Digital BW, The Print

--- In 
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "yaakovsinclair" 
<sinclair@a...> wrote:
> I have just got into digital having been photographing and 
printing 
> in BandW for many years.  I'm finding it difficult to burn edges 
of 
> the print easily in photoshop.  Would much appreciate some help!
> Also how do you do a nice graduated sky burn behind some trees in 
> photoshop?  Very much appreciated.

One way to do it is with the 'quick mask' function, and a graduated 
adjustement layer:
a)Go into 'quick mask' mode (press 'Q'} 
b)click on the 'grad' tool' and choose either a srtaight grad or a 
circular grad. A little experimentation with the set points in the 
grad adjustment box will give you and appropriate fade rtae for your 
subject.
 When you click and drag your grad tool across, you will get a red 
mask-colored grad; it allows you to see placement and fall-off. If 
it's not right, undo & redo it as needed.
When it looks right, leave quick-mask, and you will have a grad 
selection on your image; you may have to invert the selection area 
depending on your fore-background setting when you made the grad. 
Now put the selection on a curves adjustment layer, and adjust 
away...

As for burning in the sky behind a tree-line; I always found that 
hard to get just right in the darkroom; it sometimes took many tries 
to get a burn near the horizon without showing either a bright halo 
above or a dark halo below. If you do a straight grad adjustment 
layer (by any method) you still have essentially the same problem. 
You need to select out the sky first, make it a separate layer, and 
then apply a grad burn to it. How to best select it is a 
whole'nother subject; there are a number of ways to go about it, 
including the magic wand, 'select by color range' the Bkgrnd 
extraction tool, and third-party tools like Mask-Pro 3 or Knock-out. 
None are perfect, but once you get the basic selection, you can go 
into 'quick mask' and refine it before applying it. 

Best luck;

Steve Karafyllakis

http://www.stevekphoto.com