 Tammy L. Newcomb |
Help: Book Publishing & B&W Photos I need some help.... I have a small studio that I just started about a month ago and I got a call from a women who just published her first Novel. She will be publishing a second book to my understanding and asked me to do her portrait for her book. I did this shoot this morning and for a rookie (studio rookie) I think the photos turned out great in the area of clarity, lighting etc. She will be picking one B&W photo for her book, articles and newspaper writeup. Is there anyone here who would be fimilair with how the B&W tones should be for this type of printing? I have uploaded a copy of a mildy enhanced example photo.
So any suggestion on how to get my tones right would be critical for her book and my reputation.
I am all ears for suggestions for credible programs that may help for this type of project. Please, only serious replies without hasty sarcastic comments that are of no help. I don't have much time and if this subject has been brought up a millions times and you are annoyed then please just list a link of the prior information and I apologise in advance. Thanks
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Rainer and Simone Hoffmann |
Hi Tammy, I think there are two seperate problems here. Let's start with the background that is not quite white. Ideally you should place you subject as far from the background as possible. Then light the background and your subject separately. The come out as white the background should be about 1.5 - 2 f-stops lighter than your subjects face. This requires some experimenting with the lights and checking the histogram of your files. If you can't repeat the shooting and you want the background of the photo to become white, some tedius manual work will be involved. If you are using Photoshop, you can add an adjustment layer "Curves" with a layer mask, that affects only the background, to your picture. The second problem (will the tones print correctly?) is all about color management (even in black & white). Firstly, is your monitor correctly calibrated? If not, you'll get correct tones only by chance. Secondly, how will the picture be printed: digitally, offset or other? You need the correct ICC-profiles for the printing machine and the paper that is used for printing. Ask the commercial printer for the ICC-profiles. They usually provide them free of charge. If you are not familiar with color management you'll need learn about it because it is absolutely essential for getting colors and tones right in printing. Hope this helps a bit. Rainer
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Rainer and Simone Hoffmann |
ups, it should read: To come out as white the background...
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Tammy L. Newcomb |
Thank you very much for your reply. I knew the BG was an issue from the start. I have only done 5 studio sessions ever and this was the first time with a white BG. My problem was room and I don't have a lot of it so was unable to pull her away from the BG. I guess it will be the tedius work for me as usual. I have absorbed everything you said and I am working on it. Again thanks....
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||||||||