Great Reed-Mace / Typha latifolia plant woodcut from Gerarde's Herball, History of Plants. Gerard refers to it as 'Cats taile'. P42
- Source John Gerarde's 'Herball, or Historie of Plants', published in London 1597. 'P' number represents the page number where plant image is located within the original herbal edition. - This is a desaturated colour MONOCHROME image [in LR], but NOT yet converted to B&W or greyscale - since I understand Mono can be better for some applications where old woodcuts are concerned, and presenting it in strict bi-colour B&W form might tie your hands, and it's easy to convert in PS. - Original pages were foxed (yellowed) so background colour and all colour channels are desaturated, and then levels pushed towards a more contrasty B&W level allowing for most of the worst inkspots and stains on the paper to be spotted out. However, the patina of the paper gives the appearance of grey. - Since the woodcuts have a historic place in Herbal Medicine some ink blemishes have been left visible rather than removed, particularly at the edge of the printing block. That would sharpen up the data, while the fuzzyness of the ink woodcut impression is one of the things which give them their charm. The paper area surrounding the woodcut has been digitally cleaned up to remove ink smears / ink blobs, and some of the paper patina / texture is visible since it might be useful to give 'substance' to the black figure. However, 'print-through' from the page reverse may be evident. If paper pulp grains aren't required, and print-through is a distraction, then these areas could be flooded with white in PS as required, and tinkering with threshold levels to achieve the best fill.
Size: 5334px × 8086px
Location: uk
Photo credit: © Marcus Harrison - botanicals / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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