[at-l] Cutting the haze

[bullard@northnet.org (James Bullard)]

Nice photos Ryan.  Black and white works a little differently than 
color.  During Civil War times the emulsions (there was no color film) were 
all very blue sensitive.  Look at Matthew Brady's photos and you'll see 
blank white skies with no clouds.  They didn't learn to make film with red 
sensitivity until much later.  The films that were sensitive to red as well 
as blue light were called 'panchromatic'.  Black and white films are 
formulated to give good separation of tones (dark/light) without regard to 
the hue (what most refer to as color) of the original tone.  Also B&W 
rendition can be manipulated in the exposure by using highly colored 
filters (various yellows, orange or red) to change the ratio of the red end 
of the spectrum to the blue end.  Color films are formulated to give a 
credible representation in the final slide or print. That representation is 
not necessarily realistic in the sense that it accurately records the real 
color.  Highly colored filters like those used in B&W would mangle the 
credibility of the color rendition.

In regard to scanning, I've found that whether my original is black and 
white or color, I get a better B&W scan if I scan the original in color 
mode and then convert to B&W than I do by scanning directly to B&W. This is 
probably because my scanner has a maximum of 256 shades in the B&W mode but 
16 million+ in color.  The more information you have in the original 
digital file the better.  You can manipulate the image with all the data 
from the color scan then reduce it to 256 shades of grey for 
display/printing.  BTW - You can get a near infrared film result by 
scanning a color photo in color mode then selectively dumping the blue and 
green channels before converting to B&W.  That really cuts the haze.

Saunterer
At 12:04 AM 5/4/01 -0500, Ryan Brooks wrote:
>After my visit to the Mt. St. Helen's monument this year, I got back a
>number of hazy photos.    I had tried a variety of filters (UV-Haze,
>Circ/Lin. Polarizers, Warming,  Yellow, etc.), and nothing really worked-
>except that the the pictures I took in black and white that were in hazy
>conditions looked great.    So,  if you've got a hazy photo, you might try
>scanning it in and dumping the color information.
>
>Here's a couple of examples:
>
>http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=205372
>http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=205374
>
>Those were taken on a B&W film, but I got similar "arty" results from
>dumping the color information from color photos.
>
>You don't lose the hazy, but it has a nicer effect that color,
>
>-R
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "James Bullard" <bullard@northnet.org>
>To: "AT-L" <at-l@backcountry.net>
>Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 8:47 PM
>Subject: [at-l] Cutting the haze
>
>
> > A while back there was a photography thread going and in the course of
>that
> > thread I was asked about a way to cut the haze so characteristic of summit
> > photos.  I don't remember who asked so y'all get to read the latest
> > response.  I just found a unique polarizing filter on Ebay that should
> > help. Check out:
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1235214411.  They
> > have it in different sizes.  What's interesting is that they incorporate
> > 81A glass (a warming filter) to counter the inherent blue cast that
>results
> > from polarizing the light.  You could do the same by putting both filters
> > on but why add an extra layer of glass to keep clean, Eh?
> >
> > Note that the word was *help*.  Haze is hard to eliminate.  Remember that
> > the eye cuts through atmospheric haze better than most film (that's why
>you
> > often get photos back and say "I don't remember it being that hazy"). Also
> > polarizing filters work best before 10 AM and after 3 PM when the light is
> > more directional than when it's directly overhead.
> >
> > Saunterer
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > AT-L mailing list
> > AT-L@mailman.backcountry.net
> > http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l
> >