Enter ASMP’s annual photo contest Image ‘10

Posted by doteditions on February 8, 2010

image10

Dot Editions is one of the proud sponsors of the 2010 contest!

Enter online: image-ny.org (must be an ASMP member to access the site)

Submissions are open to professional, serious, amateur, and student photographers residing within the United States. First prize winners in each category (professional and student) will have their winning image published in a full page ad in PDN magazine as well as in a promotional mailer to be sent to 2000 art directors, art buyers and photo editors in New York and other major cities throughout the United States.

View past winners here.

We look forward to working with one of the winners!

Calibration work-around: match your image on the monitor to your print

Posted by doteditions on February 5, 2010

The frustration we most often hear from photographers making their own prints is “why doesn’t my print match my monitor?” How does one achieve color management at home or in the studio? If possible, invest in a good monitor! We recommend the Eizo ColorEdge CG211 (runs around $2500) or the NEC MultiSync LCD2190 series (around $900), and calibrate using the Eye-One puck and software.

If you can’t afford either of these monitors, here’s a place to get started for monitor settings: Color temperature 6500K, gamma 1.8.

If you’re using an Apple Cinema Display, remember that these monitors are extremely saturated and contrasty, and most likely, your print will look flat and lifeless in comparison.

Assuming that you are correctly applying printer profiles, this work-around should help you better control color managmenent (we will discuss using printer profiles in a later blog post). Your best work-around is to make an adjustment layer on your Photoshop file that you TURN OFF when you go to print. Use these simple steps:

1. Make a print from an image that you think has good skin tone, contrast, nice highlights and shadows.

2. Put your print next to your monitor in decent light. Ideally you would view your print in a daylight balanced light box similar to the GTI viewers. Most people don’t have this, so use diffused, even soft window light if possible. Remember that as the light changes through-out the day in your room, so will your calibration.

3. Make an adjustment layer curve on the image you printed from, and match the image on the monitor to the print. Take your time here, match the image on the monitor to the print as best you can in terms of color, contrast, and saturation. (If you make a few layers, group them together). You should be able to do it with just one curve layer.

4. Name the adjustment layer or the group “TURN OFF WHEN PRINTING” (you can color the layer red as well, by control + clicking on the eye icon on the layer palate)

5. As you make further adjustments to the image to perfect your print, always keep that “TURN OFF WHEN PRINTING” layer on top of you layer stack.

6. Finally, make sure to turn off that layer when printing! Save a PSD file with all your layers (including the TURN OFF WHEN PRINTING layer). Duplicate the layered image, turn that layer off, then flatten (Photoshop will ask you if you want to Discard the hidden layers, click OK) and save as a Tiff file for printing.

monitor-print-workaround

COMING SOON: Soft proofing through Photoshop

Tonight’s round-up of gallery openings

Posted by doteditions on February 4, 2010

It’s first Thursday in DUMBO – so some interesting shows opening there, including Eric Hairabedian and Kris Graves book pre-launch and exhibition, “A Queens Affair” at Farmani Gallery.

Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian, A Queens Affair

Eric Hairabedian, Kris Graves “A Queens Affair” at Farmani Gallery, 111 Front street, suite 212, 6-8pm

A Queens Affair is a culmination of eight years of photographing the development, fixed characteristics and spirited nature of Queens, New York. Both Kris Graves and Eric Hairabedian were born and raised in and around Queens and through their photographic partnership share a visual history of their beloved borough.  A special selection of images from the book will be on exhibit and available for purchase for the duration of the show. After which these images will be available in small editions at the Farmani Gallery web site.

In Soho, Madga Biernat opens at Clic Gallery

© Madga Biernat opens at Clic Gallery

© Madga Biernat opens at Clic Gallery

Magda Biernat “Continental Bounce” at Clic Bookstore & Gallery, Soho: 424 Broome street, 6-9pm

MAGDA BIERNAT’s graceful, color-saturated photographs of architectural structures recently won her first place in the Architecture/Interiors category at the 2009 International Photography Awards. CONTINENTAL BOUNCE showcases the photographs taken during the year she spent traveling the world, photographing the built environment and living spaces in 17 countries. Her vibrant, minutely detailed shots are deliberately void of any known geographic or cultural identifiers, and the viewer is left to search out any possible clues of location as they look at an arid South African township, a futuristic Taiwanese diving resort, or the interior of a yurt in Mongolia.

