Rotlicht
Good evening,
I’ve just come back from the lab and I’m annoyed by a very slight out-of-focus quality in the last negative.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything here (did I search for the wrong terms?), but does anyone know of a way – or is there even a way – to sharpen a printed photo? Is it possible to increase the edge contrast in certain areas, as you can do in Photoshop and similar programmes? Or is that only possible with digital images?
Best regards,
Jan
piu58
You can try to enhance the edges in the darkroom using the equivalent of stand development: quickly dip a sheet of baryta paper into the developer, remove it after 10 seconds, and press the emulsion side against a glass plate, rolling it firmly. This has a balancing effect as well as slightly enhancing the edges.
However, you’ll get better results by printing the image a little harder. Overall, such effort is rarely worth it with out-of-focus negatives. It’s better to take the photo again. Sometimes, though, that isn’t possible.
Neutrino
I’m no expert, mind you, but as far as I know, the concept of ‘unsharp masking’ actually originates from the world of analogue photography. So it’s not a pipe dream to sharpen a print using analogue methods. To do this, you make an out of focus contact copy of the original negative and place it on top of the enlargement. I’m not entirely sure how that works in practice, though. It’s likely to be a rather laborious process. Have a go at searching for terms like “out of focus masking, darkroom”. You should get at least a few results covering your topic.
TR
Here is an article in English about ‘out of focus masking’. The process seems rather complicated to me – I haven’t tried it myself yet.
TiMo
The technique of out of focus masking is explained in *Way Beyond Monochrome*. It’s quite a faff, though, and with 35mm film, there’s probably no point in bothering with it. Medium format seems to be quite fiddly as well.
piu58
Out of focus masking does not increase sharpness; rather, it controls the overall contrast.
Urnes
You can try to enhance the edges in the darkroom using the equivalent of stand development: quickly dip a sheet of baryta paper into the developer, remove it after 10 seconds, and place it with the emulsion side against a glass plate, rolling it firmly. This has both a smoothing effect and slightly enhances the edges.
However, you’ll get better results by printing the image a little harder. Overall, such effort is rarely worth it with out-of-focus negatives. It’s better to take the photo again. Sometimes, though, that’s not possible.
Hi Piu,
Could you explain that a bit more slowly? If you take the print out of the developer after 10 seconds, it hasn’t finished developing yet. The whole point of the glass plate was always just to dry the image flat. I think you need to have another go at it. I just don’t get it.
Regards, Sven.
piu58
Don’t rinse the print; instead, press it – along with the developer – against a glass plate. The plate prevents the developer from oxidising. After 3–5 minutes, peel off the print whilst it is still wet, rinse, fix and rinse again as usual.
Urnes
Oh, great, that makes sense. I'll give it a go. Thanks.
Best regards, Sven.
TiMo
Out of focus masking does not increase sharpness, but rather controls the overall contrast.
?
Mr Lamprecht, however, takes a different view:
"...the 'fuzzy' edges of the unsharp mask increase the density differences at all image contours, which raises acutance and creates an 'edge effect', increasing image sharpness even further."
Rotlicht
Thank you so much!!! The contact copying method does sound a bit fiddly, but interesting.
?
Does the method with the glass plate also work with PE paper? Or does it absorb too little chemical or develop too quickly, etc.?
?
I’ll give it a go! And indeed, yes, the photo couldn’t be retaken and the focal plane was unfortunately just beside the eye ;)
Tandemfahren
Hi, despite all the excitement: if the shot didn’t work, that’s it. You can’t adjust the plane of focus, not even with a mask. It’s just as impossible in digital photography.
€
And Tim is right, of course; masking has the same effect as in digital photography. The term comes from the darkroom.
€
For any format smaller than 4x5, the effort is hardly worth it, because you need a device to keep the mask and negative aligned with each other.
Alistair Inglis in Canada builds such devices.
Rotlicht
That’s true, of course. But sometimes a tiny bit of extra sharpening can help to make the resulting out-of-focusness appear at least a little more sharp to the viewer. It goes without saying that this is, of course, a bit of a cheat and won’t work miracles.
