MorseBlog

In Part 1 I showed some success in correcting the darkness in my initial prints. The result while seemingly matching the luminance of the image on the screen also was much warmer than the screen version. I have to admit I am at a loss for how this can happen. Increasing contrast increases saturation but that doesn’t seem to be what is happening. I experimented with a few adjustments including saturation, specific color levels and other tools. Nothing was as satisfactory as changing the white balance. At this point I am accepting this warmer tone without explanation and now seeking to attenuate it while trying to stay true to the original photo’s look.  Desired Image Print after gamma (.625) correction. I began this next correction in much the same way as the first part. I added a new layer for white balance correction. I then set the gamma modelling layer on and adjusted the white balance until I got the screen image to match the initial test print. This for me seemed to be +50% since

I recently made some test prints at my local Walmart. I know Walmart? Really? I read about some happy customer on Reddit who used their local Walmart and liked the prints they got. I decided to give it a try. Welcome to small town America! My earlier work indicated that even proper color labs have lots of variation. So why not?  My prints were printed on ‘FujiFilm Quality Dry Photopaper’ as it says on the back and is printed on an inkjet printer. My first results were quite dark which is typical as a screen version of an image always appears lighter due to the backlighting of the image.  Here is my starting image I used to make the print after I had done some post processing mostly for contrast and brightness. I scaled into fit an 8x10 print and added white borders.  Original Image I have dabbled in compensation of images to get better looking prints. In some cases I raised brightness by about 20%, or increased just the shadows by 20%, or moved the gamma. They each have their own benef

I am preparing a longer post on my journey to find another source for color prints after the collapse of Peak Imaging here in the UK. During that journey I discovered that my favorite photobook publisher Mixam also offers what they call art prints. I decided to see what they offered and ordered some A3 prints. One turned out not great, but I think this is due to a particularly challenging image and some of my poor post processing. The other image turned out really well. So let me answer what do you get, how does it work and why might this be my 'go to' place for prints.  First of all, I like the look of traditional C-prints. Chromogenic prints (not what people imagine is continuous tone prints) use silver halide color paper from either Fuji or Kodak (Kodak does not actually make the paper any longer.) and expose the paper using lasers or LEDs. They are not continuous tone because they use a digital image and the light from the LEDs or lasers

I took this photo one evening while watching a thunderstorm glide over Sandpoint. It was a lovely evening with some amazing light. At one point I was aware of some doves that were flushed from the bushes near me and just fired the shutter without any adjustments. I knew they were too fast and ephemeral to try and compose or focus. Sometimes not over-thinking helps. I want to frame and hang this print.  Bird Light I set out to print this and a few other images. I discovered that Peak Imaging has closed business and seems to be in receivership. This was a major blow for me as they do all my color film and print work. They were fantastic to work with very high quality and reliability while maintaining very reasonable prices. I opted for some test prints from Snapfish and Ag Photographic. (I have subsequently tried Mixam my favorite photobook publisher though they only have up to A3 size prints/posters.) I plan a blog post to discuss the differences between the different vendors.  I select

I probably first became aware of Cibachrome in the late 1980s. My brother managed a color lab (Jackson's in Flagstaff AZ) and he raved over the quality of color particularly when printed from a Kodachrome transparency. I hadn't really thought about it much until sometime after I myself got into film photography in 2009. Readers of my blog will know that I have been trying old B&W photographic papers along with contemporary versions; as I improve my skills I am also interested in some of the history and past experiences in the subject. I suppose this 'retro' angle is something I have always enjoyed. I spent many years building furniture and would build it only with traditional joinery. I enjoyed that connection with the past even as I often used power tools to save time and effort. Never-the-less I often took on parts of or whole projects using only hand tools. In photography alternative processes hold a similar interest for me but I have not taken them up yet. W