Sunday, February 26, 2012

Affordable Glass Plate Negative Conversion Process

I thought that I would share my process for prepping the glass plate negatives for the art project. This takes a lot longer than one would think, well to do it write at least. 

I started by shooting the negatives with an LED light panel for a constant and steady light source. The issue with the LED light source was the light was center weighted, creating a white vignette around the edges as shown in the sample below. After shooting close to 75 of the plates, I deleted all of the images and started back at the drawing board.

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]I created a lightbox using a cardboard box, sketching paper, shaped to make a concave white interior for the box, and two Nissin i866 flashes set at 1/8 power pointing in at opposite sides of the boxes. The result was even, well defined light. Saturday, I shot all 150 glass plate negatives. It took me roughly two hours, with my oldest daughter assisting me in organizing and storing the plates once they were shot. This process is creating a 10MP image for me to work with.

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]I brought the negatives into Lightroom and began organizing them based on the subjects in the scene; landscapes, people, houses and agriculture. Once I had all of the negatives classified, I brought each them into Photoshop and converted them from a negative to a positive image. This was a manual process completed using the Tone Curve. I didn't cheat and use an Action or some automatic conversion, because each negative was unique in it's conversion needs. Some of the negatives needed to be lighted during the process, and most of them needed to be darkened. Once the positive conversion was done, I brought the image back into Lightroom and organized it, similar to the negatives. This process took three and half hours to convert and organize all 150 positive images to get the desired results as shown below.

[[posterous-content:pid___2]]I have only started processing a half a dozen of the images and there is good reason. It is a time consuming process. In the case of the house with a family sitting on the door steps, there is some damage to negative in the lower left corner as well as above the houses on the right. There are also many micro-blemishes in the house structure as well as in the sky. I bring each image back into Photoshop and begin the clean up process. The first step is to reconvert the image to black and white. While the negative were black and white to being with, I photographed them in Raw, which allows the best control for touch up work but also means the images are in color, which is evident in the blue spot of damage in the lower left side of the frame. That is because the damage is an orange substance on the glass plate. When it goes through the conversion from negative to positive image, orange becomes blue. So I convert the image to black and white using Nik Software Silver Effects Pro which allows me the greatest control in the black and white conversion process.

[[posterous-content:pid___3]]The above image is the result of four hours of hand touch up and sadly it isn't finished yet. I am proud to say that I have not added a single element during the retouch process, meaning I did not use any other photographs or other mediums to fix the damaged areas of the image. I simply have used the clone and heal tools in Photoshop to rebuild the damaged areas of the image. Sadly I still have another hour or more worth of work on this one to get it completed to my satisfaction. it is time consuming, but it is leading to a project that is bigger than just fixing the images for print, so it is completely worth it. I am very excited about this project, if you can't tell. Good and creative things are a foot over here.

I hope you found this little guide on converting negatives to positives helpful, I know it helped me to write about it. Until next time... make something beautiful, just for the sake of making it.

 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Samples from the first 24 Scans

Okay... I am excited about this project, possibly overly excited, but what can I say. I have been waiting for years for this opportunity. So I thought that I was would share a sample of the first 24 scans. 24 scans that came from 1 of 6 tubs of these glass plates, and this tub isn't even the fullest of the tubs. I plan on scanning and converting one tub of these plates a weekend.

So here are the samples from the first pass...

Lanscapes:

People:

Flowers:

Flowers_1_of_1
Farms:

 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

A Dream Fulfilled, A Passion Rekindled, A Project Born

For five years I have been on the quest to find and acquire some old photos. Not just any old photos, but rather a specific type; Glass Plate Negatives. Today that quest has been completed. I have acquired over sixty glass plate negative from the 1890s to 1920s. Below is a sample that I scanned on my multi-purpose printer. It isn't the best resolution or quality, but is just a sample of what I am going to be working on for the next year as an art project.

20120220-scan0001

How many of the plates I have is not known yet. I know it is over sixty, but I don't know the exact quantity. I have looked at nearly all of the negatives plates; one at a time. It was a painstaking process, one that my lovely and understanding wife endured with me, which helped make it so rewarding. The plates include numerous photographs of people, landscapes, agriculture and farm house structures. 

Now becomes the long process of designing my project, which is being kept a secret on purpose, with my goal of getting my project shown in a local gallery, as well as on display in the 2013 state fair photography exhibit. My project is somewhat grand in scale, scope and design, but the end result should be spectacular and worth the effort and wait. I am not going to be taking shortcuts or settling on subpar results. I want this to be exactly what I envision and for that I will take all of the time I need to take to achieve this.

So here I sit, content in taking the first and itching to take the next tomorrow. Here is a salute to collaboration, passion, resilience and to the fulfillment of one dream and the start of another. 

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Willamette Humane Society Photography - Salem Oregon Cats

This visit to the Willamette Humane Society was simply awesome. So many great friends are there. I found one them to be especially loving, which is why he is my pick of the week, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start with some of the runner-ups.

Addie

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]Meet Addie. She is a lover and not camera shy at all. She is looking for a family who can make her feel right at home. 

Buttercup

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]Buttercup is a cup of fun. A nice balance of love and play. Come by and check her out.

Catalina

[[posterous-content:pid___2]]Catalina is a little shy, but not too shy. She is simply looking for the right people to call family. Could that be you?

Clementine

[[posterous-content:pid___3]]Oh my darling.. oh my darling... oh my daaarrrling Clementine. She's not lost and won't be there forever come by and see my darling clementine. Sorry... I know I should sing, but Clementine just brings that out in me, and she isn't even my pick of week.

Quiche

[[posterous-content:pid___4]]Quiche is a delicious as her name. She is quite, calm and easy going, but a little shy. Could you be the one to bring the kittie out in her?

Oh Boy... It is time. That's right boys and girls. It is this next Kat is my pick of the week, and what a pick.

Chase

[[posterous-content:pid___5]]Chase is definitely worthy of the pick of the week. He is a lover, so much so that he prefers to be loved on than just about any other enticing distraction, except for maybe food. When I brought him in the studio, we spent a few minutes together, than as I always I put him down to let him get used to the environment. He slowly walked away and kept looking back at me, unlike most kitties. a minute later called his name and put my hand down and he came running back to me, purring so loud he could be heard in China. Chase would be a great addition to any home for a family looking for a cat who wants lots of afftect and is more comfortable in your lap than on the floor.

Come down and see if you can find an addition to your family or better yet ask who you might be able to help make their stay a little better.

Until next time... Keep the world a better place.