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by Kevin Lane
Our 5th Annual Photowalk with the Shutter Brothers is in the books - and all I can say is "wow!" Actually, I can say a lot more that that about the most amazing thing that has happened in UJC Podcast Land. And I thought getting to one hundred episodes was the pinnacle. The seventeen participants who came from as far away as Columbus, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas, were not only the most we've ever had, but they also were the most enthusiastic. Everyone's mood was high, and much film was shot that day in Huntsville, Alabama. Wayne and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Richard Coates, a Huntsville native who helped organize the even and did a great job as well. Thank you Richard and everyone who participated. We will do it again next year.
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| Photo by Wayne Setser |
Lately, I've been trying to get my Ireland color negatives scanned, as making color prints in the darkroom is not yet in my skillset. To say that I don't really enjoy scanning is an understatement. However, scanning with my Epson Perfection V500 is pretty much my only option in turning color negatives into positives. And I've made some good scans in the past, especially since I began using Silverfast 9 for my scanning software. Making the move from the native Epson scanning software has resulted in getting the best scans I've ever had.
However, for some reason the Ireland negatives have been a struggle. The main problem has been the cupping and curling of the Portra 400 negatives, as the flimsy film holder that came with my Epson scanner does a poor job of holding them in place. The resulting scans sometimes poor in quality, with either parts of the image missing or including the sprocket holes in the image. I also got several occurrences of Newton rings when the glossy side of the film touches the scanner glass. After several failed attempts, I tried rolling the negative sleeves in reverse to flatten them, and this has helped somewhat. Surely, however, there has to be a better way.
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| Castle Ross, Killarney National Park, County Kerry. One of the more successful scans from my Ireland color negatives. |
Meanwhile, our good friend, Tori Fyth, has been experiencing scanning issue of her own. When the Epson software stopped working recently, she also switched over to Silverfast 9. But her problems are much stranger. she get large artifacts in the image when she uses the iSRD (infrared scratch and dust removal) feature. Since iSRD makes use of a hardware feature in her Epson Perfection V750 scanner, I first feared that the source of the problem might be the scanner (a very expensive piece of equipment!) However, the problem also occurs when she switches to SRDx, which is a software dust removal feature also in Silverfast 9. So, what gives? If you have any ideas, please reach out to me at unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com.
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| Abstract art? No, it's a malfunctioning film scan. |
Our show ends with Wayne and I singing the praises of someone who I think may be the most important person in photography and the moment. His name is Ryan Kraus, and he is the creative force behind the New Paltz Photo Works, a newspaper dedicated to publishing photography work. And yes, I am talking about a physical newspaper. Ryan recently celebrated the paper's third anniversary by publishing a special fifty-two page edition that includes some of Wayne's own panoramic photography. You can see a web version of the paper here.
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| Go to www.newpaltzphotoworks.com and subscribe to this splendid paper. |
We always love to hears from our listeners, so please consider dropping us a line at unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You can also leave comments on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
That's a wrap for show #101. We hope you enjoy it!
Happy Photography, everyone. Now go get some good pictures!
