The Digital Kitchen

Art Scan Affair

2010-02-11T13:49:00.006-05:00

In the lab two scanners sit. The deep dark and hauntingly powerful Nikon LS-4000 slide scanner. Oh yes her moniker may not woo you but her powers draw you in like an enchanted mirror. Chat rooms speak knowingly of her sensuous D-Max but warn of the need for gentle mouse work, eep. Her nemesis and kin in our lab, the Epson Flatbed, V700. A dual lensed spitfire waiting to take her best shot at anything we throw her way. "Send me your large format sheets of acetate, your great aunt's immigration photos waiting to be set free, I'll take your chromes and deliver them tonal values made outta the right stuff". I love them both and yes I do feel a little bit dirty.

Mary Ottaway, a member of The Center for Photography from which I write, needed guidance as she wished to enter the dance of replication with my two scanners. Mary brought forth delicate water colors that sit in your hand as moments of perfection occasionally experienced here in the Catskill Mountains. Mary had postcards made for her before but now she wanted to gain more control over how the colors of her creations would be captured. The Epson purred with content knowing that she was chosen ahead of the Nikon. I preen my Epson with home made profiles created just for her with my Xrite i1 profiling system. I polish her glass with cleaning cloths made from albino yak fur collected by hand on the southwest slopes of the Himalaya. "My Venus, you are beautiful, no lint and no streaks shall defile your glass", I whisper to my V700. I sense Mary is slightly uncomfortable with my ritual, we shall scan.

Mary's watercolors are painted on what seems to be a very toothy paper. They range in size from 5"X7" to 9"x12". She doesn't want resize them up or down so we leave the physical size settings alone and set resolution at 300ppi. When scanning art I don't find I get anymore detail/digital information, using a higher resolution. If I am scanning slides or negatives I will use settings like 4000ppi. I know there are those of you out there who like scanning at higher resolutions, like so many Americans we are drawn to bigger is better. Do it, I say, if your hard drive has the space, we all have skeletons in our closets.

While I have profiled my d-max divas, whenever I capture art I like to use a gray card or a color chart. I scan or shoot the card next to the image I am capturing. Whether with a camera or a scanner, a color chart gives me neutral tonal values.

Uncorrected

Corrected

Later on in Photoshop I will take white and black point readings from the card in a curves adjustment layer. Since the colors on the card are neutral,(without color casts), I can have Photoshop correct the color shift by sampling on the swatches. By making the swatches shift back to neutral from whatever shift has occurred in the scanning PS makes everything in the picture realign to neutral. We do not like to mention the apparent shift in front of the scanners as they become quite surly when you question their color veracity. Love is color blind.
Looking at her lilliputian landscapes it was apparent that the eager Epson was feeling a bit blue. Much of the subtle colors in the sky seemed lost in a wash of blue. To look at the painting by itself it seems lovely. You can feel the icy blue sky. When comparing it to the original the blue shift was quite apparent. The correction was easily handled by Photoshop's own algorithms. Of course I could jump in antime and tweak the auto correction as I want. I would be gentle and not hurt my Venus' pride.

Obviously one's relationship with a scanner is a deeply personal connection. You must learn to understand it's intoxicating gyrations. Oh you might say I am a man bewitched, brought to heel at the whim of a fickle mistress, a fawning follower of sirens. If indeed you say this than you have thought it and if you have thought it, then you and I are not so different after all. For me, I dance the dance of replication.

If you're in town, come on down.

Noise in My Head

2010-01-20T16:08:00.004-05:00

Looking into the shadows I see only noise. It burns my eyes with apparitions of shape shifting hue specters that wish nothing more than to torment my printers. Digital demonic artifacts taunt my mind's desire for smooth tonal transitions. Don't we all want smooth tonal transitions? I felt a need to cast out this offending noise from both my head and from Jared Handelsman's image.

