I, Curtis

Category: Photography

  • Self-Critique of the Latest Film Rolls

    1. I need to learn to be less afraid of different apertures.

    I shoot a lot with my aperture wide open (smallest f/ratio). This shot of a mushroom cluster could have been a lot better had I closed the aperture some and gotten a little more depth. Probably not f/8, but perhaps f/4 or 5.6 (this one was shot at a macro-level f/3). 

    2. I need to think with the contrast of black and white film in mind.

    This would have been a very interesting shot if I would have been more mindful of black and white photographic contrast and perhaps let the image be a little darker to let the vibrant colors shine more clearly with tonality other than just white.

    3. Consider the impact of shadow.

    Black and white photography relies on the use of shadow and light to compose an image. As such, shadows in the wrong place and ruin the composition of an image. In a color image this is less critical, but still important.

  • Frustration of a Film Photographer in the Digital Age

    • It takes 2 minutes to scan a single BW 35mm negative on a traditional scanner at 2400dpi
    • It takes 7 minutes to scan a single BW 35mm negative on a traditional scanner at 4800dpi
    • Traditional scanners use “trays” and “adapters” which are not part of the scanner itself to hold negatives, this results in things that move and aren’t always aligned
    • There is no instant verification at low-res before moving on to high-res scanning on traditional scanners
    • Most “film scanners” are cheap crap that have more in common with a digital camera than a scanner. Film is analog and therefore requires optical projection to reach a desired result
    • Most independent film scanners assume colour negatives. BW negatives have color (shades of blue/green and yellow), but those colors are not intended to be seen in the finished product.
    • “Real” film scanners cost $1000-$5000

     

    I enjoy film photography as an artistic hobby. It allows for more expression and limited options to trick or cheat one’s way out of problems in photography. In some ways film photography feels more “human” to me than any digital method ever has. The problem with this view is that I am in a digital age, which I eagerly embrace. I like the analog methods of recording an image, but I do not embrace the mess, difficulty or annoyance of printing photos to paper using traditional photographic printing methods. As a result of this combining of processes I find that my best option for handling my film is to scan it.

    I have attempted to scan my film using a low-end “film scanner” and a standard Canon flatbed scanner with a film adapter unit. I was not impressed with the 5 megapixel images produced by the film scanner, but am quite happy with the output of the Canon flatbed, which ranges between about 7.1 MP for 2400dpi or 31MP for 4800dpi. The difficulty is that at 31 MP it takes 7 minutes to perform the scans and it is very difficult to get the scanner to output perfectly. The biggest issue is a gradient at the very bottom of each frame, which I can’t seem to get to go away. Despite these problems, the Canon scanner is currently my best option for taking on this process. I do find irony in using a Canon scanner to scan negatives produced on a Nikon camera.

    Modern interpretations of the inexpensive film scanner that I had used in the past now have features like a built-in display and they function without special software. The screens are a nice touch, but I find those models tend to have the lowest reviews on Amazon for their technical abilities. I suspect those models are intended for an instant-gratification group of people who may simply enjoy digging through boxes of old negatives and reliving memories with friends and family and not for a serious photographer who wishes to save their work in a digital form. This brings me to another point. It is hard to tell what people are having problems with on these devices. People complain about color loss when scanning. First of all, I am not scanning color film. Second, Kodachrome and similar technologies do not have a very long life span and once the film begins to degrade (especially if it was developed commercially) then it begins to loose its vibrance. The bad reviews can be caused by bad film, not a bad scanner, which makes this process even harder.

    One of the biggest problems I am having with determining what to do about this situation is looking at scanner specs I am told a lot of different size ratings (megapixels), but no one seems very willing to give me information in density (dots per inch). On a flatbed scanner the DPI is an interesting measure because there is a correlation between the output size and the density due to the physical size of the film frame.

    For the moment it seems my best option is to keep working with the Canon flatbed scanner and attempt to be patient with it.

  • Amendment to Image Coding Rules

    This blog entry amends “My Image Coding System”.

    Cropped Naming (Multiple Orientations of Same Crop): DSC_9999-8×10L.jpg or DSC_9999-8x10P.jpg

    Due to a client specifically requesting 8×10 format, I have found myself in a situation where I will attempt crops multiple ways, since the low ratio 4:5 lends itself to taking things either direction, compared to something like 2:3 where there is often only one “right” way to show an image.

