Photoblog 2.0

White Anemone, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I realize I never blogged this white anemone from about eight months ago. So here it is. White. Simple.

Rose Study 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I photographed this quartet of roses as part of a commission for a cosmetics company.

As a professional photographer, I’m a fairly rare bird: my prime directive is to satisfy my own aesthetic. If other people–such as clients–like my photos too, that’s an added bonus.

But assignments are great! OK, they help pay my mortgage and the ever-burgeoning health insurance bill for my family. But beyond the crassly monetary aspect, assignments broaden my horizons, lead my in unexpected directions, challenge me to try new techniques, and sometimes even really get me going creatively.

Of course, you do have to be careful about what commissions you accept, and under what conditions. Some clients are a pleasure, and others are not.

In this case, the client found me through my Flickr photograms (and, I think, this blog). Encouraging, because it validates my strategy as a professional of using my blog and my Flickr photostream to give my images exposure.

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Cherry Watercolor, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is my photograph of a cherry blossom converted to LAB color, with the L (luminosity) channel inverted in Photoshop. A few other tweaks, but that is most of what I did.

Iris Scan 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this scan larger.

These are captured using a flatbed scanner at high resolution. That’s right, folks! These are not digital photographs, they are scans in the literal sense. I find myself surprised at the detail you can get this way, the large size of the resulting files, and the apparent dimensionality of the result.

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Poppy Scan 1, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

These two images are Photoshop composites of high-resolution flatbed scans and conventional macro photos.

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Alstromeria 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Inverting the versions of these flowers on white, here are an alstromeria (Peruvian lily) and a crassula argentea (Jade plant flower) on black for your viewing pleasure.

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Alstromeria 1, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Here are two new flowers on white, created with my photogram capture and cross-processed digitally. Above: Alstromeria (Peruvian lily); Below: Crassula argentea (Jade plant flower).

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Pink Gladiolus 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a photogram, cross-processed in two different ways (above and below) from the original capture. Clearly, the bulk of the work is in Photoshop, not the camera. (Here’s an earlier capture of a gladiolus, post-processed but not a photogram.)

With Julian doing well, we have a great deal to be thankful this year. And I’d like to wish everyone reading my blog a very, very happy Thanksgiving as well!

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Bamboo 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

For who?
These bamboo are for you…

It’s nice to turn my digital photogram technique on something that is a little muted in its colors, like this bamboo found off Shattuck Ave in Berkeley’s “gourmet ghetto.”

Below in black, above on white…
Isn’t that right?

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Orchidaceae 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

These orchids, one on white and one on black, are the latest of my digital photograms.

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Dried Clematis, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I keep a collection of dried flowers on my desk. Mostly, buds that I photographed the first time round when they were in there prime like this clematis, shown here in the first version.

Born again, I photographed the dried clematis bud with my perspective correction lens and cross-processed the heck out of it. A vertiable baptism by photographic immersion. Here’s a related image, of an old, dried flower bud.

First Blush, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Our friend Barbara heard about Julian’s accident, and came by the house with flowers. She was surprised to find Julian home from the hospital and resting quietly. I thanked Barbara for the flowers, and told her I would probably end up capturing them. Hence this image. Thanks for the flowers, Barbara!

After Julian had been home a few days, he started complaining about terrible headaches. Not too surprising with a fractured skull. But I thought I should talk to his pediatrician, the wonderful Dr. Cuthbertson of Berkeley Pediatrics.

I called Berkeley Pediatrics as soon as their phone system went on in the morning. It’s astounding the gauntlet you have to run these days to get a call back even from a caring and responsive doctor.

Harold: We’d like a call back from Dr. Cuthbertson. My son Julian fractured his skull last week, and is having headaches.

Receptionist: You don’t have to be rude.

Bottom line: A very helpful conversation with Dr. Cuthbertson, and a few days later Julian’s headaches are gone.

Dandelion I, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

A friend said to me: “I’ve been reading your blog. What is all this stuff about xrays, photograms, and cross-processing? And, could you answer in plain English, please, so I can understand what you are talking about!”

