Paper flahshing in Photoshop

[John_4185]

In general, though, the images that call for this seem to respond better to manipulations of layers than to curve ajustments, in my experience.

Apply curve adjustments to layer(s).

Hope that's not too blunt.

[paulr]

Not blunt, but also not what I was talking about.

I'm getting at something more along the lines of what Matthew Georgeson brought up, but using blend modes and not just opacity. Think of it as different ways of changing the color of the paper base, and then of ajusting the opacity characteristics of the image that sits on top of it.

These techniques work when you've eeked everything you can out of curves adjustments, but find the highlights still lack substance.

[Michael Gordon]

I'm still not clear what Domenico is attempting to accomplish, but based on "I was more thinking to add a layer of very light tonality to the all image", you might try duplicating your background layer, change the blending mode to SCREEN, and then adjust the opacity of this screened layer to suit.

[John_4185]

"A layer of light tonality"

In other words, fog.

Michael's tip works, but you might have to bend the curve (or in THIS case, you can use levels) to moderate only the highlights.

BTW, 'flashing' is a bit confusing since William Frazier's book, "Printing by Flash" was published in 1967. Things were a mess (in my opinion) for awhile after that. He printed everything on Agfa #6, which was super high-contrast, and flashed to change apparent tonalities. Dunno if this reference is on the net, but his book seems to be library lint - you can't get it off the shelf.

[Nigel Smith]

IMO to simulate 'flashing paper' you'd need to rescan. Adding a base tone is not what flashing paper does, not unless you overdo it.

[stevebobs]

I think the effect Domenico is trying to achieve can be one of the loveliest effects in the wet darkroom. It is not "fogging" as several people have mislabeled it. They clearly have never realized that they are seeing this technique when they are, because it can be so subtle. The effect, (often achieved with a cigarette lighter , hence "flashing") is done so with an expired cigarette lighter and holding it over the desired area and flicking the lighter. The effect knocks the highlights down ever so slightly when it is nearly or impossible to do so with filters, and/or burning in. Also, this might prove extremely difficult to pull off with an enlarger over the whole sheet of photo paper and might not be needed. The effect adds a very delicate tone just under the white-white in the scale and can be done so without any effect on the contrast in the remainder of the curve, or if desired, can be used to pull contrast locally in the mid-tones and toe.
To get a similar effect in photoshop with a solid layer (even with less opacity) will bring up the rest of the curve and have the effect of making the image flatter in contrast (which by the way does look a little like fog). I think this effect needs to be done by applying it to the shoulder as a layer and burning in with a mask layer.

Photographers like Albert Watson and others use this technique in the darkroom with stunning skill and I've seen examples that would appear to be bleaching but were in fact flashing.

I must say, too, many of the people commenting in this forum seem to have rather closed minds for a field that can offer so much to a creative person.