Manipulation in photography 3

21/04/07

Possibly the biggest influence we can have on an image is at the processing & printing stage. The physical act of capturing an image as shown in the last article is identical for both film and digital users (apart from film choice obviously!) but it is now at the processing and printing stage that the two methods split into different ways of working, although some film terminology has passed over into the digital environment.

1. Film choice.

With film cameras the photographer has a huge choice of emulsions on the market to choose from - each with its own distinctive character and colour gamut (range):

Fuji Velvia - The landscape photographers film of choice. Very contrasty and saturated with extremely fine grain. It will make even the most miserable day come alive with colour. Although it can be a bit over the top if used on an already strong sunset!

Fuji Provia - More realistic colours but still with high contrast. Great for subjects that are already colourful but need a contrast boost, for example fashion and glamour.

Fuji Astia - Natural colours and soft contrast - for those ultra strong sunsets! Best for portraiture etc.

Fuji NPS160 - The standard for wedding photography. Beautiful rendition of skin tones. Very easy film to print from. Gives uniformity in colour and contrast which makes it ideal for large volume printing of weddings etc.

These are the films I have personal experience with. There are many other films by manufacturers such as Agfa, Kodak, Imation and Konica to name but a few, each with their own characteristics.
As you can see, film users have a massive choice in the way they control the colour and contrast of their image, even before processing and printing. Digital users have no such choice - the sensor in the camera is set, and can not be removed.

The advantage digital photographers do have however, is that they can process their image as many times as they like, each time with different results.

2. Choice of developer.

Once the image has been exposed it is 'latent', and needs chemical (in the case of film) or software (in the case of digital) manipulation before it can be seen. The choice of processing chemicals can have a dramatic effect on the film with the brand of chemicals, the temperature and the time of development all having an impact on the final result. All of these can be controlled to give the desired effect - be it stronger colours and contrast or more acutance (sharpness) in the negative.

With digital, the 'developer' of the latent image is the software package in use, for example Adobe Camera Raw, Capture One or Rawshooter - each again having its own characteristics. (in digital photography the most useful mode for capturing an image is RAW, and I will look at this in a future article.)

3. The printing stage.

Finally and most importantly is the printing stage. The vast majority of film images will need further manipulation to tease out detail that is in the shadow and highlight areas of the negative. Paper choice can be as important as film choice here, with different papers having varying colour and contrast attributes. Further help can be provided with dodging and burning techniques - a way of controlling contrast in localised areas of the print which involves masking parts of the print with the hands or bits of card so that some parts of the photograph receive more exposure than others. Digital print makers have similar tools, although a graphics tablet and mouse are used instead of bits of card! Again with digital photography the choice of different papers and inks will give different results for the same image - depending on the effect that is trying to be achieved.

4. Summary.

As you can see from the last few pages, there are a huge range of variables that have an impact on how the resulting photograph can look, in both the film and digital arenas - including all formats from 5 x 4 inch large format to a 2 megapixel digital compact camera. The most important point is being completely aware of these manipulations and taking full control of them - from image capture through to processing and printing - it is these techniques and manipulations that I have learnt during my 10 years as a professional darkroom hand-printer and which I now employ in my own work.

...And I hope I can convey to the viewer of my photography some small sense of the wonder and enjoyment I experienced when taking the image.