Platinum Toning Series: The Gloomy Cathedral

[fx101]

While I was working on "Bovine Divinity" I came upon the technique of using channel conversion and mixing with "image calculations" to produce a B&W image that can then be "toned" via a mapping gradient on a separate layer and blended with a duplicate of the non gradient layer to produce a very good simulation of what it would look like if it was processed via Platinum Contact printing. I am aware that there is a technique of making contact print negatives using a transparency; however, I was trying to reproduce the effect digitally. I feel it really works for the cathedral depicted in this image.
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[Dylan8i]

thats a great shot... i just wish i understood a word you said of how you did it

[Xia_Ke]

Very nicely done fx. It's funny you posted this as I was just looking at prices on pt/pd supplies. The only thing I would suggest is that if you are trying to replicate a print, and not just the tone, that this seems almost too "clean". Though admittedly I have never seen a pt print in person and that comment is based solely on scanned examples I have seen online. I like the direction you are going though and hope to see more examples

Aaron

[Greg McCary]

I agree that's a great shot and you are over my head too. I think you are on to something. The only thing here that bothers me are the bright spots in the sky. It looks processed digitally in those spots and loses the effect. But again, you are on to something. Nice work.

[fx101]

thats a great shot... i just wish i understood a word you said of how you did it

Haha I'll simplify it. I take the image that lays on the "background layer" (the default layer for an image in PS). I then duplicate it a few times and name that layer whatever (1, 2, 3 or whatever floats your boat). I then take any layer other than the background layer and run "image-->calculations" on it messing around with the colour channels (you get to pick green, red, blue, grey for two slots) to see what gives me a more contrasty image closest to what I want my B&W to look like. I click OK and I end up with a moderately good B&W image albeit very contrasty/lacking dynamic range. So I then take another free layer (i.e. not that one or the "background" layer) and I use the channel mixer to mix the colours a bit until I get a nice moderate B&W image (not so contrasty, large dynamic range). Then I get rid of the extra layer (I leave an extra in case I screw something up badly) and I pick a blending mode for them that gives me something close to my desired result... in this case "multiply" I believe. I put the contrasty layer on top and put the less contrasty layer on the bottom. I use a bit of opacity on the top layer until I get close to the image you see below albeit black and white.
Optional: I ran Alien Skin Exposure 2 (a PS plugin used to simulate film) with Agra 100 simulation to obtain a third B&W layer. I blended this one with the other two layers I talked about previously. The blended order was Bottom: Least Contrasty Middle: Alien Skin version Top: "calculations"/contrasty.

After tweaking the opacity to get the right contrast and dynamic range, I set off to toning the image to get the slightly brownish platinum tone so revered by photographers. I tried making my own gradient map but I got a good one on this site: I just ran the action and then increased the saturation a bit.

The end.

[readingr]

Nice composition and since I have never seen a platinum print I have to take your work that it looks the same.

I find the composition you have here excellent and the sky adds a huge amount of interest. The only minor comment I have is that the bright part of the sky needs a little burning to tone the bright spots down just a fraction.

Other than that excellent work.

Roger

[frleal70]

This shot is incredible, love it! And, thanks for explaining your pp technique, much appreciated.

[Wild Wassa]

A most interesting post. Thankyou for all the information.

Some of the tones of the toners are very accurate on the link. In the olden days the British Journal of Photography published the formulae of each of the toners in their Yearbooks and if you wanted the toners you had to buy the chemicals like Seleniun and Gold Chloride ... at the cost of a week's wage. I was making Selenium toner well before Kodak made it readily available here in Australia ... boiling the Selenium to break it down, in a fume hood of course. Sepia and Blue toner kits were available from Kodak and Spotone but not much else was available. As students we made many of the different toners including uranium toner ... but I didn't get glow in the dark.

The Selenium Toner, in particular from the kit at the link, is extraordinary in the faithfulness of the tint to the results given by the actual liquid toner.

One of the reasons why a toner was used on paper prints, above the colour changes and the impervious coating that was given the black metalic silver to improve the longevity of the print, was that the toners like Selenium, Gold and Platinum intensified the blacks, without changing the degree of shadow detail while at the same time not changing the intensity of the midtones or the highlights. The resulting prints are very rich in their tonalities above comparable untoned prints ... the blacks went very black with Selenium, in particular. Selenium, Gold and Platinum increased the dynamic range. The toner called Selenium 2 in the kit is like when a print is over cooked from being in the toner for far too long. That I can relate too, I ruined many a print from over cooking it and sent the whites yellowish.

If you can get that look going, intensifying the blacks to a 'wow' factor, this toner system is worth the interest. HDR monitors will be around one day and no doubt readily available.

Thanks again fx101, for a very interesting expansion of the digital imaging process ... your photograph is beautiful and the toned look is striking.

Warren.