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Image processing close to the classic darkroom concept?


StS

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Good evening,

 

I still haven't found my way in image processing, I have the feeling I'm tuned too much to the traditional darkroom process.

 

My question would be: which image processing program is in your view closest to wet processing on paper?

 

Curious in your views

 

Stefan

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You many not find this post to be responsive yet I think digital is sufficiently different from wet process that a search for a wet like digital process will be frustrating. Now you can see some superficial similarities for example in PS you can burn and dodge, you can spot and some applications will allow you to simulate development with different toning.

 

If I might recommend... that digital is more than just development... it includes file management, and printing or web based dissemination.

 

The problem with digital is that there are so many choices in applications and especially in PS with a huge variety of tools.

 

One needs at the beginning some basic tools and a logical flow that one has really mastered.

 

I use LightRoom for file management and basic development... including overall adjust ment of the image and then some corse local adjustments. Alas, LR is weak when it comes to handling noise reduction and so I drop into a third party tool (Nik dfine) for that task. For BW conversion I drop into the NIK silver effects application. For detailed adjustments I move into PS than beck to LR for printing or web dissemination.

 

This is my flow. On this forum there are people who are much better than I with PS and so they will make much heavier use of that application. Some here prefer Capture 1 for raw conversion. Still others go for Apple's Aperture. A few just go with free software like Picassa or the basic Apple package iphoto.

 

In short... there are so many approaches because there are many different needs. Pick one and go with it until you outgrow it... find a mentor, on-line or in print and learn to do it the way they do it... and then keep going.

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Thank you for your view. I wouldn't complain about lack of responsiveness after just one hour. :)

 

Maybe some more information - up to now, I used the C1, which came with the camera but have outgrown it and miss some basic tools like gamma correction now. I also would like to use the same programme and workflow for scanned 16bit Tiffs from negatives.

 

Speaking about dodging and burning - it would be nice to have the option to simulate a cutout on cardboard, which gives a soft changeover between the different exposure areas.

 

I never was happy with photoshop - to my taste it comes from the programming side rather than from the photographic side.

 

Don't get me wrong, the first time I used a computer was in the early 80s. I just seem to have developed different ways of working in both worlds...

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Good evening,

 

I still haven't found my way in image processing, I have the feeling I'm tuned too much to the traditional darkroom process.

 

My question would be: which image processing program is in your view closest to wet processing on paper?

 

Curious in your views

 

Stefan

 

Not one. They are totaly different. Even when using film then scanning.

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....

My question would be: which image processing program is in your view closest to wet processing on paper?

 

....

 

My humble vote goes to LightZone with its "Zone System" way of thinking and working. It certainly differs a lot from a wet darkroom (no hypo smell....:rolleyes:), but it does give me the feeling that most things I tried, and failed, to do in the darkroom is now within reach.

 

You can dl a demo for free, but like all serious software, there´s a learning curve involved. But then, the learning curve for the wet darkroom was more than a lifetime....

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Photoshop Lightroom and Nikon`s NX2 seem similar to darkroom.

 

basically the file is opened in the editing program, adjusted for brightness and contrast, then do localized burn/dodge, then resize and sharpen.

 

All the adobe products are intuitive after you learn some basics of how the program works.

 

You will have some additional controls such as curves and color saturation that you did not have in the darkroom except by changing papers.

 

Photoshop Elements has the basic items that full photoshop or CS4 has and is a very good starter. All have icons you need to learn and how to apply, but that is just practice.

Start with the basics and branch out as required in the future.

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it would be nice to have the option to simulate a cutout on cardboard

Use masks and layers in Photoshop, google is your friend.

 

Here you can find a lot of interesting tutorials about post processing.

This one should get you a good start.

 

Photoshop or traditional darkroom, the tools are different but you can still think almost

the same way to achieve what you want, and the main tools don't change : your eyes, your brain and your heart.

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Another thought.

 

I have recently added the WACOM Tablet to my "digital darkroom". In combination with PS you use a pen to make very detailed corrections to parts of the image. I have been really surprised at the control you have and the "painterly" feel to the process... very non-digital.

 

Its something to think about.

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........ which image processing program is in your view closest to wet processing on paper?

 

Stefan - It seems a simple question, but the more I think of it the harder it is to answer. The reason being that digital file mastering can draw on a vastly subtler and larger palette of tools and effects than the darkroom printer has at their disposal.

 

If anything is a must; it's Photoshop. You can start working Photoshop simply building on your interpretive skills as a darkroom printer and enjoying doing what you could not do with an image when darkroom printing. Learning to play with Photoshop might also be a must; make interpretations you have no intention of keeping, and a working method will soon find itself.

 

My suggestion is; shoot RAW + Jpeg, learn the art of RAW processing as a separate [mostly] skill to post production, and play, play, play with duplicate versions of the Jpegs in Photoshop and be prepared to save nothing until your skills are tuned. And think yourself fortunate you are not breathing the noxious darkroom smells which I seemed to live in for far too many years as a darkroom printer.

 

If I have answered a question you didn't ask; my apologies.

 

.......... Chris

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