Tag Archives: Printing

Dodging and Burning – An essential skill and a new ebook to help learn the basics…..

Many of us “old timers” got our start with film cameras and darkroom work with chemicals and all kind of trial and error methods to bring out the details in our photos like dodging and burning. I remember having all kinds of funny shaped cardboard pieces on little pieces of wire and cardboard with cut outs and sometimes just using your hand to help bring out details in a print. In newer terminology to bring the full dynamic range to view on a nice print. Today, of course, we can use computers, so instead of throwing away trial prints we can edit and experiment. Especially with tools like Lightroom, the changes are all parametric and we can always go back and re-edit. You can still do that with Photoshop but it takes a little more effort. Now we use pen tablets and a mouse to apply and change the areas, to make the highlights and shadows as we remember the scene or how we want it to look. All of us go through various learning curves and it is always useful to learn new techniques, so that brings us to the subject of this post. Here is a new ebook, available from the fine people at Craft and Vision. This new ebook is quite a package, it includes an ebook on Dodging and Burning, including lots of examples, but it also includes some Actions for Photoshop and a custom Panel for interacting with the Actions. The sample images discussed in the book are included so that you can follow along exactly with each step. These are set up for Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6, while they will work with earlier versions these are recommend because of the improvements that were implemented with the new Image Process in Camera Raw. Trial versions are available for download from Adobe. In case you are wondering about cost, the normal cost for this fine package is $10, however if you use the code “DODGE8” during checkout, it will only be $8. This is only for a limited time, so go and get the Dodge&Burn ebook through this link and use the code before midnight on July 22, 2012. The Craft and Vision book store also has a package deal, for the same limited time, in which you can get 20% off 5+ ebooks from the site, the code is “DODGE20”.  All of the books are worthwhile, however I recommend in addition to the Dodge&Burn, ebook to take a look at Up Close, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, Making the Print, and the Power of Black and White. There are many others that are excellent but those will give you some great information.

So be sure to check out the ebook, and learn how to Dodge and Burn effectively, bring up those shadows and modify the highlights to match your initial vision when you took the picture.  This is an art that does take practice and there is certainly many ways to accomplish the same effects but this book will give you a great start and some insight into improving your images. Not only are the traditional type of modifications discussed but also uses of sharpening, and tonal effects to add some depth to your vision. How to effectively do it in a non-destructive fashion in photoshop, but also how to use some of the tools from Nik Software as a way of making it more efficient.

 

Learning to Print……

Almost every photographer I know at some point wants to make some prints of their work. There are lots of options, you could buy an inexpensive printer and print yourself. You could also buy a more professional wide format printer and get as sophisticated as you would like, or you could use outside printing resources.  By outside printing sources, I mean uploading or taking a file and getting it printed. There are many online places and also Costco and other warehouse stores. There is also the local photo printing store, although those are becoming fewer and fewer.  A lot of choices, but it really depends on the desired results. Does the final quality of the print matter a great deal or just a little? What sizes and types do you want to make and this is just for starters. So where do you go to learn how to make a print? There are lots of references on the internet, some great, some not so good with outdated information. I know I went through this when I decided I wanted to get a quality printer. I went to a lot of sites and asked a lot of questions, and I finally settled on an Epson 4880 printer. Epson has come out with newer models since then but I love using my printer and the output is really great, much better than I had been getting using an outside printing source. The best prints come from a sound techniques and knowledge of how to control the process. So how do you get this knowledge?  I found two sources that really cover the material needed. Both are very new and I wish I had them when I was first going down this path.

For a really good introduction and to cover a lot of useful ground, there is a new ebook from the Craft and Vision people, called Making the Print by Martin Bailey. (If you use the code “PRINT4”  before midnight on the 21st of January 2012, you can get it for $4 instead of the normal $5, or save 20% on 5+ pdf using the code “PRINT20”.) This ebook may be low cost but it is packed with lots of useful information. Enough information to make you decide whether or not you want to pursue printing on your own, and it will also give you enough information to use an external printing resource with a color managed output. This little ebook covers all the basics from types of paper, to color management and printing. There is also a chapter on doing gallery wraps on canvas. While the ebook is not intended as an in-depth tutorial it will give you enough information to get started and perhaps enough to do just want you want to do. Like anything in life you can make this as complex or as simple as you like but what matters is the end result.

If you want to get more in depth discussions and you like learning by watching videos than this next item is for you. This is a video tutorial covering everything from capture to printing to displaying on screen. It is about 12.5 hours long and is broken up into chapters. This video tutorial goes into greater depth than the ebook but also costs more. The video features Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe, both very accomplished photographers with a tremendous amount of knowledge. It is available for purchase and download from the Luminous Landscape web site and is called Camera to Print and Screen. Production quality and the information is top notch. This was only recently made available and even though I have done a lot of research I still learned a lot from watching these video tutorials.

Both of these are very useful resources and will help to steer anyone interested in printing their own pictures down the correct path to yielding great prints. They are certainly not the only reference but I find both of them to very useful and will really streamline the learning curve.