* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #788 / Revived #008 on 2023 05 24 *

I don't know a thing about drum-majoring or whatever marching band leadership is called, but this picture raises some questions about the roles of the different people depicted. There's two costumed leaders facing different directions a really long way from the playing band and the guy in street clothes who looks like he's doing the real directing. I don't understand the scene but maybe that's what makes it an interesting photo, because I keep looking at it trying to figure it out to no avail. The processing looks like film rather than digital, has a vintage feel. I'm somehow reminded of developing photos in the darkroom for the high school newspaper back in dinosaur days.

Excellent detail and color. That's about as rich a photo as one could possibly imagine. Just beautiful. Makes you appreciate once again the quality of the work that could be done with those old Oly's.

I couldn't figure it out either. It looked weird to me, with some of the affect of a Diane Arbus image.

Shot with a 'blad and a 40mm lens on TXP. Scanned with a GFX 100S and a Rodenstock HR Digaron macro lens. So I could have taken it either way. I chose to leave the contrast low.

I did that, too.

Absolutely agree - wonderful image, great colors and very well re-captured! Excellent work.

I was sitting a couple of metres away from a drum scanner (Heidelberg) at my previous work place but didn't care about that technology back then. Now I wish I would have the chance to ask the (quite experienced) operator some questions about it and all the other "old stuff" still in there.

@JimKasson - if you don't mind the question, I'm curious: Is a really good drum scanner better /on par or slightly worse than a high-end digital-camera solution that you use? Or is it hard to compare?

My experience with drum scanners is with the Optronics Colorgetter second or third iteration. I didn't much like the prep work. The geometry of photomultiplier tube drum scanners doesn't play will with silver-gelatin negs, IMO. Works much better with 'chromes and color negs. From B&W negs, I get better scans from my Frankenscanner than I ever got from the Colorgetter. I also get better scans from my Frankenscanner than I got from my Imacon Flextight Precision III.

blog.kasson.com/?s=scanner

Well spotted and captured - I feel like the grey/brownish tones of the sea and stones in contrast to the intense red makes this work particularly well for me. It kinda works as a reminder, that - however well adjusted or knowledgeable we are - we'll always be outsiders as humans. Our ways are too far off from everything else in Nature. So even if it's something quite natural (like fishing) and even if someone is doing it to get food on the table, we still stick out as 'the other'.

I feel like photography is an exceptionally well suited medium for realizing things like that... and you managed to capture this interesting scene very well!

I had the opportunity to work with several different brands of drum scanners. I always came back to the Howtek. When optimally adjusted (not hard to do, routinely) it gave me the best scans. But any good operator could get excellent output from any make. When first released, its software was atrocious. But so was that of the other makes. The Howtek software improved greatly during the '90s and was the best, in my opinion just as the drum scanning industry collapsed about the turn of the century.

I have used a Nikon D800E with a Micro Nikkor 105/2.8 lens to "scan" 35mm to 4x5 transparencies and negatives. Those results were better in every respect than drum scanning. Especially with very dense slides. Certainly quieter!

I'm now using a GFX 100s with a SMC Pentax-A 645 Macro 120/4 for scanning. This combination is better than the D800E/Micro Nikkor set up.

I still oil mount my slides and negs for "scanning." The Pentax lens has a very flat field at 1:1. So I haven't used focus stacking. I believe Jim does use stacking. I intend to try it one of these days.

I do very little scanning any more. Over the years, I culled out almost all of the slides and negs I think are keepers and drum scanned or "camera scanned" most of them. Every once in a while I set up my GFX100s for a few scans. Frankly, it's a PITA. No romanticizing here!

Digital photography is so much easier and better than analog ever used to be, all things considered. I don't pine over the loss of film or claim that analog images have some magical quality that digital can't achieve.

Rich

The larger in focus golden bead is set off nicely by the matched groupings of smaller OOF red ones with their cool triangle bokeh. A visually pleasing image that falls in the realm of the abstract.

Well, I am baffled as to how you might have made the wormhole one. It's creative but a little creepy. I'm interested but I don't enjoy looking at it, so I'm glad to move on to the bird food apple instead. Wonderful colors and background blur for this one. I am always more interested in a damaged fruit or flower than a perfect one, so this one suits me quite nicely.

Whether this is a fall scene or not, it feels like one and I visually respond to it that way. I suspect it is not, based on the color change in the treetops and a slight hint of pink in the field, and the saturation levels. It is visually pleasing in a way that only a predominantly blue and orange image can be. Of all the color contrasts on the wheel, this one has the most automatic appeal.

Hi Minnie, the light and its curvature are the result of sun hitting the back of our home in the east, where it gets difracted by large windows and then throw also sideways against a mirror (left) and into our hall (right). Somehow that combination creates that curve, at a very short period when I just happened to walk down the stairs.

The blurriness is a result of this not being a photo of the actual statuette, but only of its shadow on the wall.

Those artifacts are not photographic. They are imperfections in the finish of our hallway walls. Those walls used to have a high gloss finish when we bought the house, but they were not in good shape, with cracks here and there and other imperfections resulting from construction work on the other side (our kitchen). My wife Els restored some of the "faux marbre" painting on some of the walls, but we also kept parts of the wall as they were, with imperfections and all. We love imperfections: they provide a "wabi sabi" character: the house feels "lived in" and not "showroom".

Thanks. Agree. And agree.

The very soft focus, the monotone and the silhouette combine to give a fitting dreamlike effect. It's a little mysterious and otherworldly but it doesn't feel threatening as some dreamlike images might.
My immediate reaction was to think of a well known small Belgium statue that also has a spray form.

I'm not at all sure about my response to this shot and I could easily be persuaded to look at it differently.
The strength of the image feels to me to be in the vertical lines of the white trunks as they spread across a horizontal composition. The bottom section of grass and water seems to work against this by taking the eye downwards. How would you feel about a bottom crop that started just below the grasses at the base of the white trunks? This would give a panoramic sweep with the trunks considerably more dominant in the scene.

Well chosen angle. It uses the light to bring out the fine lines of the web against a darker background. It is also perfect in showing details of the spider. The off centre positioning of the spider works well with the radiating legs giving visual lines to the body and linking with the web and its connections across the rest of the image.
A strong colour contrast as well.
Well done.
I know these are relatively benign but they are big and so are their webs. They are still intimidating to me.

This time I feel that the post processing is just right for the subject. It is gritty. The brown and black smells of tarmac. The exploding black surround is all about energy and what could be more "Fuel City"?
The text graphic is big and bold. The foreground is justified-we sweep in as though entering from a highway. Not a touch of green or nature to be seen.
A powerful image.

Visually, the two red tops link the figures and both stand out from the grey water. To me it suggests that the day may be bleak but the activity, fishing, is making a pleasant activity in the day. The relative sizes are important. They add story. Mum? Big sister? adjusts the gear but he is as happy playing. Both having dark hair makes us tend to assume they are related so we have an inter generational touch as well. The little guy is picking up the art but he has a way to go yet.
It's a warming people photo.

Glorious colour rendition set off by the black background. I like the weight of the bulb bottom right along with the line of the leaves to the top left. The rich browns of the wilted leaves beautifully complement the greens.
I think it needs a little more space at the bottom, it feels sort of truncated down there.