Greetings Fellow Artists,
As we approach this holiday season, again I would like to express my gratitude to each of you who have purchased Exposing Yourself. I am thankful for the opportunity to share my experience with you and hopefully enable you and empower you to produce quality digital images of your artwork. I am also thankful for artists who follow their dreams and passions to share their gifts with the world. Regardless of how big your own audience may be, the artistic gift is special and worthy to be shared with others.
From the text of my book as well as my email newsletters you should know by now I am all about simple functional processes. I will never declare that I am the ultimate authority on digital imaging so if you have a different approach I always welcome your input and feedback. You are welcome to reply to the email or post comments online at www.exposingyourself.net/cgi-bin/blog.pl. From there select the appropriate newsletter and submit a comment form.
Normally there is a reason why I do things the way I do. With this in mind I thought I would share some of my thoughts regarding the using of the Kodak Target Color Charts and Grayscale. During the days of 4x5 transparencies and other transparency and slide film formats it was a requisite practice of photographers performing copy work to include the color targets and grayscale in the image. This enabled the end user to have a standard for comparison as well as a guide to determine if the exposure setting was correct. This was especially necessary if the image was intended to be reproduced on a printing press whether the end use was for an advertisement, post card, catalog, or even a limited edition print run. While the image was in the pre-press process the image would be color corrected strictly based on the the color targets and grayscale. In other words the actual image was not being under as much scrutiny as the little blocks of color. The idea being if the color targets!
in the image are correct then in return when the image is printed using the combination of inks then the actual image should be correct. This idea is still valid and many photographers whether film or digital still practice this standard.
I stated in the text of my book that I do not use the color charts or grayscale during the photographic process. This is still true. While I have the color chart and grayscale, the main reason is my preference to completely fill the viewfinder with the actual painting being photographed. The image sensor on my camera is not very large so if I add the scales in the image it is taking away resolution that I could have in the native image file. In other words by loosing a little bit of resolution I am loosing a little bit in the pixel dimension of the image I am photographing. I realize this loss is minor but I will always choose to photograph the image with the highest pixel dimension I am capable of producing especially since my camera is a 6.3 megapixel camera. Once I photograph the image I prefer to approach the color correction and modification of the image of the painting as a whole and not tweak out single colors.
Like I said this is my own personal preference. If you implement the color charts and grayscale in the image I certainly respect the practice. In fact the use of the grayscale can be especially helpful when adjusting the levels of the image. If you include the grayscale in the image when you open it in Photoshop and select levels you can click the eyedropper tool for the highlight or white side and click the white box on the grayscale, then select the eyedropper for the black point and then click the black box on the grayscale. Performing these two settings alone should make the image appear reasonably correct on the monitor. You can also select the midpoint eyedropper and click on the mid-tone of the grayscale. This is a simple process and will yield fairly consistent results. I have seen times where it blows out the highlights but I think it all depends upon the individual image. This is one of the reasons I continue to adjust the levels manually but there is not a one cli!
ck fix for every image since every painting is different.
In closing I trust you continue to gain from the newsletters and I wish for you success and blessings through the holidays and upcoming new year. Thank you again and have a great day. |