Anton Corbijn - How?

I've always enjoyed the work of the photographer Anton Corbijn, but I

can never seem to figure out how to imitate the effect of his

photographs. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

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<img src="http://www.iskon.hr/2004/05/21/0383007.17.jpg">

<p>

How is he getting his B&W shots to look like that? Is it some sort of

filter? The film he's using? Just strategic use of contrast?

<p>

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Thanks!

J,

 

Some observations:

 

Using Levels in PS, move left and right sliders towards the middle. This will make a contrasty image by blowing out some of the shadows and highlight. Tweak the middle slider.

 

Create a Duplicate layer and apply a Warming Filter. There are three in PS Elements 4. Then adjust the Opacity to taste.

 

 

I notice in your picture the straps of his shirt are nearly pure white and his hair is nearly pure black with little or no detail in both. This is what you should get by doing the Levels adjustments.

 

Attachment: I converted a color picture to BW and applied my above recommendation.

 

Roger

J,

 

The BW starter picture...

 

Roger

Always wondered that myself. Just tried a search, and the best I found was this bit, which says he shoots with a Leica or Hasselbad.

 

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,16545,1448110,00.html

I do not know how to do it in the darkroom, but digitally it is easy: set the endpoints aggressively, and reduce the midtone contrast. A simple application of Curves.

Thanks everyone! I can't wait to get home to try out some of these ideas. :)

Roger - thanks for the tip. I've been having good success with it, as with the shot below.

 

And Emre - for reducing midtone contrast, do you mean an inverted S curve?<div></div>

Precisely.

When I see classic B&W work like this that lacks any shadow detail it's pretty obvious the photog was pushing the film and using generous burning in for backgrounds.

He uses a technique that is called "Lith-Printing". There are several actions that simulate this effect in PS.

Regards

Peter

Peter's right, Scott's wrong.

 

Andreas

i don't have an answer for you but i love the way he shoots to. If you like Anton's U2 pictures you really need to check out the whole book, U2 & I, it is fantastic. I was lucky enough to see his work in a gallery in the city last fall, and that shot of bono above was absolutely amazing in person.

alot of his colour stuff was/is cross processed.

Thanks, Peter - I just found this tutorial on digital lith-printing.

 

http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/lith/digital_lith/digital_lith.html

B+W: Lith printing. Tri-X, sometimes pushed.

Color: Cross-processing, or Polaroid Instant 35mm film

 

Hasselblad 503, 80mm, 60mm, 120mm Makro Planar. I think he may use/have used Leica and/or Nikon SLRs earlier in his career.

Lith printing of course.

 

Actually it is the work of Downtown Darkroom near Waterloo in London, great people, just been merged with their neighbours, Silverprint.

 

Went to collect some prints cple of years back and there was this huge print (2 meters?) behind the counter. Out of curiousity, asked how much this would cost (as they are pricey) and was told about ﾣ1K + mounting.

Printer then explained me the print was sold (ﾣ5K I believe) and it was Anton Corbijn's work.

He then spent half an hour explaining me the Lith printing technique. They stock the negs of quite a few famous photographers and print on demand...

 

You can imagine how tricky it is to print a 2M long Lith picure....

Well I think I have kinda got the hang of his look using Potoshop and a little time. I will post the 2 images I have just done and you guys can tell me what you think.

oops sorry here is a image.<div></div>

and the seconed. Its a friend of mine, I took it in my kitchen using a sony 5mp point and shoot. I then processed it in photoshop cs2. If anybody would like the infoe let me know and I will set up a tutorial..

Hope this helps some people out. Its not great but its a start.

Simon<div></div>

Simon,

 

As a novice I am really intrigued by all that I have read so far. Could you please be so kind to set up a tutorial?

Thanks

Thanks for the tutorial.

The Corbijn?s photos looks like they com from the Lith printing, in a dark room or digital.

There?s an interesting side about that: www.lithprint.com

 

Also book about this: "The world of lith printing: the best of traditional darkroom and digital lith printing techniques" by Tim Rudman

You can see his wonderfull images at: www.timrudman.com

<p>This is done in PS shot with a lx3 (selfportrait). No action,,, just some burning and color added + contrast and gamma.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonassnaps/4444278026/lightbox/<br>

and<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonassnaps/4443506851/<br>

Jonas from Sweden<br>

<img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonassnaps/4444278026/lightbox/" alt="" /></p>

<p>Hello, there are loads of links on how to Ps to gain the Corbjin Lith 'look'. Here's how its done old school and I'm not sure if any of the materials are still available: You will need a good B&W neg, Tri-x was always best for me, nice and grainy too. Fibre Paper, New Oriental is the only one for me, grade 1 or 2, low contrast as the dev is going to push that up. Kodak Lith Developer type A and B. You will need to play around with the ratio but if I remember correctly, it was about 1:3 respectively and that solution 1:3 water. Keep the dev around 22 degrees. A good stop and fix bath too. The process takes a lot of trial and error so be patient. So in the darkroom, underexpose the print I'd say by .5 - 1.5 stops and be prepared for some burning-in. Now, get a nice wave moving in the dev and enter the print as smoothly as possible, you might need a few tries and don't stop bath agitation. After a minute or so a very weak, faded image will appear and it will stay that way for a while and then, very suddenly the contrast will bite going from flat to super-contrast in seconds. You need to get it into the stop as effeciently as possible then give it a minute. Give it a solid 5 minutes in the fix constantly agitating too. Lastly, wash it for at least half an hour. Hey presto, prints to make your colleagues weep</p><div></div>

<p>Exactly what Spanky said, you may want to invest in a fibre print dryer you will end up with very wrinkly prints. Or you could track down Mike Sprey, he was the printer at Downtown. :)</p>