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Color Posterization

David J. Eves

New member
My very first published image. Was published in Camera35 Photomagazine in 1973.
It was an "image" I created in the darkroom, using :
ten high contrast litho neg's
ten high contrast litho pos's]
these were laid out from one to ten in order first the negatives
in a row.. 1 - 10
the opposites of these were placed below those ten
Now we have two rows labled N 1-10 & P 1-10

If I use N 1 & P 1 together.. as "STENCIL" place them together and hold up to light.. NOTHING CAN BE SEEN
because they are exact opposites of one another.
BUT IF I SHIFT Either row just one position I will end up with this
N1 + P2 THAT "stencil" will allow "some light" to pass..now we arrange the rest of the "stencils" or Masks
each stencil or mask is has two items a N & a P

N-1 + P 2 = Mask #1
N 2 + P 3 = Mask #2
N 3 + P 4 = Mask #3
Ok.. now you understand how the full set of Masks is made
there are Nine complete sets.

each set must be able to be "registered" preciisely in the negative carrier
that must be "built" custom made with two registration pins attached to the negative carrier..
The Purpose. is that when you take that negavtive carrer out of the enlarger and take the old set off and put a new set on.. they MUST line up precisely.. if your off by as much as 1/32 of an inch this will not work
they all must be punched by a NON adjustable punch so that every Litho
has the holes in the exact same p lace to provide PROPER REGISTRATION
NOW if you have followed this explanation this is how the "painted print" is made
Using Mask #1 COLORED LIGHT is passed through that mask to EXPOSE THAT SHEET OF PAPER TO "light' only..
so if I want yellow "paint" to show up on this sheet of paper AFTER processing.. I must use BLLUE light everything must be done
"backwards" for the COLOR you want to see in any particular area.
Using Mask #2 a "different" color is used to add more detail to a different part of the image. etc..
By using the opposite of the color you want.. that is what you must use for color filters to get the result you want.
Here are a few "Before & After examples:

cp03N.jpg

The owner of the Salem Witch Museum just pulled up to this museum in what looked like a car worth 500,000! I was walking across the street to put my gear away and I said to him.. YOu should let me create a photograph for you of your museum.. He laughed and said.. come here.. he actually brought me into to his office. there on the shelves were dozens of Kodak yellow boxes. He pulled a few of them down and took the covers off and displayed 100's of photographs taken of every angle outside of that building.. I said.. "Oh but I am going to do this in Color for you.. He laughed harder and said.. LOOK.. and he pulled down a few more boxes and displayed gorgeous color of the outside of the museum.. I said Oh but I am different.. I am going to create a photograph for you for 300 bux.. He roard laughing and said.. Kid.. there is just no wayI would ever pay 300 for just one photograph.. I smiled and said.. see ya tommorrow..
I came back and showed him the print I had made of the museum.. without even saying one word.. he reached into his pocket and wrote and check and handed it to me.. and said.. WowoW.. DO IT OVER! take my car out!
I worked for him for years.. ! Just from that "one" meeting and dialogue.!
CP03.jpg


cp02N.jpg

Ridgeway Lane Boston Mass. This is or was the very first image of mine that was published in Camera 35. This is or was where I lived. in this alley when I was very young in the second grade.. I moved that summer but will never forget this street or alley..
cp02.jpg



BOSTON.. I sold how many of these, all over the city.. for big bux.
as a result of doing something totally different (using film) many people were puzzled as to how this technique was accomplsihed.. !!
(GRIN).. .. IT IS AMAZING.. how easy it is to make money with photography!
if you excercise your imagination!
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Digital makes it easy

I've done a bit of this too and it really changes the feel of the piece, doesn't it? I love the results and yes, I do think that the right use of it is incredible. I did a few portraits and the result is truly a piece of fine art.
 
Color posterization & similar effects

These effects are one place where the entire digital workflow makes things radically different from the analog film days.

In my wet darkroom days (70s), I might spend 2 or 3 days in the darkroom to create a color posterization or a color transormation (blue for red etc.).

Now it takes a few clicks of the mouse, maybe a plug-in or two, and you're done.

The problem comes with the ease of doing. When it took hours and days in the darkroom, we (photographers) were much more picky about which images we used as a basis for our transformations. Now with digital tools, everyone has access to these techniques, and often misuse them or over use them, on pictures that are totally inappropriate.

I've gone completely away from "digital effects" in my own work, but appreciate them when well done, and to an appropriate subject.

Thanks for the reminder of how good we have it now.
 

David J. Eves

New member
Thank you for the memories. ..

Yes it was quite tough to accomplish in the darkroom using film. My first attempt was a total mess and I had spent 40 hours on that image. but I understood the whole process a lot clearer and I had to fix my mistakes and use a new image. large open areas are not condusive to this technique.. DETAIL is the key in choosing the correct image.

I worked on this process extensively .. My feeble attempts in photoshop were made by using "curves" and hue shifts, only !

I am currently trying to understand how to do in photoshop what was donein the darkroom i.e. make the masks and use them as stencils to add the color you want, where you want and how you want. In my opinion they always look best with BRIGHT fully saturated colors used in the right combinations.. each attempt at adding colors produces a completlly different feel for the image. The original witch museum was done in BLACK, ORANGE, GREEN AND CYAN'S very little lred or blue but the FEELING of an "evil" night of "Witches" & "B's" made that image so imporessive that he just bought it on the spot without saying one word, UNTIL after he handed me that check. and of course I had the BIGGEST SIMLE on my face.. .. as I said.. "I told you so " !

I got to the point where I could do one from start to finish in about 10 hours.
 

Ray West

New member
Hi David,

There are too many ways of getting similar effects in photo-shop. There is a posterise function, which will get it into, say, 8 colours. You may prefer to get 8 shades of B&W, so simply desaturate the image. Of course, always work with layers. Once you have your colour reduced image, you can select on colour, (or shade of grey) then make a new layer with either the selection, or invert the selection. These layers are similar to your positive/negatives. You can invert the initial copy (make a negative), so you have plenty of images to play with, but they will all line up exactly. You can then colour the layers how you like, stack them however you wish, set opacity, etc. The secret is to use plenty of layers. I think once you've seen how it works, you will have to possibly write down your instructions, it is far too easy to get sidetracked into some other experimentation, or copy the wrong selections. You can write your own, or find plenty of other actions that can destroy an image ;-) (try some extreme sharpening, that is effective on some types of image)

Best wishes,

Ray
 

David J. Eves

New member
well I spent time tonight playing with layers and adjustments layers and achieved some spectarular results. I will get better at this with lots more practice. and I will write down a detailed procedure of how it was accomplished using layers, adjustments layers and blending..

Monday.jpg
 
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