Buck Winn (2 of 2): Isolate Part of an Image in Photoshop

The other image request for the University Archives Buck Winn Exhibition was for an isolated version of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s statue of Fighting Stallions, so that viewers of the exhibition could download the image and recreate the base on which the statue stands. Originally, Buck Winn designed an elaborate natural landscape to hold the statue (see Winn’s design here). Over the years, his design was removed and a simple concrete structure now exists. Visit the Online Exhibition Here for more information!

Image of Fighting Stallions (Original)

I began by making an image of the stallions with a digital camera. After deciding on the best view of the stallions from the digital image captures, I opened it through Adobe’s Camera Raw Editor and adjusted some of the values of the image. I kept most of my attention on how the stallions looked, since that is what was going to be in the final image. I also increased the saturation of the image, particularly in the greens. Since the Stallions are gray and black, increasing saturation in the greens did not effect the Stallions. Making this adjustment will make it easier to select parts of the image i want to eliminate in Photoshop.

Once satisfied with my adjustments in Camera Raw I opened the Image in Photoshop. Here you can see the increased saturation.

Image of Fighting Stallions (Saturated)

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Buck Winn (1 of 2): Creating a Coloring Page from a Photograph in Photoshop

In mid-March, we received a request to provide images for an exhibition on the work of the Texas artist and sculptor, Buck Winn, that exists on Texas State University’s campus. One of his works on the façade of Flowers Hall is a bas-relief sculpture with stained glass inset throughout. Originally the stained glass allowed light to shine into the stairwell on the interior of the building, however over the years the interior was altered, and the stained glass was filled in. Laura Kennedy, a University Archivist, wanted to create a coloring page to allow viewers of the exhibition to download the image and color in the stained-glass portions with their own interpretation. Getting a good image of the full artwork was challenging, since the façade of the building is tall and narrow, with trees and a staircase in front of it, and there’s no way to take a photograph of the building straight on.

I began by capturing an image of the entire mural, with as minimal interference from surrounding elements. I also had to consider time of day, to avoid interference from dark shadows or harsh sunlight.

Buck Winn mural at Flowers Hall, Texas State University

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Using a %50 Gray Layer in Photoshop in place of Dodging and Burning

Whenever we receive a request for a printed photograph or custom image work, Photoshop is usually our tool of choice for fine-tuning and one of the most common adjustments is selectively brightening or darkening areas of the image.  While there are multiple tools for enhancing the entire image, working only on particular sections of the image takes a little more care.  One tool, Dodge and Burn, which takes its name from the process of adding more or less light to the exposure of the print from a darkroom enlarger, uses the Brush tool to lighten or darken an area of an image. However, this tool can often lead to creating artifacts and uneven transitions within the image. Highlights can become too white and shadows become blocked up; overuse of the tool can easily lead to a loss of detail in middle tones too. For a less destructive method using a 50% gray layer in combination with the brush tool, the steps below may be followed to make adjustments similar to dodging/burning for selected areas.

We are using this image from the San Marcos Daily Record Collection (from the University Archives) to illustrate one way to make localized adjustments to an image, by lightening the dresses of the majorettes only.

SMDR Photographic Negatives Collection, [1930s][Billy Wyatt], SMDR_1930s-1_018

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Project Spotlight: The President’s Report to the Board of Regents

Texas State University is a member of the Texas State University System, currently governed by a nine-member Board of Regents who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.  For their quarterly meetings, the President of Texas State prepares a report of University activities and proposals for the Board’s review.  While the reports that are now released are digitally accessible, the University Archives at Texas State holds the official paper records of these reports, the earliest of which dates back to 1923.  Since these records include an overview of budgets, enrollment, faculty salaries, and construction and renovation details, in addition to a broad look at notable events occurring at the University, they’re of great value to local researchers and administration and a high priority for digitization to increase the ease of access to these materials. Due to age and variability of the physical reports, the oldest bound material, ranging from 1923 – 1969, was captured separately in the workflow described below.

Project Specs:Fujitsu

Start Date: September 17, 2019

Completion Date: December 16, 2019

Total Images Captured: 7,031

Total PDFs Created: 183

Capture Method: Fujitsu fi-6670 multi feed scanner; Sony A7R II

Programs Used: Paper Stream Capture, Capture One, ScanTailor Advanced. Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Jupyter Notebook

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