  • Spider Lilly Close-Up

    DSC_5713-1

    Spider lilies are really neat looking, especially close up. I haven’t done many photos lately, so I’m looking for subjects to get me back started.

  • Considering Project 365 Again

    It has been almost a year since I started project 365, but unfortunately, I abandoned it around day 120. Now that it is coming back around to that time of year again, I’m considering trying again. I have been pretty lame at the whole photo thing lately, not really doing any for fun, just when they were needed. I have too many lenses and too much photo equipment to be this lame. I don’t know when I would want to resume the project, but it would seem almost appropriate somehow to start over on the day I started the initial attempt. This will give me about three weeks from this point to get back in the habit of doing a photo each and every day. I know some days I am less inspired than others, or some days I am inspired differently. I am going to consider carefully my themes and how I want to go about this. I do know for certain that I liked the idea of doing the notebook, both physical and electronic. No more sticky sheets and printed labels though, I will be printing my photos for the project myself and trying to update the notebook about once per week (last time I did a month, that was painful).

    I would on this attempt appreciate any peer support I can get. If anyone wants to join me and try to do the project with me, it starts on September 25th. Let me know if you want to join me and I’ll set up a site for multiple people on the same project. BTW, I don’t care if I don’t know you, or if I know you and haven’t spoken to you in years, if you want to attempt to take a photograph every day for a full year, I want to hear from you.

  • The Macro Lens is Good to Me

    DSC_9515-1

    I am seriously liking my new 60mm Macro lens. My only complaint so far is that I had to get way too close at 60mm to this creature to get this shot.

  • Committing Myself to Macro

    I have just done something that I don’t know if it is silly or not. I have just purchased a Nikon AF-S 60mm f/2.8 lens. The lens is intended for macro. Until now all of my macro shots have been done with my standard lenses using a close-up/macro conversion kit. Now I will have native macro in this lens. I can also go to the full range, going to infinity as well, but its all in one little lens. 60mm is hardly a normal focal length for me, but I assume I will adapt well to it. I haven’t been doing a lot of macro lately because of the difficulty with using the filters with the lenses (picking the right diopter, humidity causing them to fog, etc). I am hoping this will renew my interest in the topic and allow me to explore it further.

    I will return to the world of the detailed and tiny, and perhaps remind myself how to actually manually focus (since I am too wobbly for AF to matter at that size).  This is the lens that I have been considered for a while now and I finally just decided to crack and get it, especially since yesterday I really wanted it in my aunt’s yard. Every decent flower photo of mine, macro or not, has been taken in her yard.

    Tuesday I guess I will get the chance to see if I still enjoy macro as much as I think I do. Might just have to grab Chris’ SB-900 and see what the two do together 🙂

  • Film Photos: Roll ID 2010-004

    This roll is certainly more fetish inspired, but I tried to work with aesthetics while doing so.

    Polished BootsPolished BootsDakota BootsNike Shox CL2Dakota Boots
    Dakota BootsDakota BootsChippewa Super LoggerChippewa Logger BootsSupper Logger Logo
    EyeletsToesOsiris D3Osiris D3Osiris D3
    T-Mac ToeT-Mac PortraitT-Mac LandscapeWilson of Boot BoxesCatepillar Work Boots
    Osiris BronxDakota At RestOn The Laddar - From BelowIn the DarknessOn the Laddar
    In the Darkness IIIn The Darkness IIIIn the Darkness IVAir Max BWShox MTX
    Chippewa Black LoggersChippewa Black LoggersNike Shox CLNike Shox CLGlobe Focus
    Globe FocusNike Cross Training

  • The Difference A Developer Makes

    I have developed my 4th roll of film, but I have made a slight change in one aspect of the process, I have switched to Kodak’s D-76 developer from the generic Adorama developer. This developer takes longer to work (meaning also its less harsh and allows for more flexibility). From analyzing the negatives this time I feel like things are more evenly developed, there are no strange spots on the film and in general the contrast of the images is more pleasing. This certainly inspires me to continue shooting on film, at least in part. That being said, I reloaded my camera with Kodak Plus-X 125 film this time, not Neopan 400, so I am shaking things up a bit there as well.

  • Film Photos: Roll ID 2010-003

    My third roll of film. These shots are just as haphazard as before, but I let myself go a little more wild and actually do more subjects that interest me. The scanning process didn’t go too well for this roll and some other factors seem to have made the grain pretty intense. None of these have been retouched or edited yet, so there is still hope for them. Obviously there was some fetish influence on some of these images as well.

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