17 posts tagged “black and white photos”

Mr. Magic.

I have found a technique that allows me to add metallic colors to my hand tinted black and white photos. This Black and white photo is Hand tinted the "Classic way", never computer aided in any way. I use color film to produce my Black and white Print. My photos are produced on fiber based, double weight black and white printing paper. All of my photos are toned with selenium, copper, sepia, gold, nickel, platinum-palladium, coffee's, or tea's.

My next project that I will complete before new year is my stereo hand tinted photo art using mirrors placed at a 45 degree angle; the late  Dali Salvador had many failed attempts making a stereo picture work using stainless steel, polished aluminum dishes, metals and of course mirrors. Philippe Devaud  (2001) from Switzerland had the opportunity to work  with Dali in the early eighties. Philippe had a theory on how to solve Dali's problem with the double image that distorted his stereo art work. Philippe noticed that the double image was due to the rear silver coating,  stereo pictures that worked were merely a choice of mirrors. Philippe had that discovered that if you use a front coated mirror the double ghost image disappears. I apply this same theory to my stereo photo art. 

This is a Color Photo Born Inside  a Camera.
 
 I use the rules of third  as guide to determine where I place my colors.
 This is a Side view of a Photograph.
 

This is Frontal view of a Photograph or scene.

This Technique can be applied to any Media. The colors lead the viewers eye to focus on certain areas of the Final Photo Art.  I use only color film to create my Black and White Photo Art. Color films have three layers and Black and White Film have only two layers. I find that color films record the true mood of each scene as it really is. Reds are red, blues are blue, and greens are green. Black and white films records the tones and not the hues and the chroma of each scene as it exist. I use my color prints to aide in my color balancing process. This is the most exciting aspect of my 2 Zone Technique. I use Zone "A" to compose my Color Photo Art inside the camera. I then use Zone "B" to develop my Black and White Print. 
  I have a simple formula that I created to achieve my color balance and color contrast of each final print. I use the actual Color Photo as a guide when I Hand Tint my Black and White Photo the Classic way. I use up to 27 points when I color my prints.
 The foreground = A, middle = B, back = C. The bottom = 1, middle = 2, and top = 3. I can place my hues of color in one the cubes to create unimaginable illusions of Grandeur.

*I want to bring Hand Tinting back into the main stream. Since we have our computers and high tech soft ware we often fail to realize that computer generated imagery or photos are not the same as in the past. The reason is, that the computer generated images lacks Zone "A" and Zone "B". Its merely a copy or a duplicate of a scene. All computer generated photos or prints will oxidize or fade. The sole purpose of making Photographs are to record, document historical events, creating advertisements, family events, weddings and the list goes on. Archiving Photos that are computer generated defeats this goal. In most museums you will only find Black and White Photos, they know that any other type of print won't last long enough to achieve their objective. Digital Photography has its' place, and should be recognized as an Art form based on its content and style.
*When we look back in the early 1800's, most Photo images that were produced have looked as if they were made yesterday. What if our Great masters used pixels to record there Art. They would have never imagined of wasting there time and effort to gain fame by employing methods other than the Classical techniques to create their Art. When history is written, those who have negatives and Hand developed Prints will have works of Arts that will be priceless.
*The Great masters such Van Goghs, Picasso's, Rembrandts, Cezanne's, Seraut's, El greco,s, Constables, Botticellis, Angelico's and Bounnarroti's would not exist today as we know them if they had used digital assisted soft ware to create their works of Art. I have over 50,000 images and over 90,000 negatives that will be worth more than any digital print or digital file made today.
*Photo Art has been around in the main stream for quite some time. No one has change or improved on what George Eastman, Joeseph Niepce, Giovanni Battista, Thomas Wedgwood and Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre attempted . The computer can never allow any one the freedom that gives you the ability to capture an image as on sees it. Ansel Adams was the last person to that gave us a new set of rules and technique.
*I have developed a "2" Zone that takes his ideas and the other great Photographers of the past and improve how we see and reproduce our Photos.
Don't miss out, if you can have the luck of buying a old Photo of the past, you will own tomorrows Picassos' Van Goghs' or even an Rembrandt.
*The only worth while investment in todays Art Market will be a Hand Tinted Photograph. The other Great works of Art merely exchange owners and becomes more expensive in the process.

 How long does a Photograph last ? Some of the first ever made have held up perfectly, their images as durable as if they had been carved in stone. For Black and white Photos, archival processing is not very different from customary method of developing, fixing and washing. It basically an extension of the ordinary procedures, involving a few extra steps.
During development, those grains of silver salts that have been exposed to light are reduced to black metallic silver, which forms the image; but unexposed grains are reduced and remain in silver form of a silver compound.
When these silver-fixer complexes decompose they produce a brown-yellow compound may discolor the entire print. Archival processing includes procedures that eliminate the traces of residual chemical that washing alone cannot entirely remove.
 I Hand Tone all of my Black and White Photo Art the Classic way. There are several reasons for toning a black and white print: to make the photograph more permanent; I love to use BERG BROWN/COPPER Toning Solution is a single bath solution used for toning black and white prints or films, having no offensive odor. The tonal range is very long, giving initially a warming effect, then a brown tone, followed by a sepia and flesh, and finally a deep metallic copper tone. The actual tone produced depends on the length of time of toning and the photographic material.
                                               Color Photo Art born inside a camera.

Pumped, Germany, 1999.

Pumped.

Pumped, Germany, 1999,Limited Edition.

 A Black and White Negative is a reversal of the tones in the original scene. Where the scene is bright, the negative develops many dense, dark grains of silver. These dense areas hold back light from the paper, they prevent the formation of silver in the papers emulsion and so creates a bright area corresponding to the bright area in the scene. Where the scene was dark, the negative is thin or even clear. It passes much light to the paper and dark silver is formed in the emulsion, resulting in a dark area in the print.
   Color films records most all the color of the spectrum, nearly all colors can be reproduced by mixing only a few basic or primary colors. Color films are made with three color-sensitive layers, each of which records the wave lengths of lights in a different third of the color spectrum. Colors negative film is processed to be the opposite in colors and density of the original scene; then it is printed onto a sheet of sensitized paper to make a positive color print.
   This is why I shoot color films to Print out my Black and White Photos the Classic way. Color films gives more details in my prints. The colors remain true and the tones are richer. I use the actual color photo as a guide when my Hand Tint my Black and White Prints.
                        Color Photo Art Born inside a Camera the Classic way.

Petals, Seoul, Korea,1982.

Black and White Photo Art delivered in my Dark room the Classic way. 

Petals, Seoul, Korea, 1982

Petals, Seoul, Korea, 1982. Limited Edition.

Black and White Photo Art.

**I want to bring Black and White Photo Art back in the main stream. Its the only affordable Art investment that yields substantial Dividends. Photo Art is the Latest craze in the Art Market.
**The Current Art market is in a recession. In New York last week Nov 10 2007, Sotheby's was particularly rattled by the lackluster evening: its share price plunged the next day by 38 percent. The company on Friday reported that, mainly due to a 14.6 million dollar loss on guarantees for this week's auction, it recorded a third quarter loss of 20.9 million dollars, third-quarter loss shrank to $20.9 million, or 33 cents a share, from a net loss of $30.7 million. Christies took some Losses in their Art auctions as well.
**Don't miss out on chance to invest in one of the fastest growing sectors of Modern Contemporary Art. Now is the time to update your Art portfolios. The Black and White Photo Art, they are on the Walls. On the streets, the Bulls are on the run, only the wise will take heed

 **The overall Density of a Black and White Photos may appear to be
normal except some areas seem to be to light or dark.
**Dodging and burning in are two methods of giving different exposures
to differnt parts of a print.
** If an area is too dark, Dodging is called for. That area of the
Print is simply shadowed during part of the initial exposure time.
A dodging tool is useful: it is simply a piece of card board
attached to the end of wire. Your hand or a finger, a piece of card-
board or any other object can be used. Dodging is effective when details
in the shadow areas of the negative image. Dodging of areas that lack
details or texture too long a time produces a murky gray tone in the
Print.
**Burning in is the opposite procedure, often used when part of the
black and white print is too light. After the entire negative has
received exposure that is correct for most areas, the light is
blocked from most of the Print while the area that is too light
receives extra exposure. A large piece of card board that can be
cut to an appropiate shape or size. Your hands can be used, cupping
 or speading yours fingers out so that light reaches the paper only
where you want it to.
**Some areas may need to be darken, you can flash these areas with
a small penlight flashlight. unlike burning in, which darkens the
image, flashing fogs the paper: it adds a solid gray or black tone.
There a other light sources that you can use. A cone around the end
of a penlight works very well in texture and detail areas of the
Print. You can devise your on Techniques on what works best for
you.
**Whether you are dodging, burning in or flashing, it is important
to keep your dodging or burning tool, your hands or penlight in
constant motion from side to side so that tones of the affected
area blend into the rest of the Print.
**This process of dodging and burning in is a part of "Zone 1",
(zone A,zone B). I used "Zone 1" to manipulate my tones in the final
Print. I usual range in my Black and White Photos, zone III to zone
VIII. In "Zone 2" when I apply my Hand Tints the colors seem to
levitate. My " 2 Zone Technique " allows me freedom that no computer
in the World can duplicate. When Zone 2 harmonizes with Zone 1 the
Prints surpass any computer generated Print. I become a conductor in
the visual world of Hand Tinted Photo Art. The music is universal and
soothing to ones eye. I love creating works of Art where the spoken
word becomes obsolete. Sight is the only unspoken language that exist.

**The Zone system can be used not only to plan exposure and development for a normal-contrast Black and White negative, but also to plan unusually low or high contrast.  Metering a scene will reveal the lightest values. A flat negative lacks Zone 0,I,VIII and IX densities will remain soft, luminous, low contrast feeling of the scene. A contrasty negative has limited tonal ranges, with little details. Most tones fall in the Zones 0 and Zone IX. Contrast can be decreased by increasing the exposure and decreasing the development. By doing this you can determine what Zones will be in the middle of the Zone scale.
**I shoot color film versus Black and White film to avoid this Phenomenon. I enlarge my Black and White Photos to reveal and enhance Zone II through Zone VIII. This allows me to Hand Tint each scene according to the actual colors present. The colors are always placed in parts of the scene to highlight areas of interest. This is where the magic begins. I can alter the colors in areas that has little or no color. By manipulating the colors the Photos look surreal, but in reality if you look closely at my Hand Tinted Black and White Photos their are hidden flaws that only you can see if you have the actual color Photo for comparison. This make my Photo Art unique.
**I can take any Black and White negative and create limitless Art from the same scene. The " 2 Zone Technique" that I have created and developed give me freedom that no Computer generated (digital) imagery allows. I know that all the Computer generated Photos will fade with time.
**My Hand Tinted Black and White Photos meets or exceeds Archives Standards. 

**The process that creates a picture on a piece of film involves a reaction between light and the sliver bromide cyrstals spread through the gelatin of the emulsion layer.
**A negative is born when millions of exposed silver bromide crystals are converted to Silver metal by the developer.
**Silver bromide crystals are light sensitive, they don't respond equally to all wavelenghts of light. Colors are actually different wave-lenghts within the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, these wavelenghts must be factored in when making Black-and-White Photos.
**Different types of Film responds color differently. Orthochromatic film responds well to shorter wavelenghts, toward the violet to yellow end of the spectrum. Panchromatic Film gives more of a natural appearance. This film records most all colors, red through violet. Infra red Film only records visible colors as well as some longer wavelenghts that are not visible. Its' toward the ultra-violet end of the spectrum.
**Unless the silver bromide is properly exposed, they will respond variably to shorter wavelenghts, starting at ultra-violet through blue green.