Digital BW, The Print

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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>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...

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

I doubt that there is such a plug-in; but you don't need one because Photoshop "adjustment layer curves" allow easy application of varying contrast and densities, with more flexibility than in a darkroom and, with a calibrated monitor and an appropriate printer profile, you can see the result on your monitor without having to print. If you want these curve adjustment to apply to parts of your image, you make the appropriate "selection" which masks out the rest of the image. But to use this facilities in Photoshoop, I suggest that you forget about how you work with the enlarger, and learn how to work in Photoshop. But learning to use Photoshop effectively and efficiently requires a good deal of effort: no pain, no gain.

To learn Photoshop, I recommend two books: _Real_World_Photoshop_ by Blatner and Fraser and _Photoshop_Artistry_ by Haynes and Crumpler. The latter has tutorials but _Real_World_Photoshop_ is a better refernce book.

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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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

on 3/29/02 8:40 PM, S. Colson wrote:

> 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?

snip

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

I recommend you start learning to think in digital terms because they are
more precise and therefor powerful than what we know from photography, even
the Zone System. Meaning try not to limit yourself by what you already know.

Download the Digizone chart to familiarize yourself with how digital values
relate to the Zone System:

www.riecks.com/digitalinfo.html

For grayscale work percentages (0-100%) are the values more commonly used,
while for RGB "pixel count" (0-255) are more common. However, you can set
your info pallet to show either or both measurement in either mode.

With curves you will have more tone control than 100 variable contrast
filters, and layer masks will give you shapes and control you couldn't get
with 100 hands and dodge tools. ;-)

Todd