Keep in mind that this method is what works for us at Dot Editions. By no means is this the only way or the right way – it’s the way that works for us. This is all about trial and error, as well as your personal preference on how you want your prints to  look. Just like in the darkroom!

We would like to thank Radhika Chalasani for allowing us to use her image for these printing demonstrations.

Here we go, starting from the basics of printing through Photoshop:

Download and install the Epson Driver for free from Epson’s website.

Download your choice of  paper’s ICC profiles from that paper’s manufacturer. For this example, we’re printing with Hahnemuhle Bartya.

• Go to your paper manufacturer’s website
• Find where they have the ICC Profiles. They are free to download.
• Select the right ICC profile by finding your printer on the list, then by finding your paper type.
• Click to download.

Put the ICC profile in the proper place.

• Find the ICC profile on your computer (probably on the desktop or in “Downloads”). The ICC icon will look like this:
• Drop the ICC profile in the correct folder:
• Macintosh HD/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

While you are at your paper manufacturer’s website, determine their recommendations for paper handling.

• For example, if you have a matte paper, do they suggest setting the media type as Enhanced Matte, UltraSmoothFineArt, or Watercolor Paper?
• If you are printing on a glossy paper, is it Luster, SemiGloss, or Glossy?

Once you have done these steps, and your image is ready to print, go to File/Print. Follow the instructions below to properly handle the settings in the print dialog boxes.

Initial print dialogue box options:

Select your printer, then click Page Setup

Page Setup Dialogue box options:

Manage Custom Sizes (if you are using an unusual size paper)

Page Setup Dialogue box with your selected options:

Click OK on Page Setup.

That will take you back to your initial printer dialogue box. This is the box where you select the paper profile that you downloaded earlier. In this example, we are using one of Dot Editions custom profiles for Hahnemuhle Baryta. We find that choosing “Perceptual” with Black Point Compensation checked works well for pigment printing.

After you press “Print” you will be taken to another print dialogue box, with more options to select.  (In the newest version of the Epson Driver for CS4 Extended, the options are collapsed into one window for “Print Settings” and “Printer Color Management”. These screenshots are from the older version that has these options separated. The choices will be the same.)

Here in Print Settings and Color Management is where you need to pay careful attention to what you are selecting. For Media Type, refer to your paper manufacturer and see what they recommend for the surface you are using.

One last window before you really print! Turn Color Management OFF (or else you are throwing everything out the window!)

If you would like this tutorial in a PDF version, please email us at print@doteditions.com

In an ideal world, color would be consistent from the scene in front of the camera, to what we see on the monitor, to the final print.  Consistency from  various  digital imaging devices requires a sophisticated knowledge of color management. In this hands-on discussion, we will help artists and photographers gain deeper understanding of how to get a good match from the monitor to the print.

Included in this discussion:

• A work-around to match the image on screen to the print
• Best practices for monitor calibration
• Color profiles
• Soft-proofing

Please RSVP. This is a free event, so please bring a beverage or snack to share!

A very small taste of what the 300+ exhibitors have to offer at The Armory Show:

Philip-Lorca diCorcia at David Zwirner Patrick Jacobs at Pierogi

Patrick Jacobs at Pierogi

Armory Show Focus:Berlin

Christina Kruse was the subject of a video shoot for German TV

Artist Christina Kruse visited Dot Editions today to document her collaborative process of printmaking with Rocky Kenworthy. The crew filmed her working at a computer station with Rocky, as well as looking at pigment papers and prints. The piece will air on the German culture and lifestyle television station ARD in mid-March. Christina printed her solo show at Dot Editions that was exhibited at Steven Kasher Gallery in March 2009, and has been printing with Dot Editions on various projects for the past four years.

Dot Editions first HDR test, 2008

March 9: Color Management Discussion (6:30-9pm, doors open at 6pm)

In this hands-on discussion, we will demonstrate a work-around that photographers printing at home or in the studio can use to match the print to the image on the monitor. This trick will help artists become more efficient when printing, and hopefully will relieve some of the frustration that can arise when perfecting a print.

We will also discuss:
•    Best practices for monitor calibration
•    Paper profiles
•    Soft-proofing

This is a good opportunity to get your questions about color management answered.

