Week of 05 13 13: "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child..."

Location: Approximately Third and South Sts.

Print size: 11.5” x 17”

Camera: Nikon Ftn

Lens: Nikkor H 50mm f2

Film: Tri-X, @ ISO 200

Develop: HC110 1:49, 6.5 min at 68F

Scan: Epson V500

Print: Epson 3880/ Piezographic Inks/ Moab Lasal

I often revisit places I’ve photographed before and re-shoot. It’s never the same, and often things have vanished (including whole buildings!) but occasionally luck does shine down. Something about the weirdly human, yet inhuman, child mannequins had grabbed my eye a few weeks earlier. My meanderings put me back there when the light was both raking and contrasty; qualities that entice me.

I used two files that I then combined to make this print. Although the image was properly exposed and developed, the density range was more than my scanner could handle well in a single pass. 

I’m finding the trick to scanning film negatives (and prints for that matter) is to get it right from the get-go. Beyond correct exposure and development, this means adjusting the scan settings so that the file will need minimal adjustment in Photoshop.  Making the print while the negative is still in the scanner is a good plan. The old “garbage in/garbage out” adage very much applies here. Being able to use PS sparingly not only gives smoother tones, it reduces grain and virtually eliminates digital noise that can give the prints a nasty peppery look.

I have work up in two places in Philadelphia-- a rare convergence!  Tomorrow I’m hanging a bunch of Steampunk portraits at So We on 22^nd and Carpenter for an arts crawl that SOSNA is doing and Frame Fatale at 1813 E. Passyunk has a bunch of small prints of Philadelphia windows until the close of May.