Help! Gradient lines on my photos. Photographing with white backdrop in B&W

[MckenzieMontague]

I am photographing in black and white on a white back drop. I can slightly see a few gradient shadow ripples or lines in my photos. I thought it was a lighting issue, but I moved my lights in every direction possible. I am using 4 strobes. 2 on the side, one on the front corner and one over head.

You can see the shadowed ripples just barely on my calibrated monitor, but you can really see them when I develope them. I really need help. I have had this issue for quite sometime and have tried everything. I am desperate for some answeres.

 

[ShelleySnapz]

can you scan one and show us an example?

 

[MckenzieMontague]

I can, but I will put it online this evening because I am not near a scanner. Thank you so much for your reply. I really need help with this. I hope that you will look at it this evening.

 

[Torus34]

I do not understand. What film are you using? What developer? It sounds like something I've never run into.

 

[ShelleySnapz]

Rre you shooting film or digital? If its digital post a photo so we can see ok? Otherwise we can wait for the scan.

 

[MckenzieMontague]

I am using a digital Nikon D200 with Iso set at 200 White balance is on auto flash shutterspeed at 250 and f/8. I tried blowing out the back drop with pointing the lights more towards the backdrop. It seemed to work, but when I get the bottom half of my subject, the white paper tends to look splotchy with splotchy shadowing. You can hardly see it, but when you develope it, you can really see it.

I use Millers lab to develope my pictures. I can fix the problem with photoshop with selecting the subject, make a new layer and painting the background white. I have over 400 pictures that need to be processed and I really don't want to do that with all of them.

I will post an example as soon as I can. Thank you for your help.

 

[Torus34]

Oh. Digital. No wonder it sounded strange. Sorry. And good luck in finding a low-effort fix.

 

[MckenzieMontague]

I would like to show the picture, but i am not sure how. How do I post the picture when they don't allow attachements???

 

[hot shot]

right host the pictures some where like photobucket them copy the url of the image click on the little image icon on the reply box and then paste the url of the image press ok and it should apper

 

[markc]

If it's digital, there is no developing. That's probably why people were confused. Do the original digital images show these ripples, or just the prints you have made? If it's just in the prints, you need to go to a better printer.

Don't bother scanning the print. Just post the original digital file, if the original has the problem.

 

[MckenzieMontague]

Yes the origional prints show the lines. You can barely see them on the monitor. You have to look super close. Thats why this problem is extremely frustrating.

 

[Peanuts]

I haven't read entirely through this post, but to help hide these 'ripples' used the levels tool in photoshop and 'push' the right side arrow inwards and this should lighten it just enough to hide these ripples.

 

[MckenzieMontague]

Here are a few of the digital files. The gradient lines are very hard to see even with a high end calibrated monitor (I am using a lacie 319 with blue eye calibration), but believe me they are there. They show up much more defined on the prints. Pic number 3 has a red outline around where the lines can be seen. Pic 4 has a levels adjustment to exagerate where the issues are.

http://www.montaguefamily.org/prints/1.jpg

http://www.montaguefamily.org/prints/2.jpg

http://www.montaguefamily.org/prints/3.jpg

http://www.montaguefamily.org/prints/4.jpg

FYI. I am using www.millerslab.com for my printing. They are printing on true bw paper.

Thanks in advance!

 

[markc]

I don't mean to be picky, but I just want to get terms straight. A print is only when the image goes on paper. If you use "print" to describe the image in the computer, people will get confused.

Pulling the image into Photoshop, the steps between each band are only by 1 (244,244,244 to 245,245,245 to 246,246,246, etc). The reason you can notice them at all is because they are fairly wide. I have a decent calibrated monitor, but it's not a Lacie, and I don't see them.

I made a couple of gradients that you can take a look at. Like this, I can just barely make out where the steps are, if I really look hard. The light bar and the dark bar should have the same amount of stepping for you. If you can see them in the whites and not the blacks, then your calibration is skewed too much towards highlight detail. When looking at the blacks, make sure you shield your eyes from any other light, including the white bar.

As far as printing goes, I couldn't find any details as to what that shop uses. Digital b&w printing has some requirements that most shops can't handle well, as they are geared towards color. As Peanuts suggested, you may have to crush the whites if you don't want the bands to show up in your prints. Just be careful that it doesn't affect the rest of the image. You might blow out highlight detail in the girl.

http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html
http://www.inksupply.com/quadtone.cfm
http://www.piezography.com/site/long-dynamic-range.html
http://www.dpandi.com/newsreviews/reviews/studioprint/index.html
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/studioprint-10.shtml

 

[mysteryscribe]

I know very very little about digital but why not just air brush it in your editor to get rid of them that way you would blow out anything in the print. At least I dont think you will;