My 2 Zone Technique intro.

True Photography consist of two key zones. (Zone A covers subject to film), better known as a negative, ( Zone B covers film to Print), other wise known as a positive. In true photography one can not exist with the other. Digital photography merely records the scene in pixel format, it lacks the required zones which are needed to create a true positive print.

I have added a Zone C to my Black and White Photo Art, this zone determines where colors on the final Black and White print. This Technique allows full control of contrast, composition, and balance of each individual photo.

My Hand coloring Techniques elevates the viewer chromatic thresholds. Color contrast can be easily manipulated to suit artist mood

or expressions simultaneously. I can enhance visual differences between two areas of different luminance or illumination.

I try to highlight the obvious positive in each Photo, I also attempt to accentuate the unseen Beauties of our world.

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Printing a positive for Hand Tinting.

Printmaking is the most exciting aspects of Photography. Black and White Print making lends itself towards a leisurely creation. You can fine tune the image-by enlarging it and altering the tones of White through Black. You can also reduce or increase the contrast between them. Cropping the edges readys the Print for final viewing.
Photo Printing Paper is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion containing crystals of silver atoms combined with bromine or chlorine atoms or both. Light is passed through the negative and onto the paper. After the print is exposed it is placed in a developer where chemical action converts the crystals into a dark metallic silver. Then the Print is place in a stop bath to halt the action of the developer, then fixer, which removes undeveloped and unexposed crystals, and finally it is washed and dried.
All of my Black and White Photos are in the range of zone “IV” through zone “VII”. This allows the Hand Tinting to take on it’s on Mood. The colors have a tendency to jump from the Paper.
What makes my Black and White Photo Art Unique ? I use only color film to my Print Black and White Photos the Classic way. It gives me a wonderful guide to know the true colors of the scene for future Tinting. With Black and White film you will only have shades of greys for reference.
Color films has more contrast due to the nature of it emulsion. In color film red is red, blue is blue, and yellow is yellow. Black and White Print paper responds well in the toe and shoulder areas. Density becomes more apparent in the shadows zones.

Black and White negatives or Color negatives.

A Black and White Negative is a reversal of the tones in the original scene. Where the scene is bright, the negative develops many dense, dark grains of silver. These dense areas hold back light from the paper, they prevent the formation of silver in the papers emulsion and so creates a bright area corresponding to the bright area in the scene. Where the scene was dark, the negative is thin or even clear. It passes much light to the paper and dark silver is formed in the emulsion, resulting in a dark area in the print.
Color films take advantage of the fact that nearly all colors can be reproduced by mixing only a few basic or primary colors. Color films are made with three color-sensitive layers, each of which records the wavelenghts of lights in a different third of the color spectrum. Colors negative film is processed to be the opposite in colors and density of the original scene; then it is printed onto a sheet of sensitized paper to make a positive color print.
This is why I shoot color films to Print out my Black and White Photos the Classic way. Color films gives more details in my prints. The colors remain true and the tones are richer. I use the actual color photo as a guide when I Hand Tint my Black and White Prints.

Archival Print Processing.

How long does a Photograph last ? Some of the first ever made have held up perfectly, their images as durable as if they had been carved in stone. For Black and white Photos, archival processing is not very different from customary method of developing, fixing and washing. It basically an extension of the ordinary procedures, involving a few extra steps.
During development, those grains of silver salts that have been exposed to light are reduced to black metallic silver, which forms the image; but unexposed grains are reduced and remain in silver form of a silver compound.
When these silver-fixer complexes decompose they produce a brown-yellow compound may discolor the entire print. Archival processing includes procedures that eliminate the traces of residual chemical that washing alone cannot entirely remove.

Hand tinted Black and White photos the classic way.

I want to bring Hand Tinting back in the main stream. Since we have our computers and high tech soft ware we fail to realize that computer generated imagery or photos are not the same as in the past. The reason is, that the computer lacks Zone “A” and Zone “B”. Its merely a copy. All computer generated photos or prints will oxidize or fade. The sole purpose of making Photographs are to record and document historical events. Archiving Photos that are computer generated defeats this goal. In museums you will only find Black and White Photos, they know that any other type of print won’t last long enough to achieve their objective.
When we look back in the early 1800’s we see images that were produced that still exist today. What if our Great masters used pixels to record there Art. They would have never dreamed of wasting there time and effort to gain fame by employing methods other than the Classical techniques to create their Art. When history is written, those who have negatives and Hand developed Prints will have works of Arts that will be priceless.
The Great masters such Van Goghs, Picasso’s, rembrandts, Cezanne’s, Seraut’s, El greco,s, Constables, Botticellis, Angelico’s and Bounnarroti’s would not exist today as we know them if they had used digital assisted soft ware to create their works of Art. I have over 50,000 images and over 90,000 negatives that will be worth more than any digital print made today.
Photo Art has been around in the main stream for quite some time. No one has change or improved on what George Eastman, Joeseph Niepce, Giovanni Battista, Thomas Wedgwood and Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre attempted . The computer can never allow any one the freedom that gives you the ability to capture an image as on sees it. Ansel Adams was the last person to that gave us a new set of rules and technique.
I have develop a “2″ Zone that takes his ideas and the other great Photographers of the past and improve how we see and reproduce our Photos.
Don’t miss out, if you can have the luck of buying a old Photo of the past, you will own tommorrows Picassos’ Van Goghs’ or even an Rembrandt.
The only worth while investment in todays Art Market will be a Hand Tinted Photograph. The other Great works of Art merely exchange owners and becomes more expensive in the process.

My 2 Zone Technique.

I Hand Tint Black and White Photos the Classic way. I have developed a 2 zone technique. In Zone “A” which is subject or object to film. Zone “B” which is film to print. In zone “A” I look for points of interest in the fore ground, middle ground and back ground. I will also look for points of interest at the bottom, in the middle and top. I shoot between f/5.6-f/8.0. Exposure time is usually around 1/60- 1/250.
I develop my Black and White prints using the same f/stops that photo was exposed in Zone “A”. I expose my prints in the dark room the using the same f/stops which prints were shot. In Zone “B” my Exposure time under my enlarger is about 10%-20%. I process my prints using Archival methods which require stripping my prints and then toning them either Selenium, gold, Copper, Sepia, Platinum-Palladium, Antique, Coffee, Tea, Nickel, or Burgundy wine.
When I Hand Tint my Prints, my Points of interest will be Hand colored to give the print a three dimensional effect. I have control of my depth of field, balance and proportion, and composition. The results are based on each scene. I can take any negative even though I did’nt shoot Zone “A” and obtain a work of Art. I can manipulate Zone “B” and create Real eye candy. Pacco J Pompei