In the meantime, check out the tutorials we’ve posted, including one on monitor calibration using Eye One Match, and a Photoshop work-around for matching your image on the monitor to your print.

Please RSVP, and as always, this event is free, so please bring a beverage or snack to share!

TWO UPCOMING HDR DISCUSSIONS:

March 23: HDRi Discussion at Dot Editions Studio. Please RSVP to Dot Editions HDR event here.
April 6th: ASMPNY Discussion (at Tabula Rasa Studio & Event Loft Space). For more info on the ASMYNY HDR event, click here.

In both of these events, we will define HDR and how to use it as a tool not a look. How it’s being used in the commercial world of photography today as well as the fine art world. What is the future of HDR and how you as a photographer can start utilizing this powerful tool.

A good time was had by all at Tuesday night’s Show & Tell premiere event. Thank you to all who came for braving the downpour! A special thanks to the three artists who generously presented their work, Josh Gosfield, Mike Peters, and Joao Carlos.

Josh talked about the origins and inspirations for his project, Gigi Gaston: The Black Flower.

Mike Peters presented a slide show of his personal work he has done in New Jersey, street portraiture from a perspective of thinking about the American dream, and how it has played out on the faces of working people.

Joao Carlos showed his fashion photography, discussing the cinematic, artistic, and literary influences on his photography.

We’re already working on the next line up for Show & Tell. Stay tuned for more details!

If you would still like to RSVP, it looks like space will be limited, but come on by! Directions to the studio can be found here. This is a free event, so please bring a snack or drink to share! Doors open at 6pm, the talks will begin promptly at 6:30.

Here’s a bit about the four guest artist speakers, who will each give a 20 minute talk, followed by questions from the audience.

Josh Gosfield will share images from his series Gigi Gaston: The Black Flower, which recently showed at Steven Kasher Gallery.

From the press release:

“Josh Gosfield has assembled the definitive archive devoted to the 1960s French pop star Gigi Gaston. Gigi’s music and the spectacle of her tragic life riveted the public through the 60s and 70s. The exhibition documents her life and loves with archival photographs, posters, record covers, magazine and newspaper articles, a music video shot by Jean Luc Godard, documentary footage, and assorted ephemera. We see her Gypsy family’s escape from Bulgaria, her affair with her stepbrother, her first guitar, her rise up (and fall down) the charts,  the car crashes, funerals, love triangles and the murder trial. All this played out in a garish media spotlight before the insatiable eyes of her public.”…”In fact Gigi Gaston did not exist. Her persona and all her documents are the fictional creation of Josh Gosfield working with the aid of actors, stylists, make up artists, and Photoshop. This exhibition can leave you wondering if Madonna exists. How do you know?”

Mike Peters:

“I wander neighborhoods similar to the one I was raised in, an industrial working class suburb in New Jersey. In the faces and facades that I encounter along the way, I find a patina that can only be derived from a life lived hard. There exists an unpretentiousness for which I feel a close affinity, and in which I see much that is familiar yet want to know better. I find beauty in these faces and facades, especially when they give a hint to the inner complexities that lie beneath the surface.” … “There is a sense of ordinariness to these people and places that lie in stark contrast to life as portrayed in the media. There is nothing at all sensational going on here, just life being lived by ordinary people who do not regularly demand our attention. These are the people and places I am interested in; these are the people and places my work is all about.”

Joao Carlos:

Joao was recently awarded one The Hasselblad Masters Award in 2009 for wedding/social photography. From the website: “Joao is especially inspired by 18th century and combines influences from this era with fantasy driven ideas from novels, lyrics, and poems that together can form the foundation for a strong image. Joao envisions his photography as an opportunity to create inspiring pieces of artwork, to go beyond the conventionality and impermanence of fashion and commercial photography, and to take his images to a lasting fine-art level. His appreciation for the arts in all aspects is what continues to inspire and drive him while capturing the stories in his lens.”