As we stared at our first test strip under the D50 lights of our GTI Color Viewing Station, Jared Handelsman, an artist whose earlier work in photograms can be felt in his current work using a Canon Rebel to capture the shadow play, and I stood transfixed like Quasimodo at the call to vespers. There it was all over the dense shadows of his undulating, sinuous studies of shadow and form; noise and artifacts. I finally had to look Jared in the eye and ask him the question we both feared and embraced. "What ISO did you shoot this with, oh mighty Jared?" The artist returned my accusing gaze with steely conviction, "1600 I think". Low light, long exposures and high ISO, a veritable breeding ground for shadow noise. As Jared un-apologetically stated, "I needed it to capture the light". These artists and their dam light, when I was his age we didn't need light. Shoulder to shoulder we strode into the clamorous fray.
Deep in Photoshop's filter bowels is the Noise Reduction Filter. Jared's pieces are nearly black and white with vague hints of colors seeming to come and go like the shadows themselves he captures. The noise was there and certainly converting the images to monochrome would heal them but Jared did not want to convert to straight B&W. I couldn't blame him, the colors in his image are seductive hints of light that may or may not be there. My problem was my printer, (Canon ipf 6100), and my paper profile, Museo Portfolio Rag. They were picking up every little blotch and blemish the color gods threw up in the image file. I needed to reduce the color noise but not the tint. In the Noise Filter dialog box are 4 sliders; Strength, Preserve Details, Reduce Color Noise and Sharpen Details. I wish I could tell you the golden ratio that will exorcise all color demons but each shooting situation can result in different intensities of noise. In this instance I set, Strength:2, Preserve Details:20, Reduce Color Noise:75 and Sharpen Details:50. I also checked Remove JPEG Artifact. We held hands, chanted, "By all that is sacred and profane I cast you out" and applied the filter. The raging in my eyes and in my head subsided. Glorious silence. We still held the wisps of color that inhabit Jared's images but the hellish hue hounds were heeled.

Now some of you may be looking at the images above and feel there is not much difference, well your just plain wrong. The image on the left screams, it rages, it is an affront to all that is holy. It's tinted taunts torture me.

I think I need to lie down.

If you're in town, come on down.

Showing off

2010-01-06T12:21:00.009-05:00

Forgive my shameless self promotion but my cookbook, Eat Fresh Food, has just been published by Bloomsbury Kids.

Eat Fresh Food

Over the last year or so I have been working on a collaboration with Award winning chef, Rozanne Gold, on a cookbook for teens. Shot on location in various family kitchens up and down the northeast.

I did not want the images to feel stiff or frozen so I shot as loose as possible, often allowing motion to come into my shots. When I absolutely had to add a bit more light I would supplement with either Canon 580EX speedlites or my M1000wi Dynalite kit. My main goal was trying to capture the spontaneity of the kids in the kitchen with a hint of chaos.

In prepping the images for output I chose to do the CMYK conversion myself. Here at CPW we print on Canon ipf printers that work with a 12 color Lucia ink set. The pigment inks are CMYK, RGB, light Cyan, light Magenta, Gray, photo Gray and a second black. When artists are printing here we print straight from RGB files. Most books and magazines print with only the CMYK colors. If you have ever had photos printed for publication they converted your files for you to a CMYK color space. I did this conversion in Photoshop. Unfortunately this conversion is not a simple one click change. CMYK is a smaller color space and you do see color shifts when converting. Being the masochist/control freak I am, I tweaked every image to ensure I saw the colors I wanted.

After all was said and done I learned: double dipping is not a sin, the 3 second rule is just a recommendation and there is no honor when there is one chocolate chip cookie left.

If you're in town, come on down.

Phil

A Day in the Life....

2009-12-17T16:01:00.006-05:00

I used to reminisce over the smell of vinegar much as Proust, I am sure, must have with his madeleines. The darkroom, speak it aloud and some photographers will mist over at thoughts of days and nights spent carousing by the malodorous communal fixer baths. Nasal bliss be damned, we were artists giving life to our creations in the sacred waters of sodium hyposulfate. It's pungent smells merging with the heady perfume of wetting agents and artistic perspiration. We'd laugh, we'd cry, we'd burn, we'd dodge. Never imagining our halcyon days would be relegated to blogs and midnight forum rants. I know I write heresy. I have crossed over. I am digital.

Yesterday was the lab at it's best. Two artists, crossed paths here. Margaret Cogswell, a Guggenheim Fellowship award winning multimedia installation artist, in the process of developing her next piece and David Frank , once a Michigan photojournalist, now printing landscapes that reveal his second career in graphic design.

I had done some minor work for Magaret's last piece, Hudson River Fugue at The Tang Museum.

Based on that work together she asked me to help her gain a deeper understanding of things CS4 and the like. She wants to become more comfortable with the digital medium as a place of artistic creation. Yesterday, as we started wading through the ancient techniques of selection I noticed that her mouse work was, shall we say, suspect. Now please understand, I have broken bread with Margaret and her husband, Terry, and I am privileged she would ask me to help with her newest piece, but watching her work the mouse was reminiscent of a 13 year old's attempt at unclasping a bra one handed. I guided her gently her to my little friend Wacom. A bit racy you say? What she really wants is to be able to intuit and flow in programs like Photoshop. The pen felt infinitely more natural to her. Let the lassoing begin.

