Monochrome Wednesday

06-11-19

Flowering Ivy

Pentax MX – Pentax 50mm f1.7 – +2 Dioptre Filter – Fomapan 100

With all the rain we have had in my part of the UK the Ivy has gone into overdrive, this is the first time I’ve seen it flower.

Scanning 35mm Black & White Negs And A Sunbeam

“Warning” this post contains some technical stuff, if this causes you to experience yawning or a mild case of narcolepsy just skip to the last image.

The screenshot below shows the interface for the Nikon Scan software that I use for scanning in 35mm film, Pentax MX and Fomapan 100 in this case.

It looks a bit daunting at first but I find it quite intuitive, and it’s easy to turn all the enhancements on or off.

a) Histogram Black & White Points Unadjusted

This is the histogram display with a straight scan from the negative. I scan my Black and White negatives as a positive and invert the image in post processing. It seems to capture all the tones a bit better doing it this way. The small spike on the left is before adjusting the image size where it has picked up a bit of the area outside the negative frame.

This is the cropped and inverted straight scan of the image. I’ve noticed on various social media sites some people make a thing about the fact it’s a straight scan, but to my eyes at least, it looks too flat.

b)Histogram Adjusted to Black & White Points

I’ve adjusted the Black & White points (circled in Red) to just touch the histogram, this is the useful information captured by the film and scanner..

To me it’s starting to look more like the scene I saw when I took the shot.

c) Nikon Scan Image Enhancer

By selecting Nikon Scan Image Enhancer (SIE) from the scan menu it cuts into the histogram a little and gives a bit more contrast to the image.

It does a really good job on some images, but a touch too contrasty for me.

1930’s Sunbeam – The Final Image

Using scan b), Cropped in a bit tighter, some sharpening added, a small amount of clarity and a touch of vignette.

 

Monochrome Wednesday

16-10-19

Rose Hips

Pentax MX – Pentax 50mm f1.7 – +2 Dioptre Filter – Fomapan 100

This is the first time I’ve used Fomapan 100, I’m quite impressed.

Non Photowalk

26-05-18

Arranged to meet the PhotoBuddies on Friday for a walk around the town, but the weather was awful so we ended up coffee drinking and going to the Peace Cafe for some homemade soup and ciabatta, it was very good.

 Photowalk Weather

Sigma DP1

Earlier in the week I finished off a roll of expired Fuji Reala 100 that I had run through my Pentax MX. I was impatient to know if the camera was working OK so had the film processed by the local High Street quick photo store. What a difference compared to a professional lab, lots of scratches and an overall green tint that took a bit of tweaking in Lightroom to tame. Fuji Reala seems to have a natural bias towards Green and is quite soft and muted.

Fern

Olympus DC

Hope to be using this over the next few weeks.

Mimi

Even using digital ICE on the scanner couldn’t eliminate the scratches.

In The Garden

Pine

I will try and curb my impatience and send all future rolls of colour film to the professional lab.