Indecent Exposure Podcast 67: Interrupting experiences
Honing your sharpening skills, how you left your ruts in the mud, and your fall foliage photos for all.
Listen now:
Download today's podcast
Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | RSS (audio)
EPISODE 67
To convert text to clickable links, at least in Firefox, install Linkification. We apologize for the lack of HTML link support in our comments; we had excessive spamming with link capability.
Note: To minimize confusion, we're now providing entry deadlines. They'll usually be Thursdays at noon Eastern time. You can still post links after that, which may still get included, but to ensure they get entered, that's the time you should target. To enter, please use the blog comments to provide a link to your entry, plus any background information you'd like to share with us and other listeners.
You touched a bit on film scanning in the last podcast, and that got me thinking of my own "analog" photo collection. I have a bunch of (maybe a few dozen) film rolls from my old APS/Advantix point & shoot, and as this week I'm in the process of moving, I am acutely aware of the heft and bulk of having hundreds of printed photos. What I'd like is to digitize them.
I already have a bunch of these on PhotoCD, having ordered the original prints with this then-novel feature, but I'm realizing that these photo CD image files are only about 1 megapixel in resolution.
My question is, would I be better off to re-scan the old prints with my own Canon LiDE 90 scanner, or to send the original negative cartridges away to a professional lab? Scanning prints myself would be cheap, but time-consuming, whereas sending negatives away would be expensive, but take virtually no time, and perhaps have a higher quality scan. What I don't know is, will I be assured to get a better image from a freshly-scanned negative, or would scanning old prints myself probably look about as good? I would just buy an APS film scanner, but... well, they're pretty much impossible to find, since no one uses APS film anymore. Given the scarcity of labs that can even process APS film anymore, I'm thinking I should probably archive these photos sooner rather than later; I just can't decide how to do so. My next problem would be finding a website or local lab that can scan these negatives, and I don't know where to start looking for a good-quality lab for that.
jcdberkely
Long time listener but I always seem to be behind when listening to the podcast so I haven't ever asked a question. I seem to have problems sharpening for print. I always sharpen when I resize for web publishing and I have that nailed down. However, sharpening for print seems to be so much trickier. I've yet to find a great way to go about it. Do you sharpen based on what sized print you'll be making or more generic if you decide you want different sized prints later on? Any tips for using Unsharp Mask? Thanks!
Sorry if this has been asked before and I've just missed it.
kentiga
Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging for two decades, but her memory's kind of sketchy on the details. You can hear about it every week on Indecent Exposure, the podcast she co-hosts with Matt Fitzgerald.
Lori Grunin has been an avid photographer for almost 30 years, and spent the past 15 attempting to master every aspect of technology.
Matt Fitzgerald has been involved with digital camera technology and the photo industry for more than 15 years. Matthew's background includes work as a professional photographer, a technical representative, and a repair technician.
Here is my photo for the theme black: Something (Cover). Lots of what I guess people call negative space. I just call it me on one side :D
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joey_joey_joey/4013381494/
-joey <--- yep that's my name.
Here's my submission:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukedebruijn/4020415575/in/set-72157622539955960/
The main subject isn't black, but I figured black played a large part in the photo.
-Luke
Here are the maple leaves in July, nice bright and green:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11061372@N07/3744730813/in/set-72157612767222103/
Here are the leaves as they are now, in October:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/4076261349_9efc0de51f_o_d.jpg
This pic is straight out of the camera. Kind of dull, not really what I want, not really what they look like. So I took Lightroom (still don't have Photoshop) and increased the contrast, fiddled with the colors a little and ended up with this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11061372@N07/4045911156/in/set-72157612767222103/
I wish I had more depth of field, but the shot was hand-held and there was a slight breeze. But I really wanted to capture the (natural) color change in the leaves and I think I was successful in that regard.
-Kevin (ChewDawg)
PS - Working on a black photo.
Thanks for the info about sharpening, I've read the article you posted and I can't wait to get home and start playing with it against some of my photos. Got another question for you. How do you or what do you use for calibrating your monitors? I've seen some relatively inexpensive calibration equipment and I was wondering if it was worth it to spend the $50-60 for the gear or just go off of some test prints. I recently replaced one of my dual monitors and there's a vast difference between both of them. I don't know which one to trust at this point.
Audrey
Audrey
http://www.pbase.com/golfzilla/image/109884244
Pretty straight shot and strangely not "black" but identifiably black. Got that? Shot shortly after a shower in downtown Mt. View, CA.
not much time this week, or next so I pulled this one from a few weeks ago. I have been thinking all day about how to shoot black. At the time, I purposefully metered from the light pouring through the doors to brighten the interior & darken the doors. The doors are not actually black, I just wanted them to look that way in the shot. I have other shots metered from the light inside the space & it lookd gloomy, not as airy as this one.
