Digital BW, The Print

Alas! We were all Photoshop neophytes at one time. I find that the
darkroom analogy (for those of us who came from silver printing) works.
Three basics to get you started (these are all based on my personal
biases; I don't mean to start a thread about what I consider important;
please chime in with you own)
1.	Avoid (remember, personal bias) Brightness/contrast. This is a
linear control which will lighten/darken all pixels uniformly (i.e. it
will add/subtract the same value to each). The problem here is that once
the darks get to 0 or the light values get to 255, detail is lost)
2.	If you are familiar with gamma charts for film processing, the
Curves control should be very familiar, except, unlike film, you can
easily change gamma or density for any value in the image. Levels will
also work well for lighten/darken/contrast adjustments
3.	When you use levels or curves for these adjustments, you will
also have a layer mask (look it up if uncertain) attached. Painting on
this layer mask will allow you to paint with white,black or gray to
selectively control specific areas. Beats the hell out of burning and
dodging.
4.	Ok. 4 things. Buy some good books (Deke's Photoshop Bible, The
Photoshop Shop Manual, Real Worl PS and Katrin Eismann's book)
 
Stan Shire
Associate Professor/Department Chair
Photographic Imaging
Community College of Philadelphia
Adobe Photoshop 6 A.C.E.
 
215 751-8320
 <mailto:sshire@...> sshire@...
-----Original Message-----
From: S. Colson [mailto:merkur86@...] 
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 7:40 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Naive Photoshop Plug-in Question?
 
Folks,

I am somewhat new to Photoshop but not totally.  

Question: Does anyone make/sell a plug-in for Photoshop that acts like a
"Variable Contrast" B&W enlarger head?

Why doesn't someone make a plug-in that makes it easy to punch in
varying
contrasts and densities?   I am used to printing with Ilford VC heads on
4x5 and 8x10 enlargers.

It would also be nice if one could easily increase and decrease contrast
and density selectively in different areas of a B&W print.

Sorry, but it is easier for me to think and work in these terms.

Stan in Pugetopia 


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