A Contemporary Auto Chrome, thanks to Adobe PhotoShop
Taken In Near Darkness
With A Fuji FinePix E900
And Then Manipulated In Adobe PhotoShop 7
The incomparable Dr. Richard Bandler once wrote of how he placed aluminum foil in a microwave oven, simply to see what would happen. It had been contra-recommended in the microwave’s instructions.
It’s incredibly good advice, when it comes to photographic technique. I always test any software, or gadget to the point of destruction, for that’s where the technical creativity is to be found. Here’s what I mean.
The picture above was taken in near total darkness using my new Fuji FinePix E900 at 800 ISO. Naturally the image suffers with noise.
I used a filter in Adobe PhotoShop 7 to remove as much of the noise as possible from the image, and then was struck just how similar the texture was to the auto chrome colour images that were being taken 100 years ago.
Using the variations tool in PhotoShop I brought up the brightness and reduced some of the colour. Then I created a duplicate layer and de saturated it. After setting black and white as my pallet I selected the adjutments-invert tool and made a negative of the image, From there it was a simple matter to use the Distort-Diffuse-Glow filter to create a dreamy look for the new layer, especially once it was converted back to a positive.
The opacity of the layer was then reduced to 65%, which allowed the subtle colour of Amazon’s flesh tone and cardigan to emerge, whilst darkening the deep brown of the wood paneling behind her.
I’m quite pleased with the result, even if I doubt if such an image will bear much enlargement?
Enroll for our digital photography course. It can be delivered to your in box at no cost to you. To sign up just Click Here.
