User:Uglyoldbaldguy

Figure Studies Annual was printed spasmodically in the early 1950's and marketed from the back of cigar stores and news stands that existed at the time. The average copy had 68 pages, contained no advertising, and sold for $1.00. Inside, there are neither color photos nor a centerfold. Each black and white photo is of a single girl, artistically posed, with any hint of impropriety meticulously airbrushed away.

Besides the 75 plus black and white photos and a smattering of advice for photographers that makes up the main content of the magazine, each Annual also contained approximately 10 pen and ink renderings by Wiliam J. Reagan, Jr., presumably to illustrate how the material could also be used by artists. In the end, it is these elegant Reagan sketches rather than the black and white photos that made an indelible impression on me.

As a teen-ager I studied charcoal figure drawing for one summer before giving up in defeat. Though I put in a fair amount of practice, the lines I drew remained lifeless on the page. And though I divided the page into six, seven, or eight horizontal sections, I never found a workable strategy for establishing proportion, often having to draw the model with "stumpy" legs so her feet would not run off the page. The best I could do was to place a piece of tracing paper over a photograph and using exorbitant concentration, trace the ghostly outline of the photo with a pencil. And, in a sense, that's exactly what a computer does, only it subdivides a picture into 5,184 very tiny squares blocks, or pixels, per square inch, which means a computer does a super percise job of turning a digital photograph into a black and white electronic sketch.

Most of my initial efforts at converting photos with Photoshop are heavy handed. But I am still learning and, hopefully, improving. A really sharp photo with good color contrast will usually produce interesting results. However most photos, upon careful examination, prove to be flawed and many offer a formidable challenge. But as I continue working, I get more and more convinced that even a photo lacking tone and contrast can be resurrected into an interesting image that very closely resembles a skillfully done black and white pen sketch.

I try to apply the Zone System techniques formulated by the black and white photography master Ansel Adams to digital photographs. In the case of black and white sketches, this technique can be applied by the building up of layers containing highlights, halftones, shadows, over the ubiquitous background layer. Then by using the Cutout and Posterize filters on the background, the background detail can be minimized to cause the figure to stand out even more. For best results in the black and white conversion, the color photo often needs to be corrected and sometimes it helps to apply the Unsharp Mask or one or more of the other filters.

With millions of photos floating around on the Internet, I search for photos from TGP's, Newsgroups, and sometimes known people such as Bettie Page, Debby from Debby's World, and Annie Sprinkle (who I met in September of 2006).

I started High School in September, 1951 and graduated college in June of 1959, which has given me a strong tie to the 1950's, a decade which has always seemed to be a draw to girls who form burlesque groups or model themselves after Marilyn Monroe or immortal Bettie Page. If I had a time machine and could take these girls back to the 50's, it would be a safe bet that none of them would ever want to leave. In all ways, the 50's was the only decade where I felt at home.