As Margaret and I swam deeper into some of the more esoteric selecting methods available to her with her Wacom tablet and appropriate deep breathing techniques, David was walking by with bold 24"X38" archival prints that dripped pungent colors from the Museo paper he chose.

This was David's fifth time printing here and he is pretty much able to handle all aspects of our printing workflow. I had walked him through Canon's ipf printer export module for CS4 and we both felt quite pleased with Museo's own profile. He was printing work for exhibition and for resale. Talk turned to Margaret's desire to upgrade her video capture, David mentioned his own experimentation with some of the new DSLRs that also incorporate HD video capabilities. Canon's 5D Mark II is one of the cameras we offer students here at CPW and I have been quite impressed.

The exchange of ideas, and perspectives on digital creativity were heady. Indeed we laughed, we cried we sang Kumbaya. Now if only I can stop drinking vinaigrette.

If you're in town, come on down.

Hair Color Management

2009-12-01T16:44:00.008-05:00

The gods of color laugh at me. They taunt me with derisive comments that question my digital heritage. "You make color from numbers, you do not feel the color in your soul, you are the monkey in the spaceship!", ( I should point out the gods of color generally visit me at 2:14 in the morning after way too much Photoshop, Mallomars and espresso). Yes I admit it. I want to be the master of my digital domain! I want my aunt Enid's hair to pulsate it's purple-ness with pride on my Imac screen. I want the subtle tonal values of my current project; How Gray is Middle Gray or The 18% Solution, to leap from my Canon ipf5000. I want to be a digital work-flow DEMIGOD!

The first step in obtaining residency on this megapixel Mount Meru is controlling your digital system from start to finish. Another name for what we are talking about is color management. All the different parts of your system, (i.e., camera, monitor, printer, scanner, projector) speak a different language when describing a color. My aunt Enid's hued head may be recorded by my Canon 5d as purple #4, my monitor may call her colored coif purple #173 and my printer believes her luscious locks are actually lavender #23, (I personally don't believe her hair color exists in the natural world as we know it). In order to get her hair to be reproduced faithfully by each part of my workflow I need translators to help manage the conversation between these slightly antisocial players.

When you bring images from your camera to your computer, the computer's color management system handles the translating. Keep in mind the computer's list of translators is always increasing as you introduce new gear to your workflow. Every time you receive the dreaded "This file format don't mean squat!" from your rather surly application you need to find the newest software, (profiles and/or drivers), from the manufacture's site, download and install them. When your computer sends those glorious full sized shot's of Enid's tinted locks, unveiled at last year's Thanksgiving Dinner, to the monitor, translators are needed as well. This is where I start profiling my various devices with a color calibration system. While not quite alchemy, the creation of profiles is an art that takes patience, tools and an uncomfortable need to stare at color charts like a 12 year old looks at his mother's Victoria Secret catalog. Here at CPW we use Xrite's i1 system. This allows me to build my own translators, aka, profiles. Using both hardware and software I am able to take samples of colors from different points in my workflow, (monitor, paper, printer, etc.), measure them with my i1 and try to create profiles better than the manufacturers. I also create new ones because profiles can shift or forget the translations of certain colors. I use Xrite's top of the line profiling package here at CPW. In addition to hand holding artists as they print their work for their porfolio and exhibition needs, I print works for the Center's official archives. Our system is a serious commitment financially, however there are budget models that may not have the exact hardware we have, but they will give you the control you need.

With a color managed workflow I know that on my monitor I am indeed seeing Enid's vast visage with all of her eggplant eyebrow's hypnotizing undertones exactly as they are seen in nature, (or not seen in nature as in the case may be). When I print her plum-ness I am confident that if I am not satisfied with the results I see when I use the 'canned' profiles that came with the printer or paper manufacturers I can try and create profiles that are better. Enid deserves it.

If it sounds like a bit of work, you are right. All workflows would benefit from being calibrated to some extent . The level of calibration is up to you and your needs. I am forced to work under more Faustian circumstances, there are powers out there that have thrown down the color gauntlet and I must pick it up after I finish this Mallomar.

If you are in town, come on down.

Toys

2009-11-09T11:29:00.003-05:00

Last week Ariel Shanberg, friend and executive director of CPW, and I journeyed down river to the city to attend PDN's Photo Plus Expo. If you have never beheld the glory that is the Jacob Javits Center in full gladiatorial splendor you should start gathering your mental reserves for next year now. Like visitors to a sacred shrine, we, the creative, circle within the glass walls like pilgrims to a photographic Mecca.

So many things to want.

