K N O W L E D G E E X C H A N G E May 2003 Anthropology News

I N N O V A T I O N S I N P H O T O G R A P H Y

This is the seventh and last article in this series covering innovations in photography for the most important equipment areas including: camera bodies, lenses, film, film scanners, digital cameras, digital printing techniques and imageprocessing software.

lmage=Processing Software EUGENE F LALLY I rate the advent of imageprocessing and manip- ulating software, the most significant innovation to photography in my 60 years of taking phote graphs. These software programs offer powerful capabilities to correct and enhance photos and place them in formats to make distribution and publishmg your work easier and faster. This fam- ily of software moved photography from its orig- inal chemicaldarkroom roots into the digital age where dramatic improvements to print making are available.

Image-processing software allows correcting errors made by you or the camera at the time the film-based or digital images originally were made. It permits deletion of unwanted elements and addition of elements not originally in the scene. Gross problems are correctable such as: over and under exposure, lack of dramatic color, image contrast, sharpness, emulsion imperfections, dust and scratches on film. In addition you can reprint old negatives and slides that originally had prob- lems and make better prints from them now than when darkroom prints were made in the past.

Before digital techniques were available to pro- duce prints with Inkjet and laser Lightjet printers, image correcting and enhancement techniques used in traditional darkrooms were by current Wtal standards simplistic. Darkroom techniques were a learned craft. Techniques included: dodg- ing and burning selected image areas while ex- posing the printing paper, use of colored filters in front of the enlarger’s lens for overall color shift, adjustable contrast paper and other tricks of the trade that many photographers treated as propri- etary skills. With time and practice, improve- ments to prints could be accomplished with these techniques, but nothing like the range of im- provements available with today’s image-process- ing software when you have learned to master it.

The leader in this software is Adobe Photoshop, which offers extensive capabilities with so many effective techniques, usually with several differ- ent workflows to accomplish almost the same results.

What You Can Do Image-processing programs allow computer ac- cess of digital photo files from film scanners, flatbed scanners, digital cameras and their mem- ory cards, photo CDs, websites and email. While viewing the image on the computer monitor, you can easily: crop, touch up, apply automatic brightness and contrast, make individual color corrections, sharpen, remove “red eye” and add borders and designer edges.

There are two approaches to using these pro- grams. The first works for printing the reality and fidelity of the original scene; the second, for cre- ative artistic effects including deleting photo ele- ments and adding new material not originally in the scene.

My needs are aligned with landscape and photo archaeology; therefore, I am only interest- ed in preserving exactly what I record on film or digital camera files. I want reality as I pho- tographed it transferred to the print. I use Photoshop as a tool to transfer images into beau- tiful prints in my digital darkroom or to make files for a digital lab to print big enlargements exactly as I want. This reduces disputes with labs that seldom printed colors correctly in dark- rooms.

Using the second approach, artistic effects, Photoshop allows for combining several images in imaginative ways, changing colors dramatically from the originals, even adding abstract qualities and objects to create surreal images. Photoshop will let you create almost anything you can imag- ine when you master its tools.

Anthropologists will most often be working with the reality approach. Recreating your field sites and artifact images as you photographed them, under your control in Photoshop is most important. However the task of looking at an image on the computer’s monitor and knowing where to begin and how to proceed is frustrating. I have simplified an example workflow as follows.

Image-Processing Workflow Make sure the printer produces the colors you are seeing on the monitor. This is important and if you have trouble, review your printer and moni- tor manuals for color calibration help. This is a standard and frustrating problem and can be complicated to correct. 0 Open the image in your image-processing pro-

gram. 0 Use the crop tool to recompose if needed and

to proportion it to the desired print size, 4” x 6”, 5” x 7, 8“ x 10“ etc.

0 Some images may be flat and dull in color when brought into Photoshop, make general exposure and color corrections using the “Auto Levels” tool.

0 Tweak individual colors to conform to the orig- inal colors on slides viewed on a light box and to proof prints. Use “Curves”, “Levels”, “Selec- tive Color” and “Hue/Saturation” tools to ar- rive at authentic colors.

0 Work with “Adjustment Layer.” It is a mask and does not change underlying image pixels. You use one tool independently at a time and

do not disturb the remaining underlying adjustments of the image you made. When done, save the file complete with all the layers as a master file. You can return and make modifications to individual layers later if desired.

0 Printing-flatten the image to one layer; sharp en the image at this time if needed using “Un- sharp Mask,“ an unusual name given to the tool that actually sharpens images.

0 Print and review the results. 0 Make additional adjustments if needed and

0 Save the final file as a new file. “Save As” with a name you will remember and add the print size such as 5” x 7” so you can later find it and reprint as needed.

0 Note: Always retain the master file. When dif- ferent size prints are needed, work from the master and make new print sizes as needed. Save again with the new size in the name.

This workflow will get you started and if you want to become an expert in the use of an image- processing program, much study and trial-and- error printing is necessary. Much effort also was needed in the days of darkroom photography to become proficient. The difference is that digital capabilities start at a higher plateau with more capabilities. B

reprint.

Eugene F Lally (~v . la l l ypho to~ i iphy .com~ is a photo archaeologi.st. HCJ has (leveloped camera irinoviltions, con- sults to ciirnera conipunies, teuclles photopphy work- shops, exhibits Sotrtlrwcst Indian Pueblo photos it? m w - tims arid magazines, lechrres and writes.

T O O L S OF T H E T R A D E

Send news of how technology is changing the ways we do and can do anthropology to slathrop@aaanet.org.

Virtually Touring Mummies’ Bodies Using multidetector computerized technology (MDCT), a group of Italian researchers was able to study Egyptian mummies by taking a noninva- sive, although highly accurate virtual tour of the mummies’ bodies. The study reported in the March 2003 American Journal of Roentgenology (F Cesarani, et all “Whole-Body Three-Dimensional Multidetector CT of 13 Egyptian Human Mum- mies”, pp 597-606), describes how a MDCT unit scanned along the bodies in tiny increments 1.25 to 2.5 millimeters wide. Computer programs then assembled these images to create three-dimen- sional, rotatable pictures. According to the re- searchers of the study, MDCT can satisfy both researchers and preservationists, who want to study the internal structure of anthropologic items unobtrusively. For example, the Italian researchers learned that there is little difference in appearance between mummies and modem hu- mans-including indications of calcification of arteries-after scanning 13 mummies dated from 2690 BC to 395 AD.

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