Darkroom manipulation is a traditional method of manipulating photographs without the use of computers. Some of the common techniques for darkroom manipulation are dodging, burning, and masking, which though similar conceptually to digital manipulations, involve physical rather than virtual techniques. Darkroom manipulations are those processes used, for example, to remove unwanted areas and change image background, among others. Varying techniques can be used to accomplish the same tasks.
Photo manipulation started in the darkroom in the 1860s when searching for a heroic image of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. [2] An unidentified artist appended the statesman's head to the body of John C. Calhoun. One of the modern American masters of darkroom manipulation is Jerry Uelsmann. [3] To get his final product, he uses up to twelve enlargers at a time. Jerry Uelsmann seeks to reach a level of surrealist imagery of the unfathomable. He still uses this process today, as do other photographers. Some photographers believe that the darkroom is "a magical place where there is indeed a chamber of secret."
Jerry Uelsmann is best known for using digital tools in the darkroom before Photoshop was available. He started off with photography in high school as a hobby and then decided to go to an institution to learn photography. Uelsmann's photographs are different from those of most photographers because he uses multiple negatives to produce one picture. [4] He started with one enlarger but after waiting for some prints to dry one day, he decided to use more enlargers to get more images quickly, then began using seven enlargers at one time. His darkroom style allowed him to create images that had realism and the motion of what would be seen in dreams.
Before Photoshop, dodging and burning were used to lighten or darken a part of the photograph to get better details in highlights and shadows. [5] Toning changes the color of the photograph. Black and white photographs can be changed to sepia, red, orange and even blue. [6] Toning can be used to help make the photograph last long. Cropping is used to decide what is left out in the final print.
Dodging is a very important part of the manipulation process. Dodging holds back exposure in order to make it light. Dodging can be used by hand or specific tools such as black cardboard or opaque materials so that shadows can lighten the image. [7] Dodging is best when used in a circular motion on the image to get the desired result.
Burning is when the image receives more exposure so the image can darken. [8] Just like dodging, burning can be done by hand or by using objects that controls the size and shape of the area. To avoid a very obvious change between the burned-in area and the rest of the image, the device must stay in motion. Burning is a longer process because it needs a longer exposure and time to change the image. [9]
Image Masking is a very faint positive image that comes from the original negative image. [10] Masking in darkroom photography can be used with more than one mask for the image by putting the original image and the mask together to come out with the single print. The advantages of masking is that this process sharpens the image and if done correctly, the contrast of the image could change when the image prints out. The mask is a copy of the original, so the edges should line up correctly and density can be shown in the original negative. Masking can give slight texture so that true blacks and shadows look properly dark. [11]
Photo manipulation is used today in place of darkroom manipulation. Today, photo manipulation can be started on a photographer's camera by formatting the image into either a JPEG or RAW format. [12] An example of manipulation with the camera itself is automatic red-eye removal in the image. After the image is on the computer many other photo editing programs such as Photoshop are used for photo manipulation.
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image may appear as a seamless physical print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter technique is referred to by professionals as "compositing", and in casual usage is often called "photoshopping". A composite of related photographs to extend a view of a single scene or subject would not be labeled as a montage, but instead a stitched image or a digital image mosaic.
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and photographic paper. Various equipment is used in the darkroom, including an enlarger, baths containing chemicals, and running water.
In art, craft, and engineering, masking is the use of materials to protect areas from change, or to focus change on other areas. This can describe either the techniques and materials used to control the development of a work of art by protecting a desired area from change; or a phenomenon that causes a sensation to be concealed from conscious attention.
Unsharp masking (USM) is an image sharpening technique, first implemented in darkroom photography, but now commonly used in digital image processing software. Its name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or "unsharp", negative image to create a mask of the original image. The unsharp mask is then combined with the original positive image, creating an image that is less blurry than the original. The resulting image, although clearer, may be a less accurate representation of the image's subject.
Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are considered to be unethical practices, especially when used to deceive. Photographs may be manipulated for political propaganda, to improve the appearance of a subject, for entertainment, or as humor.
Jerry Norman Uelsmann was an American photographer.
An enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives, or from transparencies.
A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or photographic paper is placed emulsion side down, in contact with a piece of photographic paper, light is briefly shone through the negative or paper and then the paper is developed to reveal the final print.
Dodging and burning are terms used in photography for a technique used during the printing process to manipulate the exposure of select areas on a photographic print, deviating from the rest of the image's exposure. In a darkroom print from a film negative, dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.
Combination printing is a photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image.
In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the same root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic portrait that is clear at the center and fades off toward the edges. A similar effect is visible in photographs of projected images or videos off a projection screen, resulting in a so-called "hotspot" effect.
In photography, toning is a method of altering the color of black-and-white photographs. In analog photography, it is a chemical process carried out on metal salt-based prints, such as silver prints, iron-based prints, or platinum or palladium prints. This darkroom process cannot be performed with a color photograph. The effects of this process can be emulated with software in digital photography. Sepia is considered a form of black-and-white or monochrome photography.
Digital "darkroom" is the hardware, software and techniques used in digital photography that replace the darkroom equivalents, such as enlarging, cropping, dodging and burning, as well as processes that do not have a film equivalent.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to photography:
Maggie Taylor is an artist who works with digital images. She won the Santa Fe Center for Photography's Project Competition in 2004. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe and is represented within the permanent collections of several galleries and museums.
Monochrome photography is photography where each position on an image can record and show a different amount of light, but not a different hue. It includes all forms of black-and-white photography, which produce images containing shades of neutral grey ranging from black to white. Other hues besides grey, such as sepia, cyan, blue, or brown can also be used in monochrome photography. In the contemporary world, monochrome photography is mostly used for artistic purposes and certain technical imaging applications, rather than for visually accurate reproduction of scenes.
Ruh khitch, translated from Punjabi as 'Spirit Pulling', refers to the way the photographer puts his hand inside the purpose built camera containing a mobile darkroom and pulls out the photograph.
Harold Davis is an American photographer and author.
Ralph M. Hattersley, Jr. (1921-2000) was an American photographic educator, commentator, journalist and photographer.
Retouch4me is a family of artificial intelligence-powered plug-ins for photography and video retouching, compatible with Adobe Photoshop; Adobe Lightroom, and Capture One.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)