You do not need to shoot any new film to do this exercise, although you are welcome to. There are several ways to approach this assignment, outlined below.
Step I
Go back through your negatives (or digital files) and pull out at least three that would look good combined in some way. Spend some time looking for the right negatives. You do not need to use 100% of every negative you select; perhaps you are just interested in one person among four or five of your friends.
Step II
Scan the negatives, using these specifications:
• Grayscale
• 16 bits
• 3,200 dpi on the Epson V700 flatbed scanners. This is the maximum optical resolution of these scanners.
• Use the crop tool if you are just interested in one small area of a negative.
Step III
In Photoshop, go through these basic steps for each negative, in this order:
• Adjust the whitest and blackest points. Go to ImageAdjustmentsadjust levels. Use the “auto” button or ask me for help.
• Adjust all the middle grays. Go to ImageAdjustments and adjust curves. Just do a rough adjustment at this point. A curve usually has two “handles” and looks like a mild “S.” Again, ask for help if you need it.
Step IV
Assemble the images. They all need to be the same format, either RGB for color images or 16-bit grayscale for black-and-white images.
• Decide on which image is your base image.
• Drag other images over to your base image, or just drag the parts you are interested in. If you select parts of an image, be sure to ask me to show you how to feather selections, so that they will appear natural. When you drag them, they will be placed on new layers in your base image.
• Use the Image/transform/scale command to resize the imported images. Use the image/scale/rotate command to rotate them if necessary.
Step V
At this point, you have any number of strategies. Avoid the simple montage that just blends one image into another. Here are just a few possibilities:
• Selectively erase parts of one image to allow the layer underneath to show through.
• Use filters on one of the images and then allow the altered parts to show through in certain areas to create a half-real, half-dream effect
• Repeat some of the images you import. Resize or rotate or otherwise distort them if that works.
Step VI
Use the layers/make adjustment layer/curves command to create a separate curve adjustment layer for each of the main layers of your image. To do this, put the cursor at the point between the image layer and the adjustment layer and press option/click. (See me for help if you haven’t done this before.)
What should you see?
An image that makes us go “Wow!”