Marc Dimov:

“Marc Dimov’s imagery spans landscape, still life and portraiture, rendering the limitless possibilities in which the photographic medium can be transformed. In his “Storm Basins” series, the artist creates surreal images of dramatically lit suburban environments, and as with all his work, continues to question the visual language of photography. … Dimov was born in The Berkshires, Massachusetts in 1980. He received his BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2005. His work has been exhibited in various locations throughout New York City and New England including: powerHouse Arena (Brooklyn), James Cohen Gallery (Chelsea), Cue Art Foundation (Chelsea), Artist’s Space (Soho), and South Shore Art Center (Cohassett, MA) to name a few.”

First of all, here’s where to access the layer blending modes in the  layer palate:

Pull down the drop-down menu to see what options there are.

Give your image depth & contrast with a Soft Light layer:

• Stamp together all your adjustment layers into one layer on top of your adjustment layer stack (press Option + Command + SHIFT + letter “e” at the same time)
• Change the blending mode in the layer panel to Soft Light.
• You’ll see that your image gets a lot darker. Adjust the opacity until you like it (try between 25% and 50%)

• Another good trick when using blending modes (or doing anything with layers) is to make a keyboard command for turning on and off a layer – so you can see exactly what that layer is doing. We set the F1 key to turn on and off the layer. Under Edit go to  Keyboard Shortcuts. Find the Layer options (there will be a triangle next to “Layer”, open the options by clicking on the triange). Scroll down until you see Hide Layers. Click next to it under Shortcut, and a box opens up – type the F1 key in there. Press Accept to override other functions assigned to the F1 key.

Using the color blending mode to correct uneven skin tones

• Make a new layer. In the layers panel, Option + click on the icon that looks like a turned up piece of paper, or under the Layers panel, select New.
• You’ll get some options. Name the layer “color” and under Mode, choose Color. Click OK.

• With the eyedropper tool, select a nice skin tone color.
• Using the brush tool with soft edges and a low “flow” (keep Opacity at 100%), brush the color in the area that needs to be corrected. You might have to lower the opacity of that layer.

How to get detail in the shadows of an image that is too dark with Shadows/Highlights (not exactly a blending mode but another good trick):

• Stamp together all your adjustment layers into one layer on top of the layer stack (press Option + Command + SHIFT + letter E)
• Go to Image/Adjustments/Shadows and Highlights
• Use the default settings
• Adjust to opacity to a low amount, around 10% to 15%. You’ll see that the shadows open up without looking forced or solarized.

There are many other uses of blending layers, some of which we will be discussing in later posts. With blending modes, you can create a dodge and burn layer, or a layer to add noise/grain, or you can add sharpening through filtering a layer in a blending mode. Stay tuned for more info on these methods!

Myriam Babin: Arctic Recent Photographs

Dot Editions worked with Myriam Babin to produce work that opens in  her photo exhibition tonight at Heskin Contemporary (443 West 37th, 6-9pm)

“Myriam Babin’s recent nine-day journey up the coast of Norway to the Svalbard Island deep into the Arctic circle, the photographer found herself captivated by the 24 hours of sunlight, and the constant evolving scenery.  Initially the waters among the fjords were silky and reflective.  Heading north, the weather worsened, the sea took on a darker, more menacing character.  Upon first encountering sea ice, the shipped slowed in order to navigate around the large pieces that could be icebergs in disguise.  Other then the sound of sea ice brushing past the hull, there was an incredible stillness.  In these photographs, Babin sought to capture the meditative quality of the endless, austere landscape.  She found solace in being at the ends of the earth.the earth.”

Dot Editions is excited to announce the premier of Show & Tell, Photographers Salon, Tuesday February 23, 2010, 6:30 to 9pm (doors open at 6:00, artists talks start promptly at 6:30)

In this new, bi-monthly event, four artists will have the opportunity to give a twenty-minute talk about a body of their recent work.

Sign up early to present your work! Three photographers plus a special guest will present and discuss their work, followed by questions from the audience.

Please RSVP for this event, and indicate whether or not you would like to be a featured artist.

We are happy to have  Josh Gosfield as special guest artist for the premier. Josh recently had a solo show featuring over fifty prints, all ephemera devoted to covering the fictional life of Gigi Gaston – the Black Flower.

If you are interested in giving an artist talk but miss this chance, don’t fret, we will be hosting this event again!

This event is free, so please bring something to share with your fellow artists!