Home for my 365 photo challenge, where I attempt to take and post a photo every day for the year.
Click on Photos to see all the photos on one page, or scroll down and look at each post. You can find more pictures and some not-very-good blogging at Cliff538.
It’s raining here. It’s 104°F/40°C and raining. Real nice.
Yesterday it was 113°F / 45°C, and it was miserable. From the news, it sounds like we’re not alone. The heat has settled in everywhere, and summer has arrived like a blowtorch.
This is a shot from yesterday that I just got around to editing in Lightroom.
Thanks for stopping by.
Click for Stray Pixels and a Film Journey Update
Film Journey:
Another update to home digital camera film scanning. I read the user manual for Negative Lab Pro and its scanning recommendations, and I tried a second batch of scans. I think they turned out much better. I’ll show a couple of shots from yesterday’s post, plus a few more, that show the difference between the lab scans and my scans. It surprised me and made me realize that the lab isn’t always the best.
I will say that color scans are the hardest. B&W is pretty darn easy; there is no white balance to deal with, and you’re basically just adjusting brightness, contrast, black clip, and white clip, unless you use toning.
I’m most surprised at the sunset pictures. The lab scans came out really dark, and I thought I had just screwed up my metering, which metering for that shot is tough with the bright sky and dark street, but I wasn’t even going to process those shots, and I’m glad I did. When I scanned them and used Negative Lab Pro with just standard settings, they were not that dark at all. It just shows me that whoever scans your pictures, they, or the software, is making a judgment call on your negative. I think I’d rather be making those decisions.
I’m rather enjoying the process and creative outlet. Looking forward to getting some good pictures to work with now.
Of note, I’ve been using Negative Lab Pro for negative conversions, but I just found another way from CineStill Film. They have LR, PS, and ACR presets that do the conversion. I downloaded them, but havent haven’t had a chance to play with them yet.
The first seven shots are professional lab scans from my local lab. The next seven are my scans. Ignore the quality of the shots, I just wanted to shoot a couple of rolls of film to test the Rolleiflex and my metering. You can compare them yourself. I’m working on getting that cool image reveal slider on my blog, but it’s a bit more complex than I thought. It would be nice to have the slider and see the lab scan vs my scan in the same shot. Hopefully soon.
My second try with new knowledge and tweaks to the software and camera settings.
My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400
Sad day for taking photos, but a good day on the film scanning front!
More down in Stray Pixels about the film journey.
Click for Stray Pixels
Film Journey:
Today was mostly an office day to see if I could do my own scans of my negatives and get them close to the professional lab results.
I’m going to post the professional lab scans, then my camera scans. My goal is to be able to scan my own negatives and at least come close to lab-quality. I know labs vary widely, and I only have one lab to compare to right now, but I don’t think mine are that bad, especially for my first attempt. There is a pretty steep learning curve, and I’m sure I’ll get better as I learn more and practice. Please ignore the photo content; these were test shots to make sure my grandfather’s Rollei was still working, and my light metering technique was working. I was just shooting random stuff around the house. Oh, and ignore the dust! My word, the dust on my black-and-white negatives was horrible. I’m going to have to be way more careful in the future.
I’m also going to have to decide where I’m going to document my film journey. Here in Stray Pixels, or I should probably just make a proper page over on Cliff538.com. I will give this some thought.
The last photo is a Vlads Test Target. It’s a simple concept that works really well for testing sharpness, especially in the photo corners. Setting up your camera and film scanner so that everything is straight and parallel is really important. Then figure out which aperture setting on your lens gives you the best focus, especially in the corners. I was using f/8 on my lens, and there is some softness in the corners. This warrants some testing with other apertures.
I used my Nikon Z8 with an MC 105/2.8 lens and a Valoi 360 system. Processed with LightRoom Classic and Negative Lab Pro.
All shots taken with a Rolleiflex. The color film was Kodak Portra 400, and the B&W was Ilford HP5 400.
Professional Lab ScanProfessional Lab ScanProfessional Lab ScanMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningMy First Attempt at ScanningVlad's Test Target
Four A.M. sharp is van time. I was out by the curb early with a cup of coffee, sitting in the dawn’s first light, all alone, listening as the birds slowly woke and began announcing the day. A peaceful little pocket of quiet before the hectic day ahead: airports, crowds, and full aluminum tubes streaking through the air at 500 miles per hour.