In Chelsea, the Foley Gallery has Lydia Panas opening

© Lydia Panas

© Lydia Panas

Lydia Panas “The Mark of Abel” at Foley Gallery,  27 street: 547 W 27 street, floor 5, 6-8pm

Lydia Panas is an observer of the family dynamic.  In her photographs, she manages to capture subtle hints of those complex relationships that tend to exist within the extended family or circles of friends.  Her photographs examine the way in which these relationships are simultaneously a product of and an influence upon the identity of each member of the family group.  The subjects are arranged similarly in each image; in some verdant setting, they openly face the camera through a narrowly selective depth of field.

And at Gladstone Gallery, Jan Dibbets

© Jan Dibbets

© Jan Dibbets

Jan Dibbets at Gladstone Gallery,  24 street: 515 W 24 street, 6-8pm

Born in the Netherlands in 1941, Dibbets trained to be a painter, but turned to the photographic medium in the late 1960s. Harnessing the potential of photography to elucidate the conceptual variables of optics, his witty yet rigorous investigations of the elastic synthesis between object and space resulted in acute queries of vision and reality. Dibbets’ practice often resulted in richly paradoxical photographs such as his “Perspective Correction” series in which trapezoids drawn on his studio wall became perfect squares through the camera’s transformation of three-dimensional space into two-dimensional images.

And the big winner is…

Posted by doteditions on February 3, 2010

© Peter Riesett, from Migrations

© Peter Riesett, from Migrations

….Peter Riesett!!! We randomly drew Pete’s name from a hat containing the names of all the people who donated to Doctors Without Borders for our gift certificate raffle. We look forward to working with him in the studio!

Thanks to many generous donations, we raised $500 to go to Doctors Without Borders in their Haitian emergency relief efforts.

Join us Tues. Feb. 9 for a digital printing discussion

Posted by doteditions on February 1, 2010

Join us for a discussion on digital printing : How to take control of your images in the digital darkroom

When: Tuesday Feb. 9 (6-9pm)

Where: 119 8th Street, Studio 210, Brooklyn (near the F, G, M, R trains at the 4th Avenue/9th street stop)

This event will help photographers take control of producing prints for exhibition and portfolio. In this discussion, printer Rocky Kenworthy will share his extensive knowledge of what goes into making an optimal archival pigment print. This is an excellent opportunity for photographers to get questions answered on topics such as:

• What paper is best for your digital printing project.
• How to make a master print.
• What Photoshop tools and tricks are best for getting the most out of contrast, color, and sharpening.
• Benefits of using RIP software.
• How to control color management from monitor to print.
• Mounting and laminating options for pigment printing.

This is a free event in our printing studio. Please bring a drink or snack to share with your fellow photographers!
Discussion will start promptly at 6:30. Doors open at 6pm.

Please click here to RSVP (required)

Last chance: contest deadlines!

Posted by doteditions on January 29, 2010

Picture 1American Photography 26
Final Deadline Tuesday, February 2 at 8AM EST Enter Now.
Fees: $35 per photograph $95 per published book, catalog, annual report, calendar or video
$95 per editorial, advertising, or personal series of up to 10 related images

Picture 3PDN Photo Annual 2010: Feb 17

Single entry: $55, Campaign/Series: $65, Student: $35

Extended Entry Fees

SINGLE ENTRY: $55

CAMPAIGN/SERIES: $65

STUDENT: $35 (single or series)

SINGLE ENTRY: $55CAMPAIGN/SERIES: $65, STUDENT: $35 (single or series)

Thursday January 28 photo openings

Posted by doteditions on January 28, 2010

Another exciting round-up of openings tonight:

stein-ulrich

Caption Gallery, Instruments of Empire: Amy Stein & Brian Ulrich, Brooklyn, NY, Jan 28 – Mar 25

“Caption Gallery is pleased to announce a dual exhibition of photographs by Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich. Their powerful, dystopic visions expose the transformation of human beings into consumers, with little power or agency.”


