2014 - Old Dog, New Tricks

No I didn't blog much in 2013. Not sure why, too busy I guess.

2013 was productive. Exhibited 3 times, put work up on walls, sold some, felt good.
Image making is not complete unless you put it up... as prints... the screen doesn't count in my book.

On to 2014, a new year... and a paradigm shift... this one is profound.

It began however in 2013 as my partner Luci and I have been invited to participate in a gallery show featuring artist couples (In Tandem). The curator of the show would like my work to be "large format", i.e large prints, which I know in the gallery world means VERY large. The idea of having to produce work that large is somewhat intimidating, however I thought I should spent some time pursuing this notion with my current tools, which include a flat bed scanner able to scan film negatives. My thought was that I should scan some old (30+ years) negatives with the scanner to see what I could produce. In the 80's I photographed using medium and large format cameras and so I thought this would be a good time to catalog my negs by creating digital contact sheets and also by scanning some negs with the flatbed (Epson V600).

So I began by photographing my negs on a light pad with a Nikon D800 DSLR and reversing tonal values in Lightroom (colour and black & white). So far so good, went as planned and 1500+ contact sheets later I was ready to take a stab at scanning some negs on the Epson. The Epson scanner can scan up to 6400 dpi which is pretty decent.

I came across some online articles that suggested that using a DSLR camera instead of a flatbed scanner would yield better results. Ok, that sounds interesting, so since I have a 105mm Nikon macro lens that will go to 1:1, I thought I would give that a try.

WOW!!!!! Was I amazed at the difference in quality between the flatbed and the DSLR/macro lens solution. The DSLR/macro lens just blows away the flatbed scanner.

Here are some comparison images.

This first image is a detail from the flatbed scanner at 6400 dpi which is the maximum resolution of the Epson V600 scanner.

As you can see, the Epson flatbed scan is at a higher resolution than the D800/Macro lens image, however there is just over a 1% difference in the scale difference between these images. I estimate that the resolution of the D800/Macro lens images are around 5000 ppi as opposed to the 6400 dpi resolution of the flatbed scans.

The difference in quality is remarkable, with the D800/macro lens images so much more detailed than the flatbed scanner.

To give you some idea of the scale involved, here is an image of the full 4x5 negative, with the area of the above detail outlined in red. As you can see, this area is very very small, and the D800/macro image clearly resolves the grain of the 4 x 5 negative.

The D800/macro lens negative scan is made up of 30 images stitched together in Photoshop. This is time consuming and meticulous, but given the results, well worth the effort.

Output on these files is truly impressive. The Epson 6400 dpi scan will yield a 300 dpi print at 104 inches wide, but certainly with soft resolution of details.
The D800/macro lens scan at 300 dpi will yield a print which is 80 inches wide at 300 dpi but certainly with far higher detail.

I have made 13 x 19 and 17 x 22 prints from these files and they are truly stunning.

I have a large collection of negatives both in colour and black and white from the 80s which I am re-processing via digital means and in ways I could never have dreamed of at the time these images were taken. As much as this can be seen as a cliché, I am seeing my own work all over again and in the process appreciating it as I never have before.

Seeing what is possible with large format films and scanning, I am seriously considering getting back to making images using large format film.

Seeing my old work again after decades is like reuniting with old friends. Not to discount the current and present ones, but to remember the past with the exciting potential that our current tools can provide in ways we never thought possible in the past.

Old dog... new tricks.