright day!

I will probably print these for our club monochrome competition later this month. In view of the glossy look, perhaps a semi gloss paper or matt paper would be suitable with a black matt to set them off. I only use Canon paper as I have a Canon printer and I have not had the confidence to play with profiles for other inks/papers. That is something I may tackle next year as it should cost me less.

[Manfred M]

I will probably print these for our club monochrome competition later this month. In view of the glossy look, perhaps a semi gloss paper or matt paper would be suitable with a black matt to set them off. I only use Canon paper as I have a Canon printer and I have not had the confidence to play with profiles for other inks/papers. That is something I may tackle next year as it should cost me less.

Using non-OEM papers is actually fairly straight forward.

The first thing that you will need are the printer / paper profile from the paper manufacturer and install it on your computer. That will ensure that your print software will put down the appropriate amount of each cartridge to properly reproduce the colours. Photoshop / Lightroom or any other print software you are using will let you pick that, just like the OEM papers. The only thing to watch for is the naming convention used as the third party paper manufacturers can sometimes use fairly strange names.

The second part is ensuring that the appropriate speed, gap, etc. are set. This should be found either on the paper manufacturer's website on on the box of paper. As an example, Canson tells me to use the Epson Ultra Premium Luster settings when printing on Canson Baryta Photographique paper.

The only thing to watch for with B&W printing is to let the printer rather than your editing software set handle the colours. This will get you at "true" B&W image. For some reason, on my Epson printers, letting Photoshop or Lightroom control the colours gives the blacks a slight green tinge. This does not happen when I let the printer manage colours; the blacks and grays are "pure".

[Rufus]

Using non-OEM papers is actually fairly straight forward.

The first thing that you will need are the printer / paper profile from the paper manufacturer and install it on your computer. That will ensure that your print software will put down the appropriate amount of each cartridge to properly reproduce the colours. Photoshop / Lightroom or any other print software you are using will let you pick that, just like the OEM papers. The only thing to watch for is the naming convention used as the third party paper manufacturers can sometimes use fairly strange names.

The second part is ensuring that the appropriate speed, gap, etc. are set. This should be found either on the paper manufacturer's website on on the box of paper. As an example, Canson tells me to use the Epson Ultra Premium Luster settings when printing on Canson Baryta Photographique paper.

The only thing to watch for with B&W printing is to let the printer rather than your editing software set handle the colours. This will get you at "true" B&W image. For some reason, on my Epson printers, letting Photoshop or Lightroom control the colours gives the blacks a slight green tinge. This does not happen when I let the printer manage colours; the blacks and grays are "pure".

Thank you for a very helpful summary which demystifies it. While aware of the need to load ICC profiles, I had not given any thought to how to deal with the paper thicknesses etc so I must beware of that potential pitfall.

My B&W prints used to come out with a pink/brown tint until you and others explained a few months ago the necessity of setting the printer to manage the colours. The tones now look quite good in daylight viewing conditions.