Photobook with Platinum look

[Richard K]

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I would like to produce a Photobook, using matte paper, that would simulate the look of a platinum print. Starting from a digital file, not a photo of a Pt print. Has anyone tried this? Advice?

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Hallo,

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[roydonian]

There used to be a company called Digital Film Tools which made a Photoshop addon called Film Stocks 2. Its list of historical emulsion emulations included platinum. That company has been absorbed by Boris FX, but I don't know if a modern version of Film Stocks is being offered.

[250swb]

If you use Silver Efex you can get very close to the tone of platinum but the tone itself is not a standard and varies a lot so you'd have to decide for yourself the final look. But in Silver Efex you could start with a preset, maybe 'Antique' and then play with the split tone sliders to achieve the colour of the shadows and highlights. In addition you can adjust the tone representing the photographic paper (the areas that would represent the highlights) by increasing or decreasing the amount of colour present. So in a platinum print the sky and clouds could be typically a warm tone and you can dial the amount of tone/colour up or down independant of the mid tones and blacks. It's all very straightforward when you start playing, but what you'd need is to Google some favourite platinum images for reference as you work. Once you get a look you like it can be saved as a preset although different source images will respond in varying ways to the preset so you'll often need to tweak the settings. In addition within Silver Efex you can adjust the blacks to be lighter than in conventional prints to replicate the slightly faded platinum look although this will need to be tested against the paper you choose to print on as it may absorb more black ink if it's matt.