“It all ends with the click of a button…” was a comment I heard about photography, at the Private View of my recent exhibition. This is a common misconception, so I thought I would walk through the various stages of how I go about creating art prints for the print gallery.
I’m going to use this photo, which I took recently when I was out on a recce, as an example image. I should start by saying that there are plenty of things that I would do differently in this photo, if my original aim was to go and create a fantastic photograph of this waterfall. I made this photo purely because I had climbed down the cliffs to get there, and I may return someday at a better time and with a more structured approach.
This above is the final, print ready, image, so let’s take a look at how I got there…
The first thing to note is that this is not going to be a photographer’s technical walk through, but I need to start by saying that this photo was made from a camera raw file. Raw files capture the maximum amount of information (like a film negative), which enables me to extract the detail that I choose from the scene.
Although this was captured digitally, most of the techniques that I am about to discuss come from my days in the dark room, processing and printing black & white film. I’ll elaborate further on that as we go, but I just wanted to point out that this is not a digital phenomenon.
Below is how the photo comes out, straight from the camera raw file. As you can see it is very flat, dull and grey. This is because the raw file prioritises capturing the full detail, over making the picture look good. Capturing all this detail then allows me to take the file and make a great print from it.
The first thing that I usually do is to add a little contrast to the photo. This makes the whites much closer to white, than the dull grey shown in the clouds, for instance.
Already this has a bit more depth to it, which is one of the things I am aiming to achieve. A print is a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional scene, so a lot of what I do is about adding a sense of depth and dimension to the final print, to make it feel more 3D.
Our eyes are naturally drawn to the brightest parts of an image and, as this photo is of a waterfall, I find that the stones in the foreground are the first thing I see, so they are taking my attention away from the waterfall itself, as they are much brighter (and there’s a lot more of them).
In the version above, I have darkened down the stones in the foreground, which stops them being so dominant. However, I now find that the stones in the middle ground are bright, so are now attracting my attention, and decide to darken them down too.
In this modern digital age, this is relatively straightforward. But, when I used to do this with film, I would have to make a variety of masks (usually out of black card), to expose/hide certain parts of the paper to/from the enlarger lamp, which would make that area of the print darker or lighter. Often this would even be done using cupped hands, which is how I would certainly would have darkened the foreground in this image, had this been photographed on film.
Looking at the above, what do you think needs improving?
To me, this is meant to be a print of a waterfall, but the water looks dull, flat and lost in the previous image. The waterfall would definitely benefit from the whites being much brighter, and really just brighter overall.
Now we’re getting there – you definitely feel that the waterfall is a key part of the photo now, and the print as a whole is starting to come together.
When I’m going through this process, I often address the first thing that I feel distracts or doesn’t stand out enough at that point. There is no pre-determined order of working through each print, it’s just a feeling from looking at it.
Looking at the above now the sky is too flat, and looks at odds with the rest of the image, so I will address that next. Even in the days of the darkroom I would have been able to add contrast to an image through various means, depending on the enlarger that I was using to make the print.
This is beginning to look the way I envisaged when I started making the print. The water running over the stones into the sea, in the foreground now looks a bit lost, so I will brighten this area up, so that you can follow the water flow.
Okay that’s better. It may be slightly more difficult to see on the screen at this size, but the detail is clear on the large image.
Now we’re getting into the nuances. The cliff just above the waterfall is a bit too light for me, so I am going to bring that down a bit, so that the emphasis is on the waterfall.
That’s not been a massive shift, but it does just stop the cliffs from becoming a distraction.
Next the foam of the waves, passing over the stones, to the right centre of the photo are a bit too muddy. I have to be careful, when darkening areas of the image down, to make sure that that area doesn’t become dull and lifeless, as has happened here.
In the above, the white of the foam is whiter, but is not taking away from the waterfall. Looking at it onscreen now, I feel that it could be whiter still, but having just checked the print that I have done, I can see that it looks fine. That’s one of the effects of reducing images down to fit on a screen; it compresses all the details, so the whites and greys merge together on screen.
The final thing is to just add a bit of depth to the stones on the right hand side, and then I’m finished.
Here’s the final printed image itself (it may look slightly toned as I photographed this on my phone next to a window, so not colour controlled, and also the paper will have a tone that will affect the colour of the final print):
So that’s a rough run through of how I take a well exposed image, and then spend time making a strong, eye catching print.
It’s so much more than just pressing the button and calling it done.
There’s consideration of what helps and what distracts. There’s the working out how to focus the eye on the subject; how to give a three dimensional feel to a two dimensional image; where to put emphasis and where to direct attention away from.
As I’ve repeated, this entire process is based on traditional black & white printing, and I often tell people that my bible for this is Larry Bartlett’s Black & White Photographic Printing Workshop, which is now out of print but still available used, and well worth getting if you’re into printing.
Although I’ve referred to, and used as an example, black & white photographs, the same techniques can be applied to colour images as well, although you can additionally tweak the hue, saturation and luminosity of the individual colours.
“So has it been Photoshopped then?” That’s often a question I am asked. The answer? No, this photo has never been in Photoshop at any stage, from concept to final print. No pixels were replaced – they were all just lightened or darkened.
I think you’ll agree that I’ve shown that making a great print is an art in itself, which takes a considerable amount of time and patience. I will often make a small contact print during the course of making an image, and will sometimes leave it for a few days before looking at it again with fresh eyes.
Finally, here’s the whole process again in “fast forward” (you may notice that I straightened it slightly as well) …
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