Steven-kasher-gallery

Cynthia MacAdams “Feminist Portraits, 1974-1977″and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders “Supermodels of the 70s and 80s” at Steven Kasher Gallery, 23 street: 521 W 23 street, 6-8pm

Cynthia MacAdams: “Steven Kasher Gallery is pleased to present a distinguished body of work by photographer Cynthia MacAdams. The exhibition will feature over 70 vintage black and white photographic prints of female artists, activists and intellectuals from the 1970s, as well as everyday women and nudes.”

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: “The exhibition will feature ten large-format portraits of legendary Supermodels from the 1970s and 1980s taken in 2009 while Greenfield-Sanders was working on a project for Vanity Fair magazine. Timothy writes: I have always been interested in how we deal with aging in our hopelessly youth oriented society. These beautiful and amazing women, now in their fifties, were once the reigning queens of American beauty  and the ultimate icons of world-wide marketing.”

Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf “Hotel & Dawn / Dusk” at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler, 24 street: 537 W 24 street, 6-8pm

“HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER is pleased to announce ERWIN OLAF: HOTEL & DAWN / DUSK, new photographs and videos by this well-known Dutch artist. The exhibition runs from January 28 – March 20, 2010 with a reception for the artist on Thursday, January 28th from 6 to 8 PM. This is Mr. Olaf’s third solo New York show in recent years following his successful debuts with RAIN and HOPE in 2005 followed by GRIEF in 2007. DAWN and DUSK reflect the maturity in Mr. Olaf’s approach to making photographs and his consideration of form and content.”

How to process a RAW file for imaging purposes – Dot Editions style.

Posted by doteditions on January 26, 2010

When we at Dot Editions are processing out a RAW file for retouching, we process it out with a wide gamut as possible. A traditional negative has a huge gamut range – so when you take it into the darkroom, you can push it around any way you want in regards to contrast, openness, masking, etc. We keep the same process in mind when a client brings us RAW files that he or she wants retouched in a certain way.

This process will give you a file that you can push or pull in any direction you see fit – though at first it will look somewhat flat and desaturated. The reason is that if you process it out with a specific style, you are nailed into that style once you bring it into Photoshop for manipulation. You  may ask, what about processing it out as a smart object, and then adjusting it later? For me, this doesn’t work, because once I bring it into PS, I start working on skin, dodging and burning, masking … and all that work goes out the window if I go back and change the way the original layer was processed.

Keep in mind that with all photographic processes, there is more than one way to skin the cat, so another way may work better for you.  Here’s a summary of steps we take when processing out in Camera RAW. Many thanks to Michel Leroy who let us use his image.

1. Open your image in Camera RAW. Click on your workflow options (at the middle bottom of the window). Process your file out as a 16 bit, ProPhoto RGB file at its native size.

step01

2. In the Basic adjustment window, adjust your exposure and blacks so that everything is within the histogram, nothing is clipping. Command + click on the exposure slider and move it until there is no white showing, meaning all your highlights are within gamut.step02

Do the same for the shadow areas by command + clicking and sliding the Blacks slider – until no shadow area is out of gamut (no black is showing, it’s all white).

step03

You can activate your histogram warnings to show you what is clipping as well. Here is an example of a good looking histogram.

Picture 2

Once you get  your exposure and blacks set, you can adjust brightness, contrast, and clarity until you like the look of your image. Then go to the Tone Curve and adjust it until you like it – but keeping the image open so you can further manipulate it in Photoshop later.

step04

2. Next, adjust your color in Hue/Saturation. I adjusted the reds and oranges slightly to even out his skin tone.

step05

3. Then, I used the adjustment brush to selectively tone down his white shirt, and to bring some color back to his lips. Again,  these are general adjustments so I can get a good start for manipulating further in Photoshop.

step06

4. Finally, adjust the sharpness. When dealing with skin, we don’t want to sharpen the skin too much – but we certainly want the eyes, mouth, and other details to be sharp. In the preview, zoom to 100%. If you option click on the masking slider, and move it to the right, you can mask off (in black) broad areas of the skin that we don’t want to sharpen.

step07

Here is the final result:

© Michel Leroy

© Michel Leroy

We’ve upped the ante:

Posted by doteditions on January 21, 2010

We raised the amount of our the gift certificate we’re raffling off to $750 in hopes of reaching our goal of $1000!
100% of the proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders in their efforts to assist Haitian earthquake victims.

