[LargeFormat] Photoshop plug ins

[tripspud]

Hi Richard,

     Thanks, I just remembered that I heard Karsh lecture
at the George Eastman House when I was a photo
student at RIT.  I can't remember a single thing
he said at the moment, but I recall him being
rather humorous about his work.

Cheers,

Rich Lahrson
Berkeley, California
tripspud@transbay.net

Richard Knoppow wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brock Nanson" <brock@nanson.org>
> To: <largeformat@f32.net>
> Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 7:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] Photoshop plug ins
>
> > I understand what you mean... it's a very difficult
> quality to put into
> > words.  Two thoughts.
> >
> > What would happen if it was photographed in very flat
> light, then
> > 'sharpened' the original way, with an unsharp mask (film
> type, not the
> > Photoshop kind!).  That would define the hard edges a
> little more but not
> > change the surface texture too much (?)
> >
> > The second though relates to the color temperature of the
> light and the
> > response curve of the film to color.  When I look at old
> photographs (Karsh
> > is a perfect example) I swear I can tell if they were shot
> with tungsten
> > light or modern xeon flash.  To me the tungsten source
> just makes the skin
> > look grittier than can be obtained with modern flashes.  I
> don't know if I
> > could prove this or not... it just seems that way to me.
> But again, the
> > film at the time would have an impact on this look - I
> doubt it would have
> > responded just like the films of today.
> >
> > If you figure this one out, please let us know!
> >
> > Brock
> >
>   Be careful about Karsh. I am pretty sure he shot most of
> his male portraits with ortho film expressly because it
> gives that "gritty" look. Women are best photographed using
> pan film and tungsten light, which tends to suppress skin
> blemishes. Of course, women are often photographed wearing
> makup, so that is another difficulty in guessing at
> techniques.
>   Strobe units became widely available in about the mid
> 1950's although they were certainly made earlier. About the
> first commercial units were made by Kodak under Edgerton
> patents in the mid 1940's as Kodatron lamps. These were big
> studio units which went off like a pistol when flashed. Too
> big to carry around. Portable strobe flash shows up around
> 1950.
>   The use of unsharp masking or sharpening, in Photoshop or
> other image editors, is not quite like the effect of ortho
> film. The characteristic curve of the film also has an
> effect. Long toe films, like the current Tri-X sheet film,
> were long used for certain types of portrait work because
> they tend to exagerate highlight contrast. I have no idea of
> what film Karsh used but Kodak, Ansco, and Defender, all
> made suitable film at the time. I think the only normal
> contrast ortho film on the market now is made by Ilford.
>
> _______________________________________________
> LargeFormat mailing list
> LargeFormat@f32.net
> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/largeformat