Just got sick of cutting mats, and John C. had mentioned
http://stu-artsupplies.com/
Called them. Spoke with a person. And I ordered Museum 4-ply beveled (custom cut opening) with 2-ply backing. They ship next day. And it's at least half the price - maybe more - of Light Impressions. Let's see how it goes.
John, the mats you mentioned in your e-mail are really cheap, but they are not bevelled opening (die cut). But at their prices I may finally be able to stop all this damned cutting which is getting on my nerves.
12/06/2005
MINI-MART
MINI-MART
Open 24 hours, except after it's been abandoned. I just remember walking across the road and looking through the screen door. It spooked me as most things out west do. And what was that spiral in the foreground. Symbol to keep going and don't look back. That's what I thought.
12/05/2005
Manic MTA Morning
I was thrilled to learn that the MTA has finally put some useful laws into effect:
- Coffee cups must have lids on them.
(I feel safer already)
- No crossing from one car to the other.
(Catch me if you can.)
- No taking up more than one seat.
(This is critical to New Yorkers' safety. But there are a couple of New Yorkers that are going to have trouble with this. I believe they should paint yellow strips on the seats so you know exactly how much space your butt can occupy.)
And on top of that - there may be a subway strike. I'm glad to see that the MTA has its' priorities straight.
The only problem I have with these laws is that the other day, a big fat guy taking up two seats was drinking a huge cup of coffee with no lid and bits were sprinkling on me - so I decided to get away from him and went into another car. So if someone is endangering your life by drinking coffee near you - or taking up too many seats - under those circumstances - is it okay to move between cars. What if while you are moving between cars you fall through. Will they ticket what's left of you?
- Coffee cups must have lids on them.
(I feel safer already)
- No crossing from one car to the other.
(Catch me if you can.)
- No taking up more than one seat.
(This is critical to New Yorkers' safety. But there are a couple of New Yorkers that are going to have trouble with this. I believe they should paint yellow strips on the seats so you know exactly how much space your butt can occupy.)
And on top of that - there may be a subway strike. I'm glad to see that the MTA has its' priorities straight.
The only problem I have with these laws is that the other day, a big fat guy taking up two seats was drinking a huge cup of coffee with no lid and bits were sprinkling on me - so I decided to get away from him and went into another car. So if someone is endangering your life by drinking coffee near you - or taking up too many seats - under those circumstances - is it okay to move between cars. What if while you are moving between cars you fall through. Will they ticket what's left of you?
Photoshop Learning Curve
There are points in the Photoshop Learning Curve - that you can point back to and say: Oh - that's how you use that. Wow.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
Last Prints for Sale
My friend Paul read the lines: "Last Prints for Sale" on the home page and told me he thought it meant I was throwing in the towel. I'd better change that to "Recent Prints Added for Sale Even though They Are Old Negatives; More to Come"
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
Time
Someday - I keep telling myself - I want to write about time.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
12/04/2005
Epson 4990
Just a couple of quick notes:
I have it hooked up. Had problems with my USB sh*t and hooked it up to firewire. No problems after that - though I may have to chain something or get another firewire card.
The differences in the scans between the 4990 (at least on the one test print I've been doing: Crossing Brooklyn Bridge) - are minor.
- VueScan has a setting for the 4990 FILM HOLDER: NONE (i.e. you are going to stick it on the glass). The 1600 didn't have that setting or I didn't see it. The initial scans I did seem - oh - just a bit sharper - but I can't quantify yet.
- It's a bit faster - though I'm not sure how much since I didn't time the 1600 while it was attached.
- You can get a larger file without interpolation.
In general - the 4990 seems better suited for film scanning. The negative lies closer to the glass. The cover shuts better (I had to put a book and some weight on the 1600 to keep the cover flat). I doubt that the dynamic range difference is something you'll pick up on between the two scanners.
