Re: How to apply curves in PS for digital negatives...

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005, Grace Taylor wrote:

> Judy, there's still a WHOLE lot I don't know about getting the best results
> for alt-photo printing from digital negatives, so I still have a lot of
> learning to do. I have a question. Would the print-out you suggest be an
> ink-jet printout, or a Van Dyke print of the step tablet? It has been the
> Van Dyke print of the step tablet (along with an image) that I have used to
> adjust the curve, using a percentage guess as to how much to adjust. Then
> adjusting again on the next VD printout until the result looks the way I want
> it to. I've never used a densitometer, but it would certainly be more
> accurate than eyeballing.

Hi Taylor, I took your mention of posterizing to mean you meant the
original digital file onscreen. You clearly only began with that...
APOLOGIES !

True, I find the densitometer a great help-- tho you almost don't need it
with the 21-step... which is also calibrated, that is, a benchmark or
"absolute."

Interestingly, a sensitometry book I once actually read points out that
early densitometers worked exactly by eyeballing -- the operator had to
compare or match two tones by eye. And the author noted that human eye is
still the most sensitive.... !!!

PS. You're "Taylor," not "Grace"? ( Or "Grace," not "Taylor"???)

J.
Received on Mon Nov 28 22:44:37 2005