Digital processing is like a chess game. It is not so much the moves, but the particular combination and sequence of them according to the particular situation one find oneself in that is critical to sucess.
The most time I have spent on a particular set of problems was 4 months. I did do a few other things as well.
In a workshop I took with the master analogue printer Eddie Ephraums, one participant asked how long did it take to produce a fine print. Eddie replied that if everything went well, and the situation
was straightforward, then such a print might be possible in as little as 2 days.
The digital workflow has possibilities of control and subtelty that can exceed analogue techniques.
Each master printer ,like the chess player develops his/her own styles of approach.
I try listen to what the print is saying about where it wants to go to reveal itself.
There are a number of books that can give clues if they are sifted though carefully for the gems.
If you can get it John Paul Caponigro's " Adobe Photoshop Masterclass " Ed 2 is such a book.
Katrin Eismann (The Digital Diva), is very useful too.
I suspect Stephen Johnson's recent book will be good, but I haven't read it yet.
Much can be gleaned from George De Wolfe and Joseph Holmes . Watch out for workshops that may come to your area. Others to watch for are Mac Holbert, David Adamson, John Cone and Franck Bordas. I'm not sure if Franck does workshops and he may not wish to be outside Paris.
There are quite a number of sources that I have omitted.
Photoshop is critical, but it is by no means a perfect program. You should carefully evaluate others. Raw Developer is useful. If you know what you are doing, check out Lobster from FreeGamma. There are very good sharpening and noise removal programs too.
As for me, I am attempting to refine luminance edits and to understand how linearity works in different colour spaces..
Most of all,
Have fun
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au