I'm looking at unsharped images at this point so - you know how that goes. It's crazy what you'll go through for just that extra little bit of whatever. One other nice thing - it's smaller and lighter than the 1600 - and that by itself may be worth something. Give the poor thing a little breathing room on the kitchen counter.
- Now I need to see if my Dimage is still working - probably not since I hooked it up with USB. I haven't chained firewire before - but looks like the Dimage and either of the two Maxtor one touch drives can be chained. The 4990 only has the one firewire port.
I have it hooked up. Had problems with my USB sh*t and hooked it up to firewire. No problems after that - though I may have to chain something or get another firewire card.
The differences in the scans between the 4990 (at least on the one test print I've been doing: Crossing Brooklyn Bridge) - are minor.
- VueScan has a setting for the 4990 FILM HOLDER: NONE (i.e. you are going to stick it on the glass). The 1600 didn't have that setting or I didn't see it. The initial scans I did seem - oh - just a bit sharper - but I can't quantify yet.
- It's a bit faster - though I'm not sure how much since I didn't time the 1600 while it was attached.
- You can get a larger file without interpolation.
In general - the 4990 seems better suited for film scanning. The negative lies closer to the glass. The cover shuts better (I had to put a book and some weight on the 1600 to keep the cover flat). I doubt that the dynamic range difference is something you'll pick up on between the two scanners.
I'm looking at unsharped images at this point so - you know how that goes. It's crazy what you'll go through for just that extra little bit of whatever. One other nice thing - it's smaller and lighter than the 1600 - and that by itself may be worth something. Give the poor thing a little breathing room on the kitchen counter.
- Now I need to see if my Dimage is still working - probably not since I hooked it up with USB. I haven't chained firewire before - but looks like the Dimage and either of the two Maxtor one touch drives can be chained. The 4990 only has the one firewire port.
Oh what the hell
After doing more scanning with the 1600 and not happy with the focus - and reading an article where a guy said that VueScan was able to focus with the 4980 - I ran out of the house at the last minute and headed for B&H. The place was a madhouse. Made my way to the counter. They only had the Pro model in stock.
Grabbed a cab and got over to Adorama. They had it in stock. Waited a while and finally they brought out a box that looked like a spear had gone through it. The salesman told me that it was only the box - the scanner was fine.
I said: I want another one.
Waited. And got it and left with some other sundries. Not sure if I'll even have time to set it up tonight - there's a bunch of things I have to get prepared for tomorrow. But as I say - what the hell - it's only money.
Grabbed a cab and got over to Adorama. They had it in stock. Waited a while and finally they brought out a box that looked like a spear had gone through it. The salesman told me that it was only the box - the scanner was fine.
I said: I want another one.
Waited. And got it and left with some other sundries. Not sure if I'll even have time to set it up tonight - there's a bunch of things I have to get prepared for tomorrow. But as I say - what the hell - it's only money.
New Filing Project
After spending most of the morning searching for another negative - I've decided that I'll give up shooting and spend the next five years organizing the ten-thousand plus negatives I have so I can just put my fingers on them when I need them.
I think this will be more productive than spending money on cameras and lenses and scanners. Yes, it will be tedious but my plan is to meditate for 2 hours a day - and in between - as my Zen project - will be the filing.
I'm also going to attach an elastic string to my loupe and hang it from the ceiling so that it doesn't disappear.
Then I'm going to spend the next year filing vendor bills, and getting my taxes done on time.
All kidding aside - I did spend a lot of time again looking for a neg. and what is scary is how many other shots that were never printed pop up. I mean, I never even did contact sheets of them. I probably have 1000 medium format and 1000 35mm negatives from Paris alone (three trips there). And I look at some of them and say - yikes. I remember that shot. How come I never even did a proof of it? Reason - at that time I was working full-time and after developing film I'd put it away somewhere and forget about it. A lot of the shots that are appearing recently in the blog are a result of looking for some other negative (that's how the tree with light and 3+3 made their appearance).
Matt - that is great title: 3+3.
