Note On Scanning Black and White Negatives With Epson V500 Using The Individul Gain Setting In Vuescan

With R, G, B gains set as below with the scan imported into Lightroom and using a custom colour profile

A recent release of Vuescan has new functionality of be able to use individual gain setting:

This allows me make a DNG output scan with each of the RGB channels having different gains.This has been an extension of the single image (hdr) techniques mentioned at the bottom of this introduction to the Epson V500.

Note that depending on the scanner under inspection with the gains being equal one of the RGB channels might be cleaner or have better resolution. One might best use this as the channel with the middle gain.

Same as above plus color has been flattened back to Black and White
Mamiya C220 80mm f2.8
TMAX 400 Film
D76 1:1 10 minutes 22c

Redscale and Double Exposures as Normal / Redscale Pairs

Cross Processed Expired Kodak Ektachrome 360T Redscale Shot at Iso 100

As many of you know cross processing is developing a film in a different chemistry then was intended, in this case a e6 transparency film was developed in C41 colour negative chemistry.

Redscale is just reversing the film so light from the lens first goes through the back of the film and exits the emulsion side. This travelling in reverse through the different layers that make up colour film reduces the effective ISO and causes  the film to have predominantly red, orange and yellow false colours.

I shot one roll just to try it out and the above was my best shot pretty meh.

This year I participated in an international film swap where a roll of film was exposed twice (one for each participant) the idea is that we would end up with random double exposures from 2 countries. My partner was a student from Italy. To mix it up a bit I asked him to shot a roll at full film speed and take shots with lots of textures. Unfortunately there was a slight language barrier and he under exposed his side. I for my part reversed (inside out) the film in the roll thus shooting my side of the double exposures as Redscale.

The following are some of the results:

So You Have Just Brought A New Camera - Health Care For The Undead

So you have just brought a new camera, consider it as a wake up call that we are mostly mindless consumers of things that we are made to think we need or should desire to own. With the commercialization of social media the brainwashing is almost complete. This is neither a good or bad thing it's just the reality as it is now.

So you have your: {first; new; cheap; free; expensive; fantastic;shiny; retro... cell; film; consumer; dslr; rangefinder; pro; (2/3rds, c, full frame) and/or ...} camera so what now? Each one of those cameras as sure as you breath is capable of taking a picture that in the right hands could be a masterpiece.

Now that this new camera is in your hands it's time to stop for at least a short while being a mindless consumer of photography goods and services and instead learn to take better photographs! To that aim if you haven't already you may want to evaluate or re-evaluate what your own development goals are and alter your current path to a direction that might result in you achieving those goals.

If it turns out that you just want a shiny new toy then that's OK. But if you don't use your brain to effect changes in the way you take photographs then you shouldn't expect any changes in the results.

Son: "Mom, can I have some pudding?"
Mom: "You haven't eaten your meat yet."
Son: "But mom!"
Mom: "Son, you know that: 'If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any   pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
Son: "Don't be quoting Pink Floyd on me again...

Hansa 135mm f3.2 Lens

I have this Hansa 135mm f3.2 lens. Made in Japan it came with an adapter to fit on my Nikon. I bought it for a few dollars attached to a Nikor closeup bellows. Not a bad little performer. Notice the 2 rings at the top. Those are for "stop down metering". I suspect one should lock so you can preset aperture and then open up for focusing but doesn't lock. The lightly coated optics are very clean and clear. With a 16 or 17 rounded aperture blades should mean nice out of focus highlights.

The origin of the lens is veiled in the mists of time. Some say they were made for Hansa Japan  rebranded from another still to be determined Japanese lens manufacture maybe Cosina. Others say it might be a house brand for  Hansa Foto in Cologne. Another even remoter idea is that it was a Nikkor lens made for Hanson Canon imported into the USA under the Hansa name.

Once you get use to the stop down aperture control it is a nice little performer.

Cellphonography Love/Hate Relationship

Digitally Monitoring The World

The things I hate about my cell phone camera:

• Poor Optics
• Glare
• Poor image quality
• Many too many Pixels for the resolution
• Shutter,Timing and Focus Uncertainty: STFU and take the shot now!
• Results only look good if printed small
• Fixed wide angle view of the world
• No bokeh
• Strange motion artifacts
• Weird HDTV aspect ratio
• The awkward ergonomics for photography
• The tacky fake special effects and instant post processing
• Instant posting of images many which I will regret in the morning

Saturday Night

The things I love about my cell phone camera 

All of the above!