I spent much time last night on the phone talking to far-flung members of my extended family. All part of my current project, scanning old family photos and posting them on my photo site. Many of these pictures were from when dad and the aunts and uncles were kids and I wanted to let the family know the photos were up and could be viewed now.
Most of these photos have been in an old, crumbling album that was in the family for who-knows how long… After both mom and dad passed away it fell into my hands. A couple years ago I was concerned about the safety of these old pics so I transfered them all into a new album with acid-free paper and so on. Not an easy task, as somewhere along the line someone had either taped or glued many of the photos onto the pages. How does one recover from that? I looked everywhere on the net for some advice but found nothing directly related to what I was going through, so I opted to leave well enough alone and simple cut each pic from it’s mount and slipped them into the new sleeves.
Over the fourth of July weekend, with the bad air (I live in California and the forest fires rage nearby) and the heat (we’re looking at 100’s!) I opted to stay in and start this project. I probably got about a quarter of the way through the black and white photos, scanning each at 300 dpi. I probably could have gone higher on the resolution, but I don’t think it would make much difference. After that step, I opened each in Photoshop and started a restoration process: Duplicate the image onto a new layer for spotting and cleanup, then duplicate that onto another layer for levels adjustment and any burn and dodge to even out the photo. I saved that and then exported the photo to a jpg for posting on the net. This step showed me that the brightness of each photo was exporting too dark, so I added an additional step of adding a brightness adjustment layer in PS to compensate. I’m assuming that exporting from the original file in 16 bit gray level to jpg in 8 bits was the culprit here. No problem, adjusting the brightness by 10 or 15% lighter seems to work and saves the original at the best quality for the time being.
Almost every photo showed signs of wear and time. Many had scratches and spots, wrinkles or cracks and the evidence of fingerprints and the aforementioned tape. I chose to deal with these in Photoshop by using the spot-healing tool on the spots in the open areas and the stamp tool in the tight spots. I tried to be very careful not to change the the feel or look of the original image. My levels and burn/dodge were done to even out the faded places and the poor printing of the original.
All in all, I’m happy with the results so far. The scans look good, the old photos are safe, the family are getting to them and we may even figure out the who/what/when/where of a few of them. I’ll be adding more photos to this gallery as I get them scanned and cleaned up…
It’s been quiet around here, but I’ve been busy.
Last weekend I processed a roll of HP5+ that I’ve been carrying around with me since March in an Olympus Trip 35. The camera was a gift from my pbase friend DM, who’d found it on ebay and cleaned it up nicely. I’ve been slowly shooting the roll ever since the camera arrived and finally finished it off here a couple weeks ago. Last saturday evening I spent some time scanning the negs but I was unhappy with the results (I don’t like the software’s automatic crop feature) I was getting with the Epson software that came with the scanner. So I downloaded a trial version of Vuescan ,which then gave me WAY too many options, but I liked the control it offered. Ah, there’s always two sides to a coin, no? So I purchased said software and proceeded to re-scan these same negatives multiple times during the past week, working late into the evening. Each time I was unhappy with the results but each time I learned something about the process. I let all that ferment in my head for a couple days and last night I scanned the negs yet another time.
A couple things I learned. First, I was rather excited about Vuescan’s ability to output a raw file straight from the CCD on the scanner. Very cool! I could put this right into Lightroom and tweak it there. But I was unhappy with the fact that the Mac OS wouldn’t give me a preview of the file in the finder. If you wanted to see what a photo was you had to open it… And, as my usual work flow on film scans is to open it in Photoshop and do a cleanup/despot, the raw didn’t really afford me much as I then would end up with a psd or tiff file, thus doubling my file storage for each picture. So after all this, and teaching myself the Vuescan software and interface well enough to get a passable scan, I opted to go with a tiff file, like I was doing before Vuescan, and then stay with my original workflow: scan, tiff, photoshop for cleanup, then import to Lightroom for any levels adjustment.
At least, that’s where I am this weekend…
If you’ve been around here for any length of time then you know of my affinity for old signs. Today’s pic is from a local restaurant I frequent, an old family establishment that is a local institution. The sign really captures a different place and time. As so many things like this are disappearing fast, I didn’t want to take it for granted that it would always be here. I thought it best to get it now before it’s gone from our local landscape.
And yes, the food is excellent!
It’s one of my favorite drives.