I think this will be more productive than spending money on cameras and lenses and scanners. Yes, it will be tedious but my plan is to meditate for 2 hours a day - and in between - as my Zen project - will be the filing.
I'm also going to attach an elastic string to my loupe and hang it from the ceiling so that it doesn't disappear.
Then I'm going to spend the next year filing vendor bills, and getting my taxes done on time.
All kidding aside - I did spend a lot of time again looking for a neg. and what is scary is how many other shots that were never printed pop up. I mean, I never even did contact sheets of them. I probably have 1000 medium format and 1000 35mm negatives from Paris alone (three trips there). And I look at some of them and say - yikes. I remember that shot. How come I never even did a proof of it? Reason - at that time I was working full-time and after developing film I'd put it away somewhere and forget about it. A lot of the shots that are appearing recently in the blog are a result of looking for some other negative (that's how the tree with light and 3+3 made their appearance).
Matt - that is great title: 3+3.
2 Inches of Snow
2 inches of snow this morning and I think that's enough for me. I don't find myself looking forward to the New York winter the way I used to. In fact, yesterday I got a color brochure for a retirement village called Sunny Senior in Florida and it looks inviting. The only thing is that I'm not old enough yet to qualify, though they said they would fly me down there to have a look if I was 62 or over.
My friend Murray told me that there are three women for every man and that he's treated like an Adonis down there even though he's 40 pounds overweight and walks with a cane.
He also reminded me that I was the shuffleboard champion at camp Wanna-Howie when I was 12. I haven't played since then but friend Murray tells me that shuffleboard is a skill you never lose and they have new lightweight pucks that you can push with just a touch called Whisper Pucks.
My friend Murray told me that there are three women for every man and that he's treated like an Adonis down there even though he's 40 pounds overweight and walks with a cane.
He also reminded me that I was the shuffleboard champion at camp Wanna-Howie when I was 12. I haven't played since then but friend Murray tells me that shuffleboard is a skill you never lose and they have new lightweight pucks that you can push with just a touch called Whisper Pucks.
12/03/2005
Don't Worry, Be Happy + Flatbeds
From "How VueScan Works"
"If single-pass multi-scanning is enabled, each line of data from the CCD is read multiple times and combined (averaged) while being stored in the memory buffer. If multi-pass multi-scanning is enabled, the whole scan area is read multiple times and combined (averaged) in the memory buffer."
Unlike the Dimage 5400 film scanner - the Epson 1600 is not capable of "multi-pass scanning" - so what VueScan is set to do is "Single-pass multi-scanning."'
Nor, from what I've read is the 4990 capable of multi-pass scanning. There is an interesting line in the manual for the 4990 where it says: Hardware Resolution: 4800 x 9600 with Microstep Drive Technology
I'm not sure what that means either. I don't even know what the scale of 4.0 means. I see that the Dimage 5400 has a higher optical d-max. I see some very large numbers for high-end drum scanners. Is it a straight linear scale where each decimal point is just a little bit better, or is it like the earthquake scale where you are talking about magnitudes of improvement? I have no idea.
At any rate - I looked through the 4990 manuals and screen shots and don't see anything about multi-pass (or focusing for that matter).
So here's the hub of the question: I have setup VueScan with the 1600 to do single-pass "multi-scanning."
And the results are that more detail in the shadow areas (by far) are picked up using say 4 samples than 1 sample. The results are by far the best I've ever gotten for the MF and large negatives out of the 1600.
So - what does this mean? Does it mean that VueScan has effectively increased the Maximum Tonal Range the 1600 can pull from a negative? The empirical answer to that is - yes.
So if you began with a scanner capable on its' own of picking up higher d-max (the 4990 is listed as 4.0, the 1600 is listed as 3.3) - you would need less sampling to achieve the same results.
And to further confuse you (as well as myself) in several tech. sheets for the 4990, the d-max of 4.0 has next to it the phrase "computed."
