Re: aquarium photography ... getting WAY off topic. :)

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Wed, 3 May 2000, David A. Youngker wrote:

> Mike Wise mentioned using his digital for most of the work while being able
> to produce slides and such by "photographing his monitor" with a "cheap
> SLR". OK, I can see that happening - somewhat... What combination of
> film/shutter speed and monitor refresh rate gives you good, clear shots
> without "looking like a picture of an electronic display"? You know - no
> visible "banding", retrace "highs and lows", etc. Even Hollywood gave up on
> trying to make a picture of an active screen look "natural".

I've done this too when my presentations were primarily slides and I
needed a couple of "outline" text slides.  I set it to as slow as possible
(like 1 second), used a tripod, turned off all the lights in the room.
Everything on manual.  Bracketed first roll to get an idea of correct
exposure.

The hospital where Kathy works has an art department and can make
professional slides from powerpoint presentations.  They've got some kind
of film recorder gadget that can do 2400dpi slide rendering.  This is
clearly the "pro" way to go... I wonder if there are places online where
you could send the file and get slides mailed to you for a few bucks each?

> You've mentioned scanning both slides and, here, print negatives. In my part
> of the world, those types of scanners run far and above the cost of
> reasonably sharp flat beds and the like. Can you dwell a little on what
> you're using here? 

HP Photosmart.  www.photosmart.com was the site.  Picked it up from a tip
from Richard Sexton, I think.  They retailed around $400 when I bought
mine in late 1998, but also had a $100 rebate.  There's a newer version; I
don't know if the price is still $400.  At $1 per scan for photo-CD's (my
previous way of digitizing slides), I've easily made back the cost of the
scanner by now. The only downside to the scanner is that it's kinda slow
and manual in terms of loading.  And it's not that great at the bottom end
of underexposed slides.

> I've finally managed to replace my bodies and lenses (as
> well as the other sundries - flashes, slaves, etc.), but lose a bit of the
> quality in having to produce digitals from hard copies. Work to produce a
> quality image from the negative, then work to produce a good digital from
> the photo - I don't know, but this seems like too much duplication of effort
> to me. Why not cut out the extra step and cut straight to the chase?...

Not exactly sure what the point is above...  Is it that one should
go 100% digital, or 100% analog?  The former case just isn't affordable
for me yet.  The latter isn't practical for what I want to do, which is a
combination of web, 100% xerox-ready printed artwork, and occasional
pro publication photos (like 1 so far).  As you say, why bother to tweak
the analog photo via printing and then scan it?

I go right from the negative or slide, clean up the photo (dodge, burn,
retouch, color correct, etc) on computer, thengo to web or
publication (directly into the document).  Maybe print on a good
photo-quality color printer (though that's mostly just for family).  I
don't have a darkroom (haven't for about 11 years), and don't really want
to invest the time & money in it; certainly don't want to do color
printing again!  To me, working off high-resolution neg/slide scans is a
dream come true, something I'd waited 11 years for.  What I am keeping my
eye on now are services that will take high-res digital images and render
them on high quality photo-type paper.  Then the circle will be complete;
I can put some of our retouched apisto pictures on the walls of our
fishroom.

Isn't this basically what's being done elsewhere in media?  Video editing:
Analog footage, digitized, edited and spit back out as analog (broadcast)
footage.  TV shows shot on film and Tele-cine'd to video because of the
higher quality transfer.  Animation that's still drawn by hand on paper
but now scanned in, heavily computer-processed, and finally printed on
film.

OK.  After all this, I promise to have some new pictures up on the Krib
real soon now. :)

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com



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