It’s long and desolate. There’s rarely any traffic. I mean to say that there’s rarely another car on the road to meet; indeed, make certain that you’re car is in good condition as I’ve rarely even seen another soul on the drive. There are faster routes, and certainly there are busier routes, over to the central coast from the San Joaquin Valley. But for a quiet drive, a drive for when you’re in no hurry, this is the one for me. There are curves a plenty while climbing up into the hills from the valley and descending out onto the Carriso Plains. Then the road is straight and long, built as if for a roller coaster with their rises and drops. In the middle of nowhere, the road makes a very sharp right angle turn. The warning sign says 15 mph and it means it! For a short stretch you drive along past a little country school, then it turns again, just as sharply, and you head off again in your original direction. It’s as if the builders of the road started on opposing sides of the plains with a plan to meet in the middle but all their calculations were off and, instead of fixing the mess, they decided to just build a short road connecting the dots and be done with it. The road takes you back up off the Carisso Plains, into the hills of the California coast and then dumps you quietly into the little town of Santa Margarita to connect with the coast’s Highway 101.
I’ve driven it many times since college days. Every car I’ve owned I’ve taken along this drive, sometimes when I shouldn’t have. I have fond memories of introducing people to the road. Almost every time I travel along this way with someone new I make a point of stopping near this spot in the photo. It’s near the halfway mark across the Carisso Plains. I pull off the asphalt, shut off the engine and get out of the car. It’s deathly quiet, with just the ping of the cooling engine and sometimes the sound of the breeze in the grasses. Every step is a decided *crunch* in the gravel, a step back in time when the world sounded this quiet, when the loudest thing ever heard might be the rumble of thunder or the crash of a wave on the shore. The ears ring with the silence. You’ve heard of ‘deafening silence’? This is it.
The vista is just as staggering. There are hills in the distance and vast grasslands laid out before you. Sometimes there’s a tractor tilling a field, sometimes there are cattle grazing. Off to one side you can see the ancient lake bed. You’re never really certain if you’re seeing water or if it’s just an optical illusion played by the heat waves rising from the floor of the valley. Overall it’s a thing of beauty and, if you’re lucky enough to have a few clouds in the sky, it can be dramatic.
I carried my camera with me yesterday for the first time in weeks.
I’ve made a point of taking a break from pictures since ending my Photo-A-Day project. In march I completed four years. Four years of taking a picture (or more, sometimes many more), processing and posting it that same day. Four years of good shots and dumb shots, early morning epiphanies and late night deadlines. Four years of crystaline observations and uninspired snapshots. A few real-keepers. More than a few out-of-ideas self portraits. For four years I tried to take a photo everyday. I missed a couple times here and there, but it was a frame of mind and a way of thinking every single day. Towards the end there were more than a few uninspired shots. So when I stopped at the end of March this year, it was for a breather and some time to collect my thoughts and see where I wanted to go next.
So what of all this? Well, it’s only been a bit more than a month since the end of PAD, but these last few days I’ve started seeing pictures in my head again. A couple of times I went for my camera only to remember that I didn’t have it with me. Ah, missed opportunities. Yesterday I headed out the door and, as I did so, grabbed my camera bag. I’m not sure how long this feeling will last, but for now I’ll endeavor to make the best of it…
I’ve only recently reconnected with Polaroid cameras and film. I purchased a couple vintage cameras on ebay in the last year or two and I’ve been playing around with the 600 series instant film. I was unhappy to learn that Polaroid was shutting down their production of instant film. Now there’s an article at Christian Science Monitor’s website about the demise of Polaroid’s instant film lines with a twinkle of potential good news. Seems Ilford is considering taking up the manufacture of the instant films. There’s a site up dedicated to saving the film, too. I’m crossing my fingers…
I watched a bio about Ansel Adams on tv last night before going to sleep and then proceeded to have strange dreams where I was taking portraits of people in that crystal-sharp and contrasty Adams look…
So, after four years of self-inflicted Photo-A-Day (PAD), I posted my last photo on friday, the anniversary of my starting PAD. I didn’t pick up a camera on saturday or sunday, and I was fine. But monday came, and on my way out the door, I stood for a minute with my hand on my camera bag vacillating about whether to take it or leave it. I’ve been carrying a camera with me everywhere I’ve gone for four years now… I wasn’t sure I could just leave it now. But I did. I left it. On my way to work I must have seen half a dozen shots on the street and in my head. At work, I looked over at where my camera bag usually sat and saw an empty space. I felt naked most of the day. And when it was time to go to bed, it was an odd feeling, I hadn’t posted a photo…
I decided that four years of PAD was enough; at least, it was enough for now. I feel like a break is due. I’m taking this time for a little rest, time to recharge. Past that, I have a few things I want to focus on, things I promised myself I would do. First, I need to sort and reorganize my photo collection. Second, I want to collect my favorite pictures from these last four years and try to put together a photo book. Third, I want to spend time working on a some photographic projects I’ve had milling about in my head for a while. Lastly, I’ve been working on building up a good lighting kit, and I want to finish that.
Today, as I left for work, I looked at my camera bag… the tug was still there. I came to a compromise. I left the bag, but grabbed the Olympus Trip 35 and stuffed it in my briefcase…