This is one of those posts where you just want to say to yourself - oh get the damned thing and see how it works. But I have to admit - I have learned a little bit in the process so maybe that's not such a bad thing - though you know what they say about that, a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. But that's a dumb phrase since you always start with a little knowledge at some point and like the aforementioned scanner - you apply micro-stepping to improve on it.
* * *
BILL EMORY EMAILED ME THIS EXCELLENT LINK EXPLAINING DMAX which answers a good deal of my somewhat fuzzy post:
Dynamic Range
By Bob Atkins
"Since the dynamic range of solid state detectors is limited to something like 3.4-3.6, that's all you get. The better the sensor and the better the electronics, the better the dynamic range, so it could be anywhere from 2.8 to 3.6. You just don't know because the manufacturers don't publish measured numbers, just "theoretical maximum" numbers based on a perfect noise free sensor and perfect D/A converter - which of course don't exist!" - Bob Atkins
A lot of fascinating - clarifying info in this article. Explains why, for example the Epson 1600 lists dynamic range at 3.6
Also - explains that without either reading a hands-on-review - or testing it yourself - you can't really know how good (low noise) the sensor is.
"If single-pass multi-scanning is enabled, each line of data from the CCD is read multiple times and combined (averaged) while being stored in the memory buffer. If multi-pass multi-scanning is enabled, the whole scan area is read multiple times and combined (averaged) in the memory buffer."
Unlike the Dimage 5400 film scanner - the Epson 1600 is not capable of "multi-pass scanning" - so what VueScan is set to do is "Single-pass multi-scanning."'
Nor, from what I've read is the 4990 capable of multi-pass scanning. There is an interesting line in the manual for the 4990 where it says: Hardware Resolution: 4800 x 9600 with Microstep Drive Technology
I'm not sure what that means either. I don't even know what the scale of 4.0 means. I see that the Dimage 5400 has a higher optical d-max. I see some very large numbers for high-end drum scanners. Is it a straight linear scale where each decimal point is just a little bit better, or is it like the earthquake scale where you are talking about magnitudes of improvement? I have no idea.
At any rate - I looked through the 4990 manuals and screen shots and don't see anything about multi-pass (or focusing for that matter).
So here's the hub of the question: I have setup VueScan with the 1600 to do single-pass "multi-scanning."
And the results are that more detail in the shadow areas (by far) are picked up using say 4 samples than 1 sample. The results are by far the best I've ever gotten for the MF and large negatives out of the 1600.
So - what does this mean? Does it mean that VueScan has effectively increased the Maximum Tonal Range the 1600 can pull from a negative? The empirical answer to that is - yes.
So if you began with a scanner capable on its' own of picking up higher d-max (the 4990 is listed as 4.0, the 1600 is listed as 3.3) - you would need less sampling to achieve the same results.
And to further confuse you (as well as myself) in several tech. sheets for the 4990, the d-max of 4.0 has next to it the phrase "computed."
This is one of those posts where you just want to say to yourself - oh get the damned thing and see how it works. But I have to admit - I have learned a little bit in the process so maybe that's not such a bad thing - though you know what they say about that, a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. But that's a dumb phrase since you always start with a little knowledge at some point and like the aforementioned scanner - you apply micro-stepping to improve on it.
* * *
BILL EMORY EMAILED ME THIS EXCELLENT LINK EXPLAINING DMAX which answers a good deal of my somewhat fuzzy post:
Dynamic Range
By Bob Atkins
"Since the dynamic range of solid state detectors is limited to something like 3.4-3.6, that's all you get. The better the sensor and the better the electronics, the better the dynamic range, so it could be anywhere from 2.8 to 3.6. You just don't know because the manufacturers don't publish measured numbers, just "theoretical maximum" numbers based on a perfect noise free sensor and perfect D/A converter - which of course don't exist!" - Bob Atkins
A lot of fascinating - clarifying info in this article. Explains why, for example the Epson 1600 lists dynamic range at 3.6
Also - explains that without either reading a hands-on-review - or testing it yourself - you can't really know how good (low noise) the sensor is.
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