Cyanotype - Digital negative

To produce a digital negative image for our upcoming Cyanotype event, I have picked a colour picture which I shot in Blackpool last summer.

First I opened is photoshop and duplicated the layer.

We need a contrasty black and white image so I turned the photograph into black and white by using the gradient map. The reason why we used this option is to keep the RGB and don't distort the colours by using the black and white option.

Then I changed the levels to make the image more saturated.

So now I have a contrasty black and white image, for printing it to a transparency film. But first I still have to adjust a few things.

To sharpen the image I used the High Pass option from the Filter -> Other menu. By using this we can lose detail so be careful with this filter.

I have changed the screen mode to overlay. So the background copy and the high pass filter now overlay.

I have to flatten the image than paint it blue with the paint bucket tool. Hot key "G". But first mix the colour for the cyanotype blue. We can do it via our colour panel. Double click on it and add Red 47 Green 161 and Blue 219.

 And use the screen mode and set it to overlay again. So the coloured image will look like this.

How lighting affects an image

Low key photography is when the photographer use less lighting in the picture and creates a moody effect by the control of the contrast.

This image show with a one light source to create the low key effect. When I have a look at this image I see a lonely and obviously very sad person in a bat tube. The control of the light which enables a low tonal range creates a very moody sad picture. I would also think about this person is really considering the option of suicide or similar because she looks very unhappy. Looks like everything in her life what she owned and beloved suddenly just disappeared. Even the bath tube is dirty and a woman with a dirty bath tube in my opinion is not so common because women always like to clean everything so I am sure she wouldn't let her bath room look so dirty and unassuming. So she doesn't even care about anything anymore. That is my opinion and that's what I think of this image. It is a very depressing image thanks to the low light setup.

On this website you can see more works from this photographer.

High key photography is the opposite of low key. A bit more like happiness and creating more smoother images.

The photographer on this image used the technique very well. It is a black and white picture again but this picture is completely opposite to the image before I've shown. It is a very delightful image as it is a wedding picture it has to be happy. The high key also adds joyful feeling to the atmosphere. The details are blown out the image I would call more "smooth" and easy to see, thanks to the technique. It gives the feeling that the couple on the image are very very happy obviously it is one of their happiest moment in their life. The image composed heavenly how the couple steps out of the light and all eyes on them seems to be a happy couple. With this method in photography is easy to create this kind of happy image. Often used in portraits or fashion photography and goes well with wedding.

Photographers website here.