How to Reproduce "Authentic" Photo Borders - B&W (Impressed by Arbus Exhibition)

[martcol]

I went to see Diane Arbus Revelations Exhibition not so long ago and have been since thinking of how to reproduce B&W prints in PS that mimic the edges of the prints in the exhibition.

Is anyone familiar with:

The photos
The "Wet-Dark-Room" techniques that produce prints like it
What it's called
If/How to reproduce it

I was reminded again of this today after a promo from this photographer: www.pfisterphoto-art.com/pjddrv2show/. Some of his actions come close to what I remember of the Arbus prints. But the actions seem a bit expensive.

Anyway, that's what I want to learn this week!

Regards

Martin

[snook305]

Easy--> Photographic Edges.. There are literally 100's of film type and acid type film borders..
Check it out...
Snook

[bart_hickman]

Originally Posted by snook305

Easy--> Photographic Edges.. There are literally 100's of film type and acid type film borders..
Check it out...
Snook

Is this a menu somewhere in Photoshop or Paintshop Pro?

Bart

[bart_hickman]

Adobe studio exchange has a bunch of stuff you might check out. Here are some links to some brushes I found there that you might be able to use as the basis for an action. I only spent a couple of minutes looking around, so you might find something even better.

http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAsse...41&submit1.y=9
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAsse...=0&submit1.y=0

Another simple thing you can do is create a basic rectangular mask in a raster layer and then experiment with filters to distort and blur it (use the filter gallery). Then transfer the mask to the alpha channel of your image.

Bart

[Swampy]

Also look at Photo Frame from onOne. Thousands of borders, mattes and frames. Use them multiples, with options to add directly to the photo, as mask or on a separate layer. Download free 30 day demo. View QuickTime tutorials and overviews.

[loci]

Originally Posted by martcol

I was reminded again of this today after a promo from this photographer: www.pfisterphoto-art.com/pjddrv2show/. Some of his actions come close to what I remember of the Arbus prints. But the actions seem a bit expensive.

do you have a link to his actions...i can't seem to find them

[martcol]

Originally Posted by loci

do you have a link to his actions...i can't seem to find them

http://www.pfisterphoto-art.com/pjddrv2/info.html

That should do it!

Regards

Martin

[loci]

thanks...wow they are expensive.

[martcol]

Back to the original post....

If anyone knows the photos (Arbus), can you say what the original process was and what the technique is called? I see that there are hundreds of frame/border techniques and I have found myself trawling through them without actually finding what I am looking for.

Regards

Martin

[palomino]

I cannot find a sampling of her work that has any kind of consistent style of edge. Some have a white messy border, some a vignette with no border, some with a dark edge. Which look exactly are you trying to achieve? You can post up a sample of the edge of one of the images as long as you are not posting a copyrighted image in its entirety. Here is another link to some edges/borders where you can see examples. Some of them are pretty neat.
-Kate




http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm#Frames

[martcol]

Thanks for trying to help out with this everyone!

Since the original post this is what I have found out: Essentially, she allowed the full border of the negative to be printed, without cropping or masking, by filing out the negative carrying tray in the enlarger head. This resulted in the black borders. Later she used strips of card to produce a softer edge.

I still don't understand that but if anyone else knows what's going on, I would be pleased to hear. Then of course, if you know what that means, how do you achieve it with PS?

Regards

Martin

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by martcol

Essentially, she allowed the full border of the negative to be printed, without cropping or masking, by filing out the negative carrying tray in the enlarger head. This resulted in the black borders. Later she used strips of card to produce a softer edge.

Negatives cannot be exposed to the edge of the film in the camera. This leaves a clear border around the image which would print black if it were allowed to show in the print. This unexposed edge is usually masked off in the enlarger in the negative carrier. You can also crop the image on the printing easel, which holds the paper. What this is saying is that she enlarged the negative carrier aperature to allow the entire negative to be printed -- clear border and all -- and printed the entire negative uncropped. You can achieve a similar result in Photoshop by increasing the size of the image canvas and filling the new area with black.

The use of card strips is a little more complicated as the effect you get will depend on the thickness and translucence of the card stock, how you made the strips (torn edges, clean cut, etc.), and how you placed the strips on the film. The strips were laid over the edges of the film in the enlarger and the print was made. The strips could overlay just the clear film border or it could encroach on the image. Depending on the paper type and thickness, defects and paper grain could possibly show. You could get anything from white to dark gray in the edge.

It's been a long time since I've seen her prints and don't remember what the edges looked like, so I can't offer an opinion as to how she made and used the strips.

In Photoshop, you would increase the size of the canvas to accomodate the new border. Where you go from there depends on whether you buy premade edge masks, an edge mask plug-in, or make your own masks. The basic idea is to fill the new area with the grayscale shade you are after and apply a layer mask to define the edges and grunge that you see in the border. You can get fancy and make compound borders as well for even more effects.

If you do a Google search on photo edges you will find many examples and tutorials and even some free grayscale masks you can download.