Film printing digital negative.

(final image)

I wanted to try and develop a digital photo of the sky/sea and still get all the tones within both aspects of the photo, and also create a dramatic image by using a filter for contrast, similarly to HDR photos. Because I was only using one photo rather than my HDR's 5 photos, I didn't have all the information needed to get a photo with great depth and/or detail due to over/under exposure in areas. However, I wanted to bring out all the detail possible with the photo I had. To do this I used dodge and burn methods.



First of all I set up the enlarger, using the smallest aperture possible (in this case F16), this will give me more time to dodge and burn when exposing the photo. I put in filter 5 to create the most contrast and I then set the timer to 7 seconds and made a test strip of my negative. From the negative I found that the ground and sea only needed roughly 7 seconds of exposure whereas the majority of the sky needed three times that.

(Test-strip - the ground in the furthest segment to the right is a good quality exposure and the sky in the 3rd segment to the right is of good quality exposure.)

I then proceeded to make a print of the negative using dodge and burn techniques. I kept the timer on 7 seconds and exposed the photo three times, heavily dodging the ground for the first two exposures. This improved the photo slightly, but you could easily see that it had been dodged due to a gradual fade where it parts had been exposed longer than others. It was also still slightly too dark.

(dodge and burn attempt - this dodge didn't work as you can see harsh lines where the card covered the image)

After several attempts I decided to completely dodge the ground and sea by putting thick card over the image up to the horizon. I then exposed the sky for 14 seconds and in this time dodged some of the left had side which was coming out too dark. After the 14 seconds I exposed the whole photo for a further 7 seconds while VERY gently dodging the ground and sea to get rid of any harsh separating lines. As a result of this, I had brought out the under exposed tones in the ground, sea and parts of the left-hand sky as well as keeping the tones in the majority of the sky.

If I were to edit this photo any more I would try to lighten the sky around the horizon as it is currently over exposed. However, there is little detail in the negative to bring out anything of any interest or quality.

(digital negative on acetate)

HDR

Nowadays, digital photography and HDR's enable us to take photos with this range of tones without having to use combination printing methods. However, you could argue that with HDR (high definition range) photos you often need to take several photos to gather all the data for the range of tones.

These are two photos I have taken and turned in to HDR photos using Photoshop...




To take these photos I used my digital SLR which was set to shutter speed priority - this is because I needed to shoot the Sam subject several times and did not want to change the aperture as this could change the appearance of the photo. I placed my camera onto a tripod and set up for taking the photos. I used ISO 800 as this gives soft tones without any grain. Once the camera is set up I take the first photo with a normall exposure composition, I then take a further 4 photos with varying exposure compositions (5 photos - Exposure comp. -2, -1, 0, +1, +2) , leaving me with 5 photos with a range of light and dark tones.

By merging together the images in Photoshop's 'HDR pro', the images are automatically merged together showing us both the highest tones and the lowest tones. This creates a great contrast resulting in a very striking and dramatic image. To really make the picture striking, I adjusted the exposure, shadows and highlights to create further contrast, giving the image great depth and something for the viewer to visually grasp. What really makes HDR photos stand out is the detail adjustment. This setting brings out the detail in tones making the picture look very dynamic. However, an over-use of this tool can make your picture look fake and/or graphical.

(Print screen from Photoshop 'HDR pro'. Before and after)

The human mind works well with right angles, they are something our minds can easily distinguish. I chose to shoot the image above while tilting the camera to make it more visually exciting. Because the horizon seperating the sea and the sky is vertical rather than horizontal, the sky and sea are seen more as one rather than two seperat aspects of the image. It also allows the viewer to more easily see the range of tones in the sea and sky.

The two photos above are single photos I have taken and edited in photoshop to look like HDRs. To do this I adjusted the levels and curves to change the lighting, giving it more depth and contrast much like an HDR. I also adjusted the exposure composition, viberance and saturation to bring out the colour and depth of tone.

The one main difference I notice when comparing the real HDRs and the photos made to look like HDRs is the loss of detail in some areas - in this case mainly the sea. This is because the light reflecting off the sea is too bright causing some over exposure and loss of detail. You don't get this in the real HDRs because you have several exposures with different exposure values, covering a large tonal range.

Gustave Le Gray

Gustave was a French photographer born in 1820. He is most well known for his sea-scapes. At the time cameras were very basic, and were unable to capture the range of tones in both the sea and the sky in a single photo without some areas of over or under exposure. To create a photo with this range of tones he took one photo of the sky and then a seperate photo of the sea, and then montaged them together (combination printing. I used this technique digitally in photoshop which can be seen on my post from the 23rd September). He was the first person to use this technique. This allowed him to get the tones within the sky and the sea, in what appears as a single photo. This, at the time, made his photo's very unique and striking as no other photographer was able to photograph the same range of tones as La Gray. However, combination printing can be very tedious as you are trying to make two photos look like one, so there may be alot of trial and error before you come out with a photo you are pleased with. To make the two photos look like one Le Gray used dodging and burning techniques in the darkroom.