Jorgen,
I agree, your photos have a great amount of detail and clarity-just fantastic! Can you share your process?
Thanks a lot. Ok, I will try.
To start with, I'm a rather slow, elaborate photographer. When shooting street, I usually take time to get to know the area and let people getting used to my presence, synchronise my heartbeat with theirs so to say. When I shoot with the GX680, I always use a tripod (I am considering buying an MF camera that is more suitable for handheld shooting, either a Fuji GF670 folder or something with autofocus, like a Rolleiflex 6000 series or Hy6). With the F6 or other 35mm cameras, I always use lenses with wide apertures, f/1.8 or wider, to get fast shutter speeds.
My scanner is just an old Epson 3200 which I will upgrade with a Better Scanning film holder soon and possibly some better software than the standard Epson one.
Post processing is rather simple, and done in 2 or 3 steps (the scanner software I use doesn't output RAW files, so this is all done in Photoshop):
- If exposure is off, I usually adjust levels rather than exposure since I feel it gives more flexibility.
- Contrast and brightness is adjusted using curves. Curves is an amazingly powerful tool, and it's something I use in almost every photo I publish.
- The last step is sharpening. If the photo isn't perfectly sharp, I sharpen the full res photo using USM and a large radius (usually 1.5 to 2.5) and a moderate amount, usually 40-80. After reducing to web size, I practically always sharpen for web using USM again, but this time radius is 0.2 to 0.5 (photos with much detail, particularly portraits, get the smaller diameter) while the amount is increased to somewhere between 70 and 120, usually towards the lower end of that range. (These rules do not apply for printing, which is a completely different ballgame.)
Sometimes, photos give a different visual impression when presented at a smaller size, and there's a need to boost brightness and/or contrast. If that is the case, I simply use the Brightness/Contrast tool to enhance either.
I never use noise reduction on scanned images, since I see grain as a natural part of the final image when using film, but likewise, I never enhance grain. Choosing the right film for the occasion is important.
Did this contribute to anything?