Developing for shadows

[Jac@stafford.net]

"Shooting on the toe," as I understand it is intentionally placing a lot of the shadows of a scene rather low on the exposure scale, but then developing a bit more to get lots of separation (contrast) in the mid-tones. [..]

I often to just the opposite:

An example or two would be much appreciated.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I do not know if this qualifies. One of my PJ photos. 6x6cm printed on expired Agfa grade 6.

Attachment 191513

It does look very good to me if that is what you referring too. I always find it very hard to have subtle tonality and separation in the shadows. Where most might just think it is black or zone 0, reality there is a lot of subtle detail, which is also something I am after.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Use an unsharp mask to open up shadows. I've used denser than normal to do this.

I use a contrast mask technique in PS

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Here is an image that is similar to what I am wanting to do. This used a 3 stop grad nd to tame the highlights, I did expose to "zone V" on the darkest area. Unfortunately, my filter covered a small portion of the image on the right which then became way under exposed. Really no detail there. But the idea is to take an image like this, avoid the blowouts as much as possible, then develop ensure no blowouts as much as possible while maintaining good shadow detail. This would be for both color and b/w images.

Point Imperial of Grand Canyon North Rim Sep 2018. Shot on Portra160 with 75mm Nikkor I believe at about f/22. Maybe f/16. I'll check my notes tomorrow.