Four legs today. Only an hour late by the end of the day. Not too bad for Summer flying.
Pro Tip: If you are traveling by air, take the first few flights out in the morning. Morning flights always leave on time. These planes fly all day long, and by early afternoon, they are running hours late due to mechanicals, weather, and a hundred other reasons. Do yourself a favor, and fly out early. I know it’s hard to get up early, but it’s better than getting to the airport only to be 3+ hours delayed or canceled.
What a day. Full airplanes, lots of thunderstorms, delays, holding, waiting, plane changes, and more! Glad to be done. 10 hours' rest, and let’s go do it again. Let’s get people where they want to go!
Weak photo today, but it’s the only one from today.
Hope it was a great day, thank you for stopping by.
Not much time for photographs today. My mountain shot was, let’s just say, uninspiring. So, time to get creative and deepen the blacks and brighten the whites to create a mountain yin-yang opposing-forces idea.
Off to work tomorrow, let’s see what creativity that brings.
My morning bird shots will be coming to a close for the Summer. It’s bloody hot in the mornings now, and I’m not happy about it. One of life’s true little pleasures for me is sitting outside in the morning watching the birds with my coffee and camera.
This nice couple gave me a few shots this morning. As you can see, the female is in focus, but the male, not so much. My shallow depth of field bit me. My plane of focus was so narrow that their being offset just a touch was enough to throw the male out of focus. But it’s my shot of the day nonetheless.
Film Journey: Got my first roll of Portra 400 back from the lab today. These would be the first pictures taken with my Grandfathers Rolleiflex in over 40 years, I believe. I didn’t take the time to take good photos because I just wanted to make sure the camera was working, didn’t have light leaks, and that my light metering technique was at least in the ballpark. (Grandpa Leamer, your beautiful Rollei still takes great pictures…)
Still waiting on the Ilford B&W negatives/scans.
Down in Stray Pixels, I’ll put the one shot that is even slightly worth showing. I’m very happy with my exposure and with the sharpness. Love that tight grain. But, boy, did I have to straighten the photos. There is a learning curve dealing with a waist-level viewfinder!
If you’re a film person, you’ll laugh at my observations, but I haven’t shot film since high school and college. It’s funny to me that I’ve been shooting digitally and using film emulation on some shots. Then I get these scans back and stare at them, thinking, “This is the real deal, real Kodak Portra, no simulation needed.”
Photography is a funny thing these days. Digital, film, emulations, filters, recipes, A.I., apps. Even shooting film and scanning negatives to make them digital so you can post them is funny to me. You take negatives, scan them, and then you can still tweak to some degree, colors, brightness, sharpness, etc. Are they film shots still? (That’s rhetorical). You have purists who think most of this is sacrilegious.
I’m not in any camp. I love photography. I don’t care how you do it. In fact, tell me how you do it. Tell me your process. I’m curious about your art and how you make it. It’s yours. Don’t let anybody tell you your art is less than because you don’t follow their rules. We all have our preferences and beliefs. I respect yours, and maybe I’ll even adopt some of yours if they make sense to me. I always try to follow the mantra of “Strong Opinions, Loosely Held.” Be open to change, to new data, to new ideas. It will make you a better person and photographer.
I’m really enjoying my photography journey these days. Digital shooting, Rolleiflex, (BeerPan coming someday (35mm Pano)), printing, film, negatives, scanning, it’s just all really interesting and fun exploring as much as I can. Heck, I’m watching a very in-depth Large Format Photography course right now, and there may be even more variety in the future. I’m just say’n: the 4x5 and 6x17 stuff looks awfully fun.
Anyway, I’m babbling now. Go take some pictures.
Click for Stray PixelsRolleiflex. Portra 400.Same Photo. Processed Black & White in LR
Back home and rested. I sat outside this morning with coffee, camera, and my new book. I’ll have a write-up about this amazing book in my June The Good Stuff. Bottom line: I think every outdoor photographer should have this book. It’s the best photography book I’ve found in a really long time. I’m highlighting and making margin notes like crazy.
I was working on bird shots between cups of coffee, and grabbed a fun shot with the Nikon as this guy came overhead.
Nice day at work. Good weather and easy flying. Overnighting in SJC, and it’s crazy busy here. I guess there is a World Cup game(s) going on right now.