The image above is a digital photogram of dandelion, cross processed to create the colored effect. You’ll find a plainer version of the dandelion photogram at the bottom of this story.

In classical silver halide film-and-paper photography, a photogram was created by exposing an object directly on top of a piece of photosensitive paper or film without using a camera as an intermediary. The object laid on top of the paper created a kind of shadow, because the area below it was not exposed while the area not covered was. Man Ray created some of the most famous photograms, which he called Rayograms.

Here’s how I got interested in the whole area of exposing digital imagery via alternative processes, and coming up with digital-era workflows that produce images like silver-halide era alternative processes.

The ArtBeats division of New York Graphic Society asked me to come up with some imagery for their art print program. They were interested in xray images of florals.

Looking into the matter a bit, I learned that all xrays, whether film or digital, are monochromatic. So the colored “xray” images that NYGS wanted me to imitate had started as black&white xray film images that had later been hand-tinted (either digitally or using retouching paint).

Next, I discovered that the digital xray units I was likely to be able to lay my hands on didn’t have enough resolution to produce quality imagery. This was bad news, and I thought of actually acquiring an analog xray device so I could proceed. Then I realized that digital cameras are sensitive to light both above and below the visible spectrum, ultra violet (UV) and infrared (IR) light. Conventional xrays are on the UV side of the spectrum, but both sides can produce xray-like effects. These photos of a starry sky at night and of an Indian paintbrush show digital capture of light spectra that are invisible to the naked eye.

Digital cameras are, in fact, so sensitive to IR that they are all equipped with an internal filter to reduce IR sensitivity. Most cameras can be retrofitted for additional IR sensitivity by removing or modifying this filter (don’t try this at home!). In addition, certain external filters can be used to boost both IR and UV sensitivity.

I thought this was a much better place to start producing the NYGS images than an old-fashioned xray machine.

Here are the two images that Art Beats choose for their first prints in the program, Papaver Rhoeas and Cosmos Sulphereus:

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Once I started thinking about xrays, I also began to wonder about other (and different) ways to capture digital imagery. It occurred to me that I could replicate a photogram effect in a number of ways. Since a digital camera is a scanner with a lens in front, if one could blast enough light through the subject one would essentially end up with a photogram. I also figured out a way to create the initial capture using a flat bed scanner, and then use the image processing engine in one of my cameras to render the image into the vendor’s proprietary RAW file structure.

Of course, with any of these techniques digital being digital, I still needed to post-process the captures. This led me into the realm of cross processing.

In the bad old days of film, cross processing meant to process film or paper in a chemistry different from that intended. For example, E6 film could be processed in C41 chemistry, with unpredictable and sometimes exciting results.

There’s no precise analog to cross processing digital images in Photoshop, but there are a variety of different effects that could be compared to cross processing because their visual impact is somewhat similar. Two common ways to achieve cross-processing effects are to fiddle with curves, and to use a layered gradient map with different blending modes.

My own cross-processing technique is complicated, and starts with the use of LAB color. I plan to explain some of the details of the process in a future story.

Related links: Photograms topic on my blog, Photogram portfolio page, my photogram set on Flickr, Is It Photography?, Cross Processing, Photograms for the Digital Era, Rayographs.

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Ever thought about attending an online university? It’s easier than you think, and with online learning becoming so popular it’s growing everyday. There are tons of different online degrees to choose from. You can learn more techniques like the one here with an online photography degree, or any subject that you are eager to learn more about.

Fuschia 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Photography like this image of a fuschia, followed by the post-processing, is like doodling for me. The image in an ealier state is below.

Doodling while trying to relax after visiting Julian in the NICU. Posting these doodles with happiness now that it is clear that Julian is making an incredible recovery. He is out of intensive care and in a regular ward. The potentially serious issues seem to be resolving themselves without dire consequences.

It seems like he will even be home in a few days. What a brave boy! What amazing resiliency of the young!

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Petal, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I’m not sure what to say about this one. Sometimes everything seems to go right, even when it is the middle of the night and one is sick as a dog and on a crazy drug regimen and dealing with work and family stress. Well, maybe the drugs helped after all. Just kidding!