Just where are you going with your photographic career? Are you as good a shooter as you’ll someday be? Are you very best images ahead of you or did you already shoot them? Will you still earn your living in this industry five years from now? How about ten years? Do you own your own photo studio? Do you work for one of the larger companies going in-house because of the economies-of-scale savings? Do you shoot for one of the color separation houses that make up the largest segment of digital capture device business, worldwide? How much do you know about the photographic process? Can you do everything; color film processing, color printing, color graphics using litho film, do you print on black & white with graded papers, do you exploit the difference between condenser and cold light enlarger illumination? Do you want to? Do you care? If you said yes to most of these questions, you’ll probably have a smooth transition to digital, keeping and even enhancing the look and the feel of the images you create. If you are interested in knowing the process from start to finish, stay tuned. If you have questions, and we’re hoping you do, ask away, that’s another one of the things we do. And if we don’t know the answer, we’ll get it.
One of the features of this guide is that it’s written from a fatherly point of view. It does not coddle or condescend and yet respects and gives reward to professional comportment. If this Shooter’s Guide is not written in your style, apologies are proffered. Basic instruction can be had in the T2 manual. Training from third party sources is available. This is written from the standpoint of “if we could say it any way we wanted, we’d say it like this...” Well we did say it that way and here it is. It’s sometimes brash, always opinionated. There’s always a reason and that reason accompanies the proffering of the opinion that generated the opinionated attitude. We hope you like the style and the tenor.
You may not know it, but the T2 camera allows something very special, something no other professional level digital camera allows: The photographer gets to be in command of the translation from the universally accepted minimum 12 bits dynamic range (of the capture) to the 8 bit dynamic range of the press target (printing). You get to command this translation using the traditional lighting tools of the professional photographer, and you’ll use them in concert with a software interface that allows (and recommends) complete control over every aspect of the perfectly crafted image; the right number of tones, the right progression of tones from highlight-to-shadow, and the proper amount of contrast; overall and within important reflectances, that communicates emotive rendering of three dimensional reflectances on two dimensional targets.
Two schools of thought exist in the preparation of digital capture files for the printing press. The larger school believes in capturing the largest amount of data it can, segmented into the smallest units, which is remapped after the capture, so that it fits the press target. Everyone except MegaVision is in this school. You may have noticed, the other school remaps after the capture. While that is a way to do it, we think there is a better way and that methodology is presented in this Shooter’s Guide.
The MegaVision method isn’t remapping after the capture, it’s the photographer in charge of the 8 bit data. The T2 interface is built around the professional photographer, on the belief that a professional photographer is a known, good translator of tones to his traditional target: film. If those skills exist, the T2 can be a valuable tool in the hands of the competent professional. We know the press gets 8 bits (actually, the press can render no more than 6.5 bits) which is what we print to the imagesetter. So who will get the final say in the look of those 8 bits?
The larger school has a problem: too often the remapping after the capture is not performed by the photographer. When that other person (most often a pre-press professional) doing the remap cannot successfully perform the remap, the worst case scenario involves a reshoot. Actually, the reshoot part of the problem is no different from re-shoots on our camera. The difference is, in our school, when the photographer unsuccessfully performs the crafting of the 8 bit data, the product is still on-set and still lit; now is the time for a reshoot if one must be performed. The photographer does need to recognize the need for another capture, he needs to know he’s not yet finished.
The photographer can change things the pre-press professional wishes he could. The photographer can make the light softer, or harder. He can spot in hard light on the side of a product. Photographers tools make the kind of shape that pre-press professionals dream of. When the larger school finally gives up its remapping efforts and orders the reshoot, the product, the set, and the lighting are usually long gone. Can you make the reshoot match? Sometimes. It’s way easier at our school.
How do you know when you need that reshoot? That information is contained in this Shooter’s Guide. You’ll also find recommendations for solving the problems that dictate the reshoot.
The other school depends on the skill of the pre-press professional, who is not necessarily interested in your learning his craft. The other school prides itself and it prides its device as the one; the best. Obviously, we don’t agree, so, once again, its Our School against Their School. Winners have to earn their place, which is exactly the way it should be.