Daniel Buck
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Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off
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Jman13 wrote:
Daniel...I have to say, I'm always impressed by the look and feel of your photos. Do you do digital manipulation of your film scans, or is this darkroom work (I'm referring to the contrast / tonality of the images more than any bokeh / sharpness effects, which I'm sure are all based on the lens and film)? If it's digital, care to share any of your workflow?
When I'm shooting and developing the film, I usually overexpose (or rather, expose so that my shadows get adequate values, which may not actually be over exposing), and then I under develop a bit, so that I have alot of shadow detail. This may not be necessary, but I'm in the habit of doing it. I scan the film flat, to keep as much shadow and highlight detail as is available.
For probably 80-90% of my photos all I usually do is one curves layer to give the contrast that I want. on remaining 10-20% of the photos I'll do some gradients as a mask for another curves layer or two, and some soft painted masks for further local contrast enhancements. I don't really like using the dodge and burn tool, because it's difficult to go back and undo or tweak those adjustments. So I've fallen into the workflow of using curves layers with masks whenever I need contrast changes local to one area of the photo. I'm glad you like them!  I usually make 8x10 prints when I'm finished with the photos. I just save the print-ready file into a folder, and then once every month or two I send those files off to be printed.
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. Regardless of the lens, it seems to me like if you include highlight points in the background, the bokeh gets busier and it doesn't appear buttery smooth anymore. This is more noticeable in outdoor shots; is that me or do others notice that?
