How to or if I should photoshop this image?

W

wlewisiii

Guest
My little guy actually took a nap today (will wonders never cease??? :bang: :D ) so I had to make a try with the Speed Graphic. The light from the window told me f5.6@1/60th, so I did one a f4.7@1/50th and one at f5.6@1/50th. The negs seemed really thin, but I was pleasantly surprised when I scanned them. However, now I'm stumped about processing them.

I've played with them, for lack of a better word, a bit but I'm not happy with them. If anyone has some ideas of how to proceed, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

William
 
Nice light!
I would keep the vertical shop, crop the top until just under the window joist and take a little from the right side.
Too bad it is al sittle front-focussed.

cheers, Rob.
 
Like this one?

Yeah, the focus kinda bummed me. I thought I had the RF adjusted correctly, but it would appear that DOF was covering up more than I realized (I do a lot with this camera at f22 and even f32. There's a fair bit of DOF to save a photographer that isn't there at f5.6... :bang:)

Love the learning though :D

William
 
Hi William... I agree with Rob about crop and the front-focusing; it's that dark knit cover that's most in focus. There's also a "Newton's Rings" interference pattern in the vertical shot, probably caused by the film touching the glass surface of the scanner. This is centered on the near edge-trim of the couch cushion this side of his head.

I cropped a little, spotted some of the dust spots, and in the Levels histogram dumped a bit of data at both ends, pulling each in about 10, thus also boosting contrast a bit. Oh, and I sharpened the edges a bit too. If you'd prefer I didn't repost the edited shots, let me know and I'll remove 'em. :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the mods. I appreciate the edited shots as I find that it helps me to learn what to do in Photoshop. I hadn't noticed the newton's rings - probably paying too much attention to the other issues I was having. I had adjusted the levels, but I did wonder if I'd pulled them in enough. It's good to be able to see the difference.

They are hardly perfect, but I'd rather have tried to make a shot than kick myself later for not even trying it.

Going to have to get out and find a nice infinity target tomorrow and futz with that RF again.

Thanks again,

William
 
Photoshop mystifies me. I sit here looking and looking and just can't get the hang of it. Maybe it is because I only am using Elements 2 and it can't do what I am looking for. But I just don't speak it's language. I am actually going to have to take a class to learn how to use it.

That is a very nice moody photo William.
 
Here's my attemp...

Slight resize and crop
Cloned out dust spots
Cloned out the view outside the window, I thought it was insignificant yet distracting
Bumped up the levels a tad, tweaked the contrast a little
As the focus was soft overall, I softened up the edges to give it a classic soft focused look.

It's a 3 minute job, don't expect too much.

Ralph, I use Elements too, can't be that hard if a computer retard like me can use it.
 
Interesting Terence. I'll have to learn how to play with "clone" that's certain. I appreciate the take on the image - thank you!

William
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Although this will probably look too dark on a pc, my contribution is to use the blur tool to blur the sharp focus on the comforter. I think this helps with the dreamy mood of the photo. I also cropped the distracting scene outside the window.
 
Nick, I just noticed your contribution. Thank you, looks like I need to learn that tool as well.

I appreciate the time all of you took on this question of mine. Thanks again to all of you.

William
 
This type of image calls for the use of a 35mm RF camera in my opinion. Nothing gained using a 4x5 over 35mm for this shot. No?

The advantage of 4x5 is finer detail and greater clarity, which is not utilized here.
 
Frank,

As far as it goes, I agree with you. However, my purpose is also to learn the camera. I've been using 35mm cameras for about 20 years and this camera for about 2 months. I want to know what happens when I push the lens to it's limits and where my own limits with it are.
I do tend to use the camera more like the press camera that it is rather than as an ersatz view camera. Eventually I'll get a camera with full movements to complement it.

In the end, I handheld a 4x5 wide open and fairly slow and didn't get as good an image as I'd hoped to. OTOH, it's the kind of image Momma likes to see, so it's worth my time to learn more about Photoshop with it as well.

Hope that makes some sense.

William
 
Sure. You're learning the camera. To realize the full potential of the 4x5 neg, you'll need higher speeds, and a tripod helps immensly. I've got a 4x5 Speed Graphic myself that I like to use for landscape, where the extra detail is useful.

BTW, do you know about the Grafmatic film holders that hold 6 sheets of film?
 
Agreed. I've been using the tripod much more with this camera and using makeshift support when necessary as well. It's much more necessary with this camera... :)

As for Grafmatics, I keep getting outbid. They're going for $60+ for beaters these days. But I keep watching ebay for them and sooner or later I'll get myself a couple of them. I'd like to have three eventually - 100 BW, 400 BW & Color as they would take up about the same amount of room as my 6 holders in my small shoulder bag.

William
 
Nice joe. One of my running questions with it has been just how far down to bring the top crop, so it's nice to see what it looks like that far down.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

William
 
Here's another attempt

Here's another attempt

Selective sharpening with a bit of dodging and burning. Also a little retouching on the newton rings.
 
That looks like flare on the lower-left side of the vertical shot, and it makes sense given the strong backlight. But why doesn't it appear also on the horiz. shot?
 
I'm not sure why, Doug. They were both actually shot horizontal and right after each other. I made the mistake of hurrying because I wasn't sure how long he'd be asleep (I didn't need to worry, it turned out). One of the things that prompted the original vertical crop was an attempt to cut out the flare, but I didn't like the composition if I came far enough over to get rid of it.

Got my VII to VIII adaptor today so I now have a nice old Tiffen Series VIII lens hood for it now though, so hopefully that will help.

William
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom