Awardee: Judy Linn
Semester of Award: Fall 2018
Materials Awarded: $500 to take 4 tutorials with Richard Edelman of Woodstock Graphics to learn advanced negative scanning to enhance my own work and to be able to move forward in teaching analog and digital
photography.
Project Description:
I am extremely grateful to Vassar for the grant to study with a scanning master, Richard Edelman of Woodstock Graphic although at the end of his life he was an excellent teacher.
I learned from Richard that it was advisable not to put an unsharp mask on an analog negative when it was scanned. Digitizing the grain in a 35 mm negative in the initial Imacon scan blocked subtle tonalities which could later be revealed and augmented in Photoshop. He proposed a neutral as possible initial scan. After the image was brought into Photoshop, manipulated and refined, the image could be merged to one layer and converted for smart filters and an unsharp mask could be applied. The advantage of this process was that the grain size could be adjusted to accommodate the size of the final print. It also allowed the smart filter to be discarded and reapplied as needed. Because it was done after the image was manipulated in Photoshop it was a much more subtle and tonally dimensional sharpening. I don’t think many people go to bed at night worrying about this but to me it is an enormous advantage and makes possible a much more beautiful print. Ultimately what I learned was what a huge difference a very small adjustment in process would make. It also made me aware of how enormous a small thing like subtly could be.