Short drive tonight on some errands, and when I drove past this, I knew I had to capture it. I turned around, parked, and hiked to a good spot to take in this peaceful scene. A good reason to always have your camera with you.
Nikon Z8 • 125mm • 1/125s • f/2.8 • ISO 5000
Film Journey:
I shot a roll of Portra 400 tonight on some sunset shots with the Rollei. I don’t have a cable release for it, so I ordered one on eBay tonight. I had it on a tripod, but who knows how shaky I am when pressing and releasing the shutter with my finger in Bulb Mode. No instant results—just have to wait and find out. Another roll of exposed film in the refrigerator. When I get back from my next work trip, I’m going to try a local lab for developing and scanning. I think I’m set up to scan my own negatives now, but I want some lab scans to compare mine to.
This Rollei that I’m using has a lot of meaning for me. It was my grandfather’s; he was an avid photographer and very active in his local photography club up in the Pacific Northwest. I loved spending time with him in his office, looking at slides on the light table. I want to keep his camera shooting film for many years. It’s been a long, slow journey back into film for me, but progress is happening.
The next roll to experiment with is Kodak Ektar 100. It’s supposed to have very fine grain and vibrant colors. Excited to see it.
Click for Stray Pixels4x6 Test Print of yesterday's photo on ILFORD Gold Fiber Rag. I like it.
Out for another sunset tonight — I could get into this habit. The oranges and blues have been beautiful. I did a quick 4x6 test print of this shot on Ilford Gold Fibre Rag, and it looks really good.
I finally shot a roll of Ilford HP5+ through the Rolleiflex tonight. I loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 400 for tomorrow. We shall see…
Hopefully, a worthy Rollei frame or two to share in Stray Pixels in the coming weeks.
Finally back home, it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for you.
I was able to get out today and shoot. Pretty happy with this shot, not technically, but more about the metaphor or meaning. I’m still torn with the title. Originally, I had “The Slow March of Death”, then “Waiting Their Turn”, but “Standing Among Ghosts” gave me goosebumps, so I went with that.
Ah, road life. Not always fun or pleasant. Another rough night’s sleep. The resort limits how cold you can make the room, and it’s just too hot for me. I like to sleep cold. But mediocre coffee and a good breakfast shake off the lack of sleep this morning.
Out walking this morning, I was wondering why some bushes are filled with purple flowers while another right next to them is bare. You can see down in Stray Pixels, why.
Well, the plane is already over an hour late; it might be a long day, life on the road.
Back in Cancun. Hot and humid, and the resort is dead. Nobody is here. It’s so nice and quiet. Walking back to my room, I came across this male Baltimore Oriole. Blurry shots, but he was moving fast, and all I had was my iPhone. Such vivid colors.
Pretty sad day on the photo front. Had a terrible night’s sleep, got up at 2:30 in the morning, and had a long day. My only shots were early this morning, thank goodness I took those. Time for sleep.
Get-R-Done! Knocking the daily photo out early this morning.
Around 6 pm, I was going to post my photo of the Kodak printer review and thought, “You can do better than this. Come on, work for it a little bit.” So off I went in the car, looking for a nice sunset shot. I took about 90 photos and came away with just a few keepers. I posted that shot around 9 pm, which is very late for me. But all that put me in the “carry my camera everywhere” mode, and this morning, when I got up at 5 am, I grabbed my coffee and a camera and sat outside, just watching the sun come up and the birds moving through the soft colors of first light.
OM-1 Mark II • 400mm • 1/3200s • f/4.5 • ISO 2000
Sidenote: I need to somehow make a foam insert that fits in the passenger seat, fills the footwell, and gives me a nice, level, soft surface to put cameras and lenses on. I often drive around looking for shots, and putting a camera bag on the passenger seat just is not stable or ideal. Last night, a harder-than-expected stop made a camera roll off the seat and hit the floor. I was not happy…
Has anyone made anything like this? Have you ever seen anything like this? I’m thinking of a big, soft foam insert that fills the space, with slots you could cut to hold your gear securely while still having quick access to it. Last night I missed good shots because it took too long to futz with gear.
Click for Stray Pixels
Just a crazy tight crop, then denoised and sharpened. Not bad for a Micro Four Thirds sensor.
Nikon Z8 • 24mm • ƒ/4.0 • 1/400s • ISO 800
