Hi all
I have been fumbling around with photoshop for a few years now and still haven't quite seemed to 'master' it yet and achieve what I really want. My results usually end up looking really disappointing and either overcooked or cooked the wrong way. I have got the book "The Digital Darkroom" and have followed some of the tutorials in it, particularly when it comes to dodging and burning (and with layer masks etc) but still seems like I'm doing something wrong (could also be that my original images to begin with aren't 'right' for the kind of editing I want to do)
I even went so far as reading some of Joel Tjintjelaar's tutorials however his work is quite surreal and probably not as 'far' as I want to go. I really appreciate darker, gloomy, lonely empty landscapes (you know, lone trees, fjords, misty mountains etc) and I thoroughly enjoy making longer exposures upwards of 5 minutes, also use a red 25 filter and am waiting on deep red filter to use with Ilford sfx200 film. I really dig the black/darkened skies and dramatic clouds that can be achieved with or without long exposures and these filter/film combinations
I have attached a picture of something similar I am talking about by photographer Andy Lee. I have a feeling some of his work is done in infrared, too.
I really like burnt edges, very dark images. I read in a tutorial about never quite going as far as 'zone 0' or 'zone 10' to retain detail. This makes sense, but I still have a lot of trouble putting this into practice in photoshop. I do not have access to a dark room to print my own paper however I do develop my own film. I use 4x5 and 120.
If anybody could point me in some kind of direction or give me any tips and pointers, I would really appreciate it.
thanks
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