The raffle is open now until Friday January 29. The winner will be randomly selected and announced Monday February 1st.

Where we’re going tonight:

Posted by doteditions on January 21, 2010

Trying Them On at the Hendershot Gallery

© Helen Maurene Cooper, Trying Them On at the Hendershot Gallery

Trying Them On – Curated by Jon Feinstein
Presented by Humble Arts Foundation and Hendershot Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 504 (6-8 pm)

“This group exhibition includes five photographers whose work explores fascination with “the other” through gendered, sexual, racial and subcultural costuming. The exhibiting photographers depict white Europeans and westerners who glamorize and vilify other cultures, at times presenting them as the enemy, while at others declaring them a cultural muse. On the surface, the latter appears to be an attempt to understand or elevate them, but in many cases this actually leads to further complication by turning their identities into caricatures. This exhibition also explores the motivations for this role-play: is it an act of mere flattery? What does it mean to try on the skin or cultural signifiers of another?”

David Maisel, "Library of Dust 28"

© David Maisel, "Library of Dust 28"

David Maisel, Library of Dust
Von Lintel Gallery 520 West 23rd Street, Ground Floor (6-8 pm)

“David Maisel’s Library of Dust features copper canisters in varying states of metamorphosis.”…”The canisters, once stored in a dilapidated outbuilding of a state-run psychiatric hospital, hold the cremated remains of people—more specifically, the unclaimed ashes of the asylum’s patients. The Oregon State Hospital, inaugurated as the Oregon State Insane Asylum in 1883, interred the canisters in an underground vault in the mid-1970s. As the vault flooded repeatedly, the canisters—some containing remains more than a century old—underwent potent transformations. The chemical composition of each cremated body’s ashes has caused unique and colorful mineralogical blooms to form on its individual copper surface.”

© Anne Collier

© Anne Collier

Anne Collier at Anton Kern Gallery, 532 West 20th Street (6-8pm)

“It takes more than a first glance at Anne Collier’s photographs to understand what you’re looking at. Books, magazines, and other media sit upon neutral, boldly geometric backgrounds, setting up an uneasy contrast between the found image and the composition. A book open to a close-up of a woman’s eye rests on a black background; nearby, two German photography mags from the ’70s betray the prurient undertones of early amateur photography.”– H.G. Masters

© Joe Pflieger at Monya Rowe Gallery

© Joe Pflieger at Monya Rowe Gallery

Joe Phlieger, Photographs
Monya Rowe Gallery, 504 West 22nd St, 2nd Floor  (6-8 pm)

“Pflieger presents a series of photographs mostly taken in museums in cities such as St. Petersburg, Venice, Milan, Copenhagen and New York depicting historically accurate reconstructions of interiors. The surface, a vital part of the work itself, of each photograph is approached with a strong kinship to painting and organically captured, without the aid of computer manipulation, with a digital camera.”

© Mandy Corrado, The Year In Pictures

© Mandy Corrado, from The Year In Pictures

The Year in Pictures – from the blog pictureyear.blogspot.com
Danziger Projects,  534 West 24th Street, NYC (6-8pm)

Featuring the work of: Jowhara AlSaud, Chan-Hyo Bae, Thomas Bangsted, Mandy Corrado, Stephen Gill, Joseph Holmes, Alejandra Laviada, Greg Miller, David Schoerner, Patrick Smith, Tommy Ton, Scout Tufankjian, Oliver Warden, Katherine Wolkoff, Tsukasa Yokozawa

And in remembrance of: Evelyn Hofer, Helen Levitt, Irving Penn, Julius Shulman, Bettie Page, and Charis Wilson

“The exhibition “The Year in Pictures” presents a selection of photographs featured in the blog “The Year in Pictures” (pictureyear.blogspot.com). Begun in 2007, the blog has been a platform for my personal enthusiasm about the medium – a place to share good and new work that is sent to me or that I see on my travels; alert readers to new exhibitions, books, and other photography events; and reflect on ideas and issues. Since it’s inception, the blog has posted over 500 stories, received over a million visits, and is viewed an average of 50,000 times a month.”