When I teach photography I extol the virtues of various ideologies; "its only a black box with a hole", "the art is in you, it is the camera in your mind that is most important" and "if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". I tell war stories of my first cameras, (rocks and Holgas), I channel Bob Ross with cryptic koans about bokeh. All of this goes out the window upon entering the vast halls of The 'SPO.

Leaping up the stairs toward the main hall, I dream of the possibility that this time I will be the 10,000th customer and I will receive that free Canon 1DS Mark III super deluxe professional photographer's kit. For now I will have be sated with the ubiquitous, (but free), swag bag displaying a logo that is seemingly larger than the bag itself. Somewhere within these Tolkien halls is the thing that I need. It will elevate my photography to that next level. I will learn that one Photoshop technique that all the pros know but keep secret like a Mason's handshake. After a few hours of searching, the reality of my economic situation rears it's ugly head. I did not win the kit, I did not find my grail and I am still not sure what layer comps are for. I ask Ariel if he found it. "No", he says, " but the guys from B&H told me where to get the good pastrami around here".

I will simply need to keep shooting with what I have. True, I don't really need a 600mm lens, yes - the 60" ipf9100 printer I lusted after would require Ariel to build me a new wing at CPW and I suppose the 10 foot beauty reflector I saw could not actually fit in my Dodge Neon. I head home chanting the word Bresson over and over. At home I sooth my pounding purchasing urges by sticking up some of the gear posters I got at the 'spo above my bed like some photo geek pin-up.

I actually have an architectural shoot tomorrow that I am quite excited about, and nothing I saw in the city was going to help me with that. It is a lovely structure. I need to try and discover how I connect to it. What about this subject makes me get weak kneed. Then I will figure out what I need to to do to capture that feeling with the tools I have. In the end it is not so much about the tools but it is about understanding what you are feeling about what you are seeing. It is after all 'a black box with a hole'.

Oh yea, there was one small extra piece of equipment I would need for the shoot.........

If you're in town, come on down.

the price of printing

2009-10-28T14:37:00.005-04:00

Printing ain't cheap. Oh sure Wally World can dump out your entire family vacation at the Wolong Panda Farm on a set of 12 matching mugs, 3 mouse pads and 17 sweatshirts for a price that implies enforced third world child labor must be occurring somewhere in the mega store's back-rooms. However, there are sacrifices.

While Aunt Enid's hair may indeed be purple, there is nothing more disappointing then a sunset pic of you and the pandas that simply does not convey the beauty of that ursine moment. To get prints that match your vision both technically and emotionally takes time. It takes work. And that is the price.

Printing for fine art is a time consuming process. There is the image that you see in the viewfinder, (a direct response to something in your mind/heart that is driving you to take that shot at that very moment), the image you see on your computer and finally the image that is printed. Remember the print should match what you saw/felt in the viewfinder.

Last week Kelly Merchant, a lifestyle photographer, contacted me about printing at The Kitchen. Kelly landed a solo show of her work and needed to print approximately 30 prints ranging from 16"x20" to 24"x30".

Our first communications were about paper selection. Here at CPW we print on Museo and Canon papers. Between these two manufacturers we can offer everything from super glossy to canvas. In the end cost was a major factor for Kelly. She decided to bring in her own paper and we would only charge for ink. I offered to download the profiles from the paper manufacturers website. Whenever possible, profiles are needed for best printing. Most paper companies offer profiles for their own papers on their website. Keep in mind with a myriad of different printers and different papers out there, you may not always find your combination. You can experiment with different profiles or if you are feeling particularly brave you can build your own. You will need third party software/hardware to do this. I use Xrite's EyeOne. Creating your own profiles will need to be another blog.

Kelly arrived with her external hard drive in hand and plugged into one of our IMacs. Kelly brought match prints she printed at home on her smaller printer. I can tell Kelly is very comfortable printing. I talk her through the Canon printers as I turn them on and load her paper. Using Adobe's Bridge we access her drive and open her first image. Kelly is printing a combination of landscape and tight portraits. The first image will be a good test for the profile. A fantastic shot of the sun with a mesmerizing halo. Matching the colors, (a blue-green sky) would definitely test the 'canned' profile supplied by the paper's website.

I suggest we print an 8"X10" version of what will eventually be an 18"X24" print as well as a 6" fullsize test strip. Kelly thinks I am being obsessive and need to get out more. She goes for just the test strip. I have to respect her because she is already wearing white gloves to protect the prints. You don't argue with someone in gloves.

From CS4 we export the files to our printer. In the export dialogue box we find the profile I'd downloaded earlier, load it and then enter our media size info, (this window is also where I double check that there are no other color adjustments being applied, only the profile we selected).

