[regken]

While lurking on the other forum I ran across a post by Benjamin Kanarek a Canadian professional photographer working out of France that is now sponsored Pentax. His praise for Pentax was outstanding but that would be expected from somebody getting free equipment. The reason for this post is he describes part of his post processing technic that I would like to try if I understood it. The following is his description. Does anybody understand it? Also listed are his web sites that I haven't looked at yet.

My standard post prod procedure has always been to accentuate at 0.3 pixels at 300 percent and after doing so and if the image is not too contrasty to accentuate again at 10 to 15 pixels at 40 to 60 percent to pump up the definition and contrast. I will often create another layer and add the soft light option and set file and opacity to between 60 to 80 percent and flatten the layer. If you want to see that "FLAT DIGITAL" look disappear this is the technique employed by the best post prod imaging houses in the world. You thought medium format film popped? Well try this and have a ball.
He then corrected himself in a later post with this “Pardon the misquote please...I meant to say 40-60 pixels at 10 to 15 percent... “



Gallery :: Photography by Benjamin Kanarek
:: Pressbook.com - Benjamin Kanarek ::
Olaphoto.com : zoom sur Benjamin Kanarek
LUMAS - Photo. Art. Editions. - BENJAMIN KANAREK - Auswahl - Black Sky - White Soul I

Regards,

[benjikan]

When you have imported your RAW image in to photoshop or a unsharpened neutral JPEG, you accentuate the image i.e.unsharp mask at 0.3 pixels at 240 to 330 percent. After doing so you unsharp mask at 40 to 60 pixel at 10 to 15 percent. Once you have done that, you go to layers and click on duplicate layer. Here is where you have two very important choices. This will affect the look of the image. One will accentuate and highlight the blacks and the other will accentuate the colors and the shadows. For the later you will de-saturate the layer. Go to the layers menu and you will see an icon labeled "Normal". Click on that icon and you will open a file with several lighting options. Choose soft light. This in my opinion will have too much contrast. You have an opacity and fill bar. I generally reduce the fill and opacity any where from 50 to 80 percent. Once you have done that and if pleased by the result, flatted the image in the Layers Menu and "Voila" a medium format film look in digital. Second option is DO NOT de-saturate the image. Keep it in color and do exactly what was done in the previous method. You will have a highly saturated and profound looking image.

Benjamin Kanarek
Paris, France

[regken]

Thanks!!! I have to try this. OH!!! WOW!!! Just tried it. What a look!!! Thank you so much!!!

[benjikan]

Ken;

Just remember to desaturate the duplicate layer for the first process and to not desaturate the duplicate in the second process, keeping it in color. You are effectively doubling or sandwiching the image. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Regards
Ben

[Alvin]

Very nice to see a pro in this forum! Welcome!

[regken]

Ben,
The threshold level is set at 0?

[benjikan]

Sure is threshold "0"

[borno]

welcome ben, and thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'm new to digital processing and tried this tip with a tiff in paint shop pro 7 and it is really nice! I wouldn't have tried the layering if I hadn't read your post.
tom b.

[trog100]

can we see an example.. a before and after effect.. ??

trog

[ericc]

Welcome to the forums, Ben and thank you for the technique.

Where are the instances where you apply this technique? I see you do a lot of studio work, so is this where your technique is put to best use, or can I use it on landscapes, sports photos, candids, etc.?

-E

[benjikan]

You can apply this technique to any image. In fact it is even more applicable for images with less contrast, overcast or cloudy images. I did state that the settings are variable in my earlier posts.

[Falcons]

Welcome Benjikan,
I tried your workflow and loved it - your art is absolutely awesome and I am so glad you have shared it with us.

here is a shot in which I used your workflow.

[GregNS]

Hi Benjikan,
Welcome to this forum and thank you so much for sharing your pp techniques with us!

I am no stranger to the first step (0.3 pixels and ~200%) but the second pass with USM as well as the 50% opacity layering (soft light) is new to me. I just tried it on a picture of my daughter and WOW!

Just a couple of days ago I was staring at some of my pictures and wondering why mine seemed almost a bit "washed out" compared to some of the truly great shots I've seen where the colors really "pop" (settings?, lens? etc etc).
While these are all important, your techniques have really helped bring some of my shots alive.

I tried it twice: once with a color layer and once with the unsaturated layer and the unsaturated layer trick really did a nice job for this particular picture.

Thanks again.

[Scott Rylance]

Hi Ben,
Very helpful and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Welcome to the forum too. ;^)

[regken]

In a later post Ben added this:
Now just one more Bit of Eye candy and after you have done the manipulations I discussed earlier...Go in to the shadow highlight menu and do shadow and highlight at 2 percent each tonal width 50 on each and a radius of 30 pixels on each and you'll be in heaven.
Ben, This workflow in great. I have taken the liberty of processing a photo here to show what it does. The 1st one is a lightroom converted raw that was zeroed out on all settings except for recovery and fill light so the histogram was in the middle of the graph. The second one is the first technique you described plus the shadow/highlight work. The last one is done with the second method plus the shadow/highlight work.
This process is going to be of great value to me. Thank you for pointing it out.
Regards,