decay # 42 ~ vision / craft / on seeing
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 11:19AM 
Moldy pineapple and saran-wrapped sweet potato ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIn yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 888, the idea of answering questions about specific pictures was introduced (again). That notion was advanced in light of the fact that answering questions about my general picturing making MO - both picturing and processing - would be difficult at best. However, there are a few thoughts to share relative to my general approach to picturing and processing.
1. I always picture in RAW format. Simply put, RAW provides the conscientious picture maker with the most information laden image file possible, to include dynamic range and color depth.
2. When picturing under "normal" conditions, I almost always use 1-stop ISO bracketing. This technique creates 3 files of the subject that cover a 3-stop range - ideally, 1-stop under, normal, and 1-stop over image files. This technique allows for a relatively simple cut-and-paste processing procedure that can "correct" or give images more shadow and/or highlight detail (if needed or desired).
3. When processing RAW files and the subsequent conversions in PhotoShop, I always aim to produce a file with the most realistic / natural / "clean" color and tonal range as possible. This often requires a fair amount of selective corrections / adjustments which means that I will select (isolate) specific colors and/or tonal range segments (highlights, shadows, midtones) and make independent corrections /adjustments to those areas of a picture - as opposed to making global/overall corrections / adjustments to the image file.
4. When processing RAW files and the subsequent conversions in PhotoShop, the single most important tool is Curves, used in conjunction with the Info Palette. If one is serious about good color and tonal corrections / adjustments, understanding the use of Curves is absolutely mandatory. There is no substitute.
The use of any color/contrast tool that employs sliders - Levels, Color Balance, Brightness/Contrast, Shadow/Highlight, et al - is strictly amateur night at the circus. Using sliders is like using a sledge hammer as opposed to a surgeon's laser scalpel, aka: Curves. The only slider-based tool I use is the Hue/Saturation palette and, FYI, I use H/S almost exclusively to desaturate selective color(s) as opposed to saturating them.
All of that said, virtually every one of my pictures you view here on this blog was made using some or all of the aforementioned techniques (+/- a few others). However, no 2 pictures are pictured / processed exactly alike. Each and every picture requires its own specific application of technique(s). There is no formula.
The only overarching canon / dictate employed in the making of my pictures is that which is specific to my eye and sensibilities. And those dictates are the result of decades of experience in the making of color pictures.
FYI, the decay picture above was made using all of the aforementioned tools / techniques. As always, they were employed to create an as-true-to-the-real representation of the subject as the medium and its apparatus will allow because in truth is beauty.
Reader Comments (11)
Thanks for sharing this Mark. Can you recommend resources for learning curves at a very advanced level? I use curves a lot to control contrast, but I would like to expand my use of curves to control/correct tone and color.
Thanks.
Wow - as well as the creative side of seeing, there's a lot of craft going into each of your images.
Would a pro level SLR or medium format camera give you the level of DR and colour accuracy you seek, with one exposure? You appear to have developed a methodology for making a lesser camera punch above it's weight in terms of image quality.
Point 2 implies you use a tripod for most images? Could you take one RAW file and produce 3 x 1-stop bracketed exposures, or is it not good enough?
FYI, I simply use a Canon S95 hand-held. I shoot RAW and do a modest level of PS including Curves for tone and colour adjustments. My image quality is good* but doesn't have the "X factor" your images have (now I know why).
I think I've asked this before, but can you present the refinement of a single image, from out-of-the-camera thru the editing stage to the final picture. Each picture could have an explanation of the adjustments made -- not so much the 'how' but the 'what' and 'why'.
* When friends and acquaintances first see me wielding the point-and-shoot they often say "You didn't bring the big camera today?". They've seen some of my pictures and don't believe a point-and-shoot [used with care + attention] can yield a good image,
@ Mark -- have you looked at "Digital Restoration from start to finish" by Ctein. The author (Ctein pronounced "Kuh-tine") makes extensive and imaginative use of Curves. You could spend a year studying that book!
Sven, if I may, I shoot with an Olympus E-P2 and ISO bracketing can be set up in a custom menu using the Function button so with this camera at least, one push on the function button and shutter together and you get three files from that one shot, no tripod needed. Magic.
Mark, thanks very much for this post. Somehow I get the feeling you don't like the direction this is taking, but I can say that is very helpful to me (and apparently others).
I have been shooting only RAW over the last year or so (S90 and XSi) but I have avoided curves. I love Lightroom (slider heaven) and find it easy to pump-up my photos with only occasional side trips to Photoshop, but the end result is not always satisfying, and certainly not in the same league as your images.
So avoiding sliders, adding dynamic range with bracketed exposures, and effective masking and layering are the key attributes of your workflow (I am sure this simplification is irritating you).
Sven, I looked at "Digital Restoration from start to finish" by Ctein on Amazon and it looks quite good. There is another book that seems to focus on curves and adjustments titled "Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition)" by Margulis that looks really good. Have you seen that book?
Mark, thanks again for the information and inspiration. By the way, on average how much time at the computer for the images you post here?
The Ctein book is great but it really focuses on restoration.
The steps outlined by Mark particularly 2,3,& 4 imply the use masks in combination with the particular adjustment. The use of ISO bracketing sound terrific as a way of widening the dynamic range.
I sure you "picturing" folk, are getting a lot of information about picturing from this post. That's great. BUT.... I'm more curious as to why there is poop on a plate.
Mark, I'm trying to understand your ISO bracketing. Do you mean that the camera takes 3 different exposures sequentially at different ISO settings (like for instance shutter speed bracketing where you have physically 3 exposures at different shutter speed). Or is there only ONE exposure and the camera is generating 3 seperate RAW files from the single exposure? Do you press the shutter 3 times or 1?
@Mike C: Thanks for reminding me. The S95 has exposure bracketing: 3 images, up to 2 stops apart, by varying shutter speed (exp. comp). It's slow - nearly 1 second between exposures! To try it out, I took a triple exposure, hand-held. Rather than manually blend the images (which Mark does) I tried another unfamilar technique: HDR in PS. This worked well (I did a Curves adjustment etc)... people must go out of their way to create the "Frankenstein" HDR images you usually see. I then went back the original normal exposure image and edited it the way I normally would for a high DR image. Then I compared the edited HDR vs my edited single exposure...
Overall the HDR image looked better -- more natural tones, better colour and less noise. However the leaves of a tree (10% of image) moved between takes, which created some ghosting and some "brown outs" in the HDR image. This is to be expected, but I could fix this by taking the leaves solely from the normal exposure. Interesting exercise.
@John Linn: I've seen a few references to Dan Margulis ... seems very technical. Is he a photographer or printer by trade?
My general PS book is by Martin Evening; he's a commercial photog (fashion) + PS guru.
@Dennis: The Ctein book has a chapter on editing software, a chapter on tonal corrections, a chapter on colour corrections and a chapter on masking. The author makes sophisticated use of various editing tools in the context of image restoration, but the knowledge gained on using the tools can be applied in other contexts.
BTW, I've seen Katrin Eisman's name a few times in reference to masking and compositing.
I know, I just checked my copy and found all this great information on scanning, sharpening plug-ins, and local contrast adjustment plug-ins, too.