Kelly hits send and like two expectant parents we wait for the Canon ipf6100 to give forth Kelly's Halo test strip. Sadly, our baby looks under the weather, a bit green and flat. Comparing the strip to her match print under our GTI D50 Color Viewing Station we both see the hard truth. The profile is good, but a touch off the mark. I suggest we try it with different rendering intent. Kelly is game and sends again. This time the print beautifully resembles it's smaller cousin. Kelly looked me in the eye and explained she could go it alone from here on in, a somehow melancholy moment.

2 days, 30 final prints, numerous test strips and a few miscues later, Kelly had her show ready for mounting. Her costs were kept down because she used test strips, more importantly, by taking her time and using test strips she was able to get exactly the color she wanted.

If you're in town, come on down.

The Secrets of My Success

2009-10-21T16:49:00.008-04:00

Oft I am asked, "oh great Phil, how is your knowledge so vast? Can your understanding of f-stop and shutter speed be so a-like Stephen Hawking's grasp of fractals and string theory? What Faustian pact have you committed your soul to that you dance with the deep secrets of Photoshop's sinuous curves? Is it merely coincidence that you speak in profiles? Were you apprenticed at the feet of Guttenberg?

My secrets I will share with you.

Mallomars and Kombucha. It is what I nosh on when I am at my Mac. I will say it loud say it proud, "I am an on line tutorial junkie"! Some have their Warcraft others their Sims and a few the Wolong PandaCam. I spend the dark hours of the night consuming on line video tutorials.

Adobe TV 's Russel Brown is my Johnny Carson. I laugh, I cry, I understand 'blending modes'. Julieanne Kost has gently guided my trembling hands through things that are RAW. If my appetite seems particularly insatiable, I read online 'Adobe White Papers'. These sacred writings on things digital fill gaps in my brain with ancient lore that only an acolyte would desire. My creative juices begin to ferment like the pungent taste of my Kombucha.

Now I will admit I do use most of what I learn immediately. Whether printing here at CPW or shooting on location with a client I am constantly trying to incorporate the new things I have unearthed on the web, read in magazines, or overheard in seamy backrooms into my creative process. The sooner I can gain a handle on new techniques and approaches the sooner I can play and create. In fact as soon as I learn a new technique I try to poke and prod it, look under the hood if you will. Believe it or not there is room to intuit in the digital workflow.

Remember, nothing is better than getting out there and walking the walk and not just talking the talk (or blogging the blog).

I have seen that 1000yard stare on the faces of my workshop participants at the end of a two day seminar on CS4 here at The Center for Photography in Woodstock. What once was a mind light, fresh and hungry has been stuffed to the point of 'Photoshop TMI'. Feeling like Charlie Brown's teacher, I tell my followers to rest their weary pates and not to panic because their brains hurt. Photoshop Cafe offers servings of hearty Photoshop food that will be there for them when their minds have digested.

You need to find the techniques that work for you and the world wide web is a cornucopia of information for the hungry digital artist. Certainly if you come to CPW and take a class with me or one of the other instructors who visit these halls you will learn photography secrets only known to Capuchin giclee initiates, but until then, pick up your mallomars throw back your Kombucha and dig in to the online smorgasbord.

If you're in town, come on down.

A blogging we will go....

2009-10-16T14:05:00.009-04:00

Hi All,

And so begins The Digital Kitchen at CPW's take on all things photographic, digital and print from our home base in Woodstock, NY.

Yes, that Woodstock and no, I don't wear Birkenstocks.

We have a pretty cool lab that is open for our members as well as the public.

We offer Apple workstations, Nikon and Epson scanners, Canon large format printers, (ipf 5000 and ipf 6100), classes and Workshops with top photographers and Digital artists, (Platon, Dan Burkholder, Chris Jordan to name a few). The Kitchen is also an excellent place to come and mix with your photographic and digital piers. Like the communal darkrooms of old we are about art, understanding and community, (I feel like I am channeling John Lennon).

My job is to make sure that exciting description above flows seamlessly.

I am still waiting.

As I develop, learn, adapt and curse so will you. What epiphanies of print and image I find, I will share. And though hubris be my middle name I would hope you will share your secrets of the digital illuminati with me and add your queries to mine.

As I attempt to juggle the needs of my digital coterie here in Woodstock I also pound the pavement as a photographer.

I shoot for print, (The New York Times, Scholastic Magazine, Vogue Living, Psychology Today....) and a whole slew of clients ranging from architectural firms to cookbooks. I will share insights on technique, gear as well as pompous philosophical meanderings as they fit into this blog.

If you're in town, come on down,

Phil