Black submission:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p58/super6s/cnet/IMG_3395small.jpg
This was shot with a friend's fixed 15 mm Canon lense & then lens corrected in photoshop. I did not like shooting with this lens the first time I took it out, but tried a different application for it the second time I tried it. Have to admit that I like it now. First time I have ever shot with a fixed focal length & it took a bit of getting used to. Talk about breaking out of a rut.
Markitect
Sorry, The above statement is backwards (it was getting late)... I metered away from the streaming light (from within the room) to get the interior levels up & that is why the light coming in is a little blown out... Doors still appear black, though.
Conversely, when I metered off of the exterior light, the interior was a lot darker & a less attractive picture.
Anyway, wanted to see if I could find something light & airy for "black." Hope you like...
Markitect
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmcclenahan/3906937454/
This is my submission for the black contest:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allex/4085786637/sizes/l/
Allex Radu
Here is my entry for this week's contest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22756141@N06/4089932374/
Have a great week.
Heidi
Here is may submission for this weeks contest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38413087@N02/4090038464/sizes/m/
Karthik
http://www.izzaiah.com/gallery/corey/in-the-shadows/
I had the entry last week with the single red leaf. Yes it was originally color and yes I totally botched the Photoshop job. I was working with a poorly lit LCD and I couldn't tell I let that outer ring bleed through. I put a little more work in and here's the fix along with the original. Looking back at the original I'm now wondering if I even should have messed with it at all.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70868859@N00/4091175180/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70868859@N00/4091175322/sizes/l/
By the way I think this Lomography branded film is really just expired film. It's supposed to produce strange effects and over saturation. It's fun to use but it's unpredictability can either be a blessing or a curse.
-Corey
If you want to make your design seen and have the chance to win the bag that you worked so much filed with a top notch gear you can enter in the "Dream Bag Challenge" at:
http://www.dreambagchallenge.com/
Allex Radu
P.S. The prize it's to tempting, I think I'll try my hand on a design.
I don't normally bother to enter these things, but i was mindlessly clicking through my photostream in the late hours, stumbled on this one and thought 'Wow, that's a lot of black'. Then I remembered the theme this week was black, so figured I should probably submit. :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48213112@N00/3414534744
It was taken at a parade in Falmouth, Cornwall, last winter. I upped the contrast and converted to greyscale in photoshop (and by photoshop i mean the gimp) after the fact, but otherwise did nothing special - just zoomed too much and hoped the pan worked! :-)
Here is my submission for black as it happens at the end of the day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30978872@N03/4086207566/
Thanks, grace
Black is a very cool subject. Here is my attempt. A bit cliché but oh well...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35413458@N03/4097125186/
I used an LED desklight to illuminate the card. I think I like using LEDs as light sources. Pretty amazing they make white light so well. Think I read somewhere LED produce a larger dynamic range and are more vivid than fluorescent or incandescent sources.
LTS, Dane
This was my first time converting a color picture to black and white. I used Photoshop Elements and was amazed how using the color sliders could affect what the picture looked like. What I thought was going to be a simple process took a while as I explored what all the color sliders did to the final picture.
The subject is a picture I took while on a tour of the Boulder Dam. There is an elevator inside of the dam and this stairway is the emergency exit. Here's my submission for this week's contest that I titled Stairway to Darkness
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/4096521787_fbf5785f31.jpg
Steve
Here is this weeks entry. Two horses out walking shot with a 75 - 300mm on a Canon 40D.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmacke/4092045840/
Thanks for an other wonderful show!
Keith Macke
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11061372@N07/4093952747/
-Kevin (ChewDawg)
This was a fun little project, I really got to see what my DSLR and Light Room could do, as I tinkered with the settings trying to get the feel that I was looking for. I wanted to make it more about black than the crystal. I shot this with my Canon T1i and the 18-55mm that came with the body. Hope you and your listeners enjoy. My submission for "Black" is below.
Thanks,
John H.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmh915/4096906077/
-
by jmh915
November 11, 2009 10:10 PM PST
- Lori and Matt,
-
Like this
Reply to this comment
-
-
-
by jmh915
November 11, 2009 10:12 PM PST
- Sorry for the repeat!
-
Like this
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (33 Comments)This was a fun little project, I really got to see what my DSLR and Light Room could do, as I tinkered with the settings trying to get the feel that I was looking for. I wanted to make it more about black than the crystal. I shot this with my Canon T1i and the 18-55mm that came with the body. Hope you and your listeners enjoy. My submission for "Black" is below.
Thanks,
John H.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmh915/4096906077/