Backstage
Menu
Curtis Hendricks

DamnPhotoArtist

Photo Art* & Small Literature**
* Computer-based art that uses a photograph as a base
** Short Prose

Scroll down to find recent works

Come Closer

8/8/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
If I were to boil down the art of cooking to a single rule, with apologies to the exquisite chefs I know, it would be: Control the temperature. If I were to boil down the artistic process to a single rule, whatever genre of art one may be discussing, it would be: Control the light.

Digital photography has been a boon in that regard because there are so many ‘data points’ within a digital image through which a computer can control that light. Film is very static; very much more difficult to control. Darkroom wizards are very good at manipulating an image by changing the manner in which light hits emulsion-coated surfaces. The computer provides, however, greater precision and detail in such manipulation. But pull a film-derived image into a computer, as is the case here, and many of the tools available go away.

I’ve made the point previously that superior black and white (I still affectionately prefer to call such images ‘noir’) images start as color photographic captures to which a black and white filter is applied. Such application turns every color into shades of grey; but the artist can still use the computer to adjust colors originally present. Adjust the colors and one adjusts the shades of grey, thereby manipulating the final image. That was the technique I used in the recently completed Tornado series to create work in the near-infrared.

With black and white film, however, there are no original colors. There is nothing for the artist to adjust. Simply working with curves may or may not bring the desired contrast or highlights into the final work. There are, however, at least four different ways to add color to the image, all of which can be layered on top of one another. That will seem sloppy – image quality seems to take a nosedive. But apply a black and white filter NOW and those added colors become useful as controllable shades of grey that will increase the drama and tension present in an image. The quality of the noir improved by adding color, then taking it away.

-     -     -

NOTE: This is the third post in a series examining the application of digital techniques to film photography in creating photo art.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Curtis Hendricks

    All my life I have had to learn to do things differently. To see the world differently.

    Art attracted me from the beginning. Almost every home in the tiny farming village where I grew up had DaVinci’s ‘Last Supper’ on the wall. I would come across modern abstract art in magazines and be absolutely fascinated by the colors and techniques.

    But there were no artists in my village. No one understood what modern art was. Or why it was. But there was an appreciation for photography.

    I began shooting with a 1960 model Agfa rangefinder fixed-lens 35mm camera and learned to use darkroom techniques to finish my work. Graduating to a single lens reflex camera I worked primarily with Kodachrome. Digital photography opened a new world. The computer became the artboard I never had; the darkroom I could never afford. I discovered there would never be a camera or a lens that could capture what I saw in my head – that, I had to learn to create on my own.

    I use the photograph the same way a painter uses a charcoal sketch – as a starting place. I squeeze out the unseen hiding between the pixels; the angels, the demons of my own imagination.

    ​Light. Color. Darkness. Perspective. Introversion. Mystery. Love.

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Commune
  • Consider
  • Collect
  • Communicate
  • Commune
  • Consider
  • Collect
  • Communicate