I have trouble with hard shadows and not enough contrast, my pictures look too flat!. I use black and white negative film and will be printing in the dark room!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>Visual Arts> Can anyone give me some pointers for photography lighting?Question: Can anyone give me some pointers for photography lighting!? I have trouble with hard shadows and not enough contrast, my pictures look too flat!. I use black and white negative film and will be printing in the dark room!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It sounds like there are two issues to resolve here!. 1!. Hard Shadows: Use a light modifier between the source and the subject!. A diffuser works well (in the form of a softbox, white umbrella, white sheer curtain, etc!.) or by reflecting (bouncing) the light into an intermediate surface (such as a wall or reflector card) before it falls upon the subject!. Use of a fill light from the shadow side also works well!. This can be either a secondary powered light source or a reflecting surface!. 2!. Low contrast: If you are printing in the darkroom, use a higher contrast filter than 2-1/2!. Use of filters 4 through 5 require an additional f-stop of (enlarger) aperture or a 2x increase in the time the print requires!. If the negatives themselves are thin (little difference between dark and clear areas) you may have either underexposed the images or underdeveloped the film!. Depending upon your level of expertise, it may be possible to salvage thin negatives by treating them in a solution of selenium toner!. This stuff is somewhat dangerous to work with, so if you're fairly new to photography, I would recommend approaching this only as a last option, if at all!. Another point regarding contrast: avoid using the "CN" type of black and white film!. Those are made to be developed in C-41 (color negative) process as opposed to D-76 (B/W negative) process!. They are intended to generate grayscale prints on color paper, and are not suited for making enlargements with a silver emulsion B/W paper!. Additionally, because of the yellow masking layer inherent in C-41 type negatives, it is virtually impossible to control contrast in a B/W darkroom environment!. I hope this helps! Good luck! DarinWww@QuestionHome@Com Check the library for the Kodak and Time-Life books on photography - everything said still applies to what you are doing!. If you have hard shadows and not enough contrast, it means the rest of the image is grey, no whites!. Is that really what you mean!? Normally, to get into the shadows, you need to expose for them and if this over exposes the whites work on burning them in in the dark room!.Www@QuestionHome@Com You could try using a harder paper, like No!.3 or No!.4!. There is a long article about lightning photography in the new issue of Shutterbug, but it's not available on-line yet!. You might find it in a large bookstore like B!.Dalton or Barnes and Noble!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |