Walking the Talk with Julieanne Kost

Walking the Talk with Julieanne Kost
Pages: 1, 2

Image 2: Water in Victoria

Figure 2-1. The final image

Figure 2-2. Original camera RAW image

Technical Data

Camera: Nikon D100 (digital), 35-70mm lens
Image size: 2000 by 3008 pixels
Image processing: Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Camera Raw

Technique

Figure 2-3. Adobe Camera Raw settings used to process the original image

Because of the many layers between me (inside the plane) and the world outside, the images captured through the window are consistently flat. Shooting digitally compounds the problem--with analog, at least you can use a film (like Velvia) that boosts contrast so you don't have to make big adjustments to the original scan. On the other hand, correcting film that has already been processed and scanned has its limitations: for one thing, you're manipulating the second generation (the processed, scanned digital image, which is only as good as your scanner). With digital, you're processing the first generation--it's as if you're processing the original film itself, not an image scanned from film.

This image (Figure 2-1), which was taken on an overcast day, needed a lot of work. I used Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS2 to process it as follows: I increased the exposure dramatically (+3.45) and moved the shadows as far as I could (+100), which started to really improve the image. I then took the brightness all the way down (to 0) and added contrast (+42). Because I made such radical changes to these settings, I also had to decrease the saturation (-88). I then used the Temperature and Tint sliders to make the images a more pleasing shade of green, which was also more in keeping with my memory of the scene. I turned off sharpening (0) and increased the Color Noise Reduction dramatically (100) to remove the artifacts that had been amplified by making such a big change to the tonal and color settings.

I brought the image into Photoshop in 16-bit at its native capture size (2000 by 3008 pixels) to avoid interpolation. To remove the dark spots (caused by dust on the sensor), I used the Healing brush as necessary. Finally, I added a Curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast and saved the file as a layered PSD file.

Image 3: The Mountains in Montana

Figure 3-1. The final image

Figure 3-2. The original image. The white outline shows how I cropped it.

Technical Data

Camera: Nikon N90s with a 28-70mm lens.
Film: Fujichrome Velvia (ISO 50) daylight film.
Scanner: Imacon Flextight Precision
Image size: 7650 by 5200 pixels, 16-bit, 227MB file.
Image processing: Adobe Photoshop CS2

Technique

I knew when I shot this image that I only wanted to use part of it, and in a vertical format. The first thing I did was crop the file vertical, keeping the original aspect ratio of approximately 1:1.5 (Figure 3-2).

The intense blue cast and hazy appearance was due to fires in the area, and I wanted something less blue and less intense. I tried to adjust the color using Curves and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, but was unable to achieve the look I was after. So I tried a different approach: desaturating the image and then adding color back in. I desaturated the image using the Channel Mixer. Because the Blue channel contained most of the image noise, I mostly used a combination of the Red and Green channels to successfully remove the color (Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3. The desaturated image

After cleaning up the dust specks with the Healing brush, I added color with a Gradient Fill adjustment layer (set to linear) from purple to pink to yellow. The opacity of the layer was set to 50 percent, with the blend mode set to Overlay. This made it appear as if it the mountains were disappearing into the haze (Figure 3-4).

Figure 3-4. Adding false color with a Gradient adjustment layer

Finally, I dodged the top portion of the image by painting at a low opacity (5 percent) with white on an empty layer set to Soft Light mode (Figure 3-5).