Tag: photography

Structures

Structures

I was rummaging through some LR photos this morning while the gardener weed whacked and mowed away. I came across this one, taken from the car as we drove to or from Tucson, AZ, to get our Global Entry cards verified. When I saw this, I was thinking about “my photographic style” – something I never really think about. I did realize I prefer rather stark things, or bits of something, seldom people unless it is street. I also know I have a lot of fun making a photograph into more than a photograph – something which appeals to me artistically. Heading out next week, I will be bringing a small camera with me as where we will be and where we will be going has a lot of stuff to look at.

Magic Fujicolor Panoramic Tree!

Tree

I haven’t done any film photography for about 2 years, but I finally took a roll of FujiColor 100 I had finished awhile ago in to the lab to be processed. No idea what camera I used. I asked for only processing, no scans or prints.

Once home, I ran the film through both my Pakon 135 scanner and then my PrimeFilm XA Super Edition scanner using SilverFast 8e (free version for this scanner). I ran it as negatives but used the infrared clean up on all of my images. Once all processed, I merged the 5 images which make up this one without doing any clean up post Negative Lab conversion. This image is the one I used with SilverFast, and I am pretty pleased with the end results. I didn’t do any color shifts or anything in post, just used my standard frame and trimmed the raw edges down a bit.

I really like my Pakon scanner – I got it in the days of yore when cheap – and have a dedicated XP laptop for use with it. However, when I went looking for a scanner which was not consigned to the world of XP only, I came across the Prime Film on recommendation by a video on YouTube by “Shoot with Coops”. I have scanned negatives with VueScan, but there is not clean up. This roll of film was horribly scratched and really would have not been worth any time in removing the dots and scratches by hand. SilverFast works really beautifully, I think, and even though I had to putz around to get things working, straight out of scan and Neg Lab, I like the results.

I plan to get out and do more film photography as summer progresses. Film just has an extra something which digital lacks. I like scanning my own film – it saves a lot of money for one thing – but there are a lot of frustrations which go along with it. Dirt, scratches, and software. Yes, film can be scanned, but the quality of the scanner and the software can make or break it for you. Silverfast is often offered as a free scanning software. What I like about it is that each scanner has its own specific version, and the free one is really, really good. I use the Epson V600 for 120 film, and that works well enough with the native software, but not for 35mm.

So . . . no drawing today, but a foray into another picture making process.

Hill Canyon at High Noon

Hill Canyon at High Noon

Another picture from the hike last year in Hill Canyon. It was a bright, hot day, but pleasant nonetheless.

So many people talk about post processing with digital – and film – images. Some say no, don’t do it; others don’t care; others think AI is going to ruin it all. I have to admit that I like pushing photos to make them more interesting or to create a mood, and even the use of AI is fine – but, using AI should be acknowledged.

Pushed here, but no AI, but I did use generative fill in PS to fill in some gaps. This was a panorama of about 10 images I pasted together. Maybe generative fill is AI, so I might be guilty here . . .