The Fine Black & White Digital Print 

Starting from a straight print, the fine art photographer begins to manipulate the image to emphasize certain parts of the image and deemphasize other parts of the image. When we look at a straight print side by side with the final image, we can often see a tremendous difference. These differences are what make or break the image.

Working in a wet darkroom, black & white photographers practice their craft. They work carefully, listening to the print as they adjust the overall exposure and contrast. Next they begin to make local adjustments to the print, dodging and burning small areas to get the look and feel of the print to match their vision. These fine turning adjustments might be done using a different contrast filter compared to the overall image contrast. After processing, they might selectively bleach sections of a print to increase the highlights and raise local contrast. Finally, they might tone an image to make the blacks richer or warm up the image. If any of these adjustments are obvious to the viewer, the photographer has failed. If the viewer doesn't notice them, they blend into the image, enhancing it to communicate the photographer's vision. In the craft of fine art black & white fine art photography, less is usually more.

Photographers can make great exhibition quality prints using photoshop and a high quality photo printer. Photoshop is a tool, nothing more. Using it as a tool, photographers can do everything they can do in a wet darkroom to a print and more. Photoshop allows us to have much finer local control in an image. It is important that any adjustments not be noticeable to viewers. They should blend in and enhance the image. The key is to remember that we are using Photoshop to practice our craft and create a fine print. Again, less is usually more.

Personalized Photoshop Instruction - "Bringing Your Prints To The Next Level"

There are many tools available in photoshop and often several ways to accomplish the same thing. Many of the tools are fairly blunt as they create large adjustments that are difficult to finely control. My unique approach focuses on using extremely fine adjustments to get exactly the results that you want from your image.

In your personalized session(s) I demonstrate my techniques using Photoshop. We will work with your images as well, discussing your vision and how you see the image evolving. Finally, we show you how to use the tools and techniques to get the results that you want as you make your prints match your vision.

One on one photoshop instruction is available remotely, using desktop sharing software, or at my studio. The hourly rate is $75 or 3 hours for $200.

Call today at (800) 313-2119 or email bob@bobneiman.com to schedule your personalized photoshop instruction session!