The V and A, Kensington, London:
6 November 2010, ISO-100, 1/500 at f/5.6, 74mm
Tuomiokirkko (The Lutheran Cathedral), Helsinki, Finland:
30 June 2010, ISO-100, 1/160 s. at f/14.
The Arch at Washington Square Park, New York:
This is the complement to an earlier shot I posted. I'm not sure which I prefer.
12 February 2011, ISO-1600, 1/15 at f/5.6, 18mm.
Another reprise, this time of Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg:
Again, the differences may not be apparent. Here's the first publication from last July:
The revised image has a smidge more contrast and a skeech more saturation, and I dodged out some of the darker areas a snape or two. Unlike some other shots I've put up recently, this one came from a large (6 Mpix) digital original, so further refinements should be easy and effective.
(Aside: Apparently the Photo of the Day has become a feature of The Daily Parker. Oh, the pressure.)
Today, another comparison between a photo I printed in a darkroom with paper and chemicals and the same photo "printed" using digital image editing tools. This is a friend from high school, photographed in March 1986 on Kodak Tri-X film, and printed on 8"x10" Ilford #3 paper:
Voilà the rescanned negative processed through Lightroom:
As with the other photo, I didn't duplicate the original print exactly. Both modern versions show more detail and a greater range of tones than the paper prints, partially because of the generation loss from scanning a print, but also because printing a photo on an easel is a sloppy process. After six or seven attempts, with a cycle time of about 20 minutes, using smelly chemicals, after school, in a darkroom in the school basement, with homework to do, I just moved on. With digital editing, if I don't like the result I can simply change it. Burned in a spot too much? In 1986, throw the print out and start over. In 2011, hit +Z.
In fact, just looking at the comparison, I see a couple more things I should do...which will take about 5 minutes. And no smelly chemicals.
Thanks to the model, Lauren Spain-Bondi, for permission to publish.
As threatened, I've gotten a public photo page at SmugMug (http://punzunltd.smugmug.com).
You can now browse the few that I've published so far, and possibly even buy one. It's not incredibly impressive right now as I don't have full-size copies of much yet. That will change, though. I'm having a lot of fun with Adobe Lightroom and its one-click integration with SmugMug, too.
Eleven-month-old German Shepherd Dog Rex watches his mom carry in the barbecued chicken yesterday in Chicago:
ISO 3200, 1/125 at f/2.5, 50mm prime
Northbrook, Ill., sometime in late April 1986:
In May 1986, I went to Boston with my school choir (all 130 of us, plus chaperons) and took about 240 photos. Here's one of them:
When I got back home, I printed the shot. This took about five hours, and some help from Mr. Sylvester, the photography teacher, because instead of Photoshop I used an actual darkroom, with an easel and Ilford #3 paper. Here's the result:
Now, in 2011, I've finally scanned the negative, and in about 20 minutes with Adobe Lightroom, produced a reasonable facsimile:
Not only did the electronic editing take less time than the paper-and-developer method, but it also smelled a lot better.
Public Garden, Boston, 10 May 1986. Kodak Tri-X 400, ISO 320, exposure unrecorded, Canon T-90.
South Pond, Lincoln Park, Chicago, 1:27pm:
