A change in sharpness

I scan all my medium format black & white and reversal images using an Epson V550 flatbed, while 35mm is scanned on a Plustek Opticfilm8100. Ive always left unsharp mask on when scanning 120 film as I thought the results were good. Untill a week or so ago when I was testing out Vuescan.

Vuescan allows image sharpening, but it has a simple on/off checkbox rather than the levels of control afforded by Epsonscan and (moreso) Silverfast so I decided to test a few things to see how the various scanning options on each piece of software compared – plus no sharpening of the scan at all with sharpening applied later in Lightroom.

At first it looked like the sharpened images from Epsonscan had better resolution of detail, but after a lot of scanning, re-scanning, and playing around with the sharpening control in Lightroom I decided otherwise. The sharpened images from Epsonscan were displaying a level of noise and “grit” that I decided I didn’t really like, whereas unsharpened scans from the same software processed in Lightroom were much more appealing, showing a much nicer rendition of detail and grain.

It’s striking how, after years of thinking you had something just how you wanted it, you can all of a sudden change your mind.

I think I’ll stick to Epsonscan for my 120 B&W scans. Vuescan is great, and does a much better job on reversal film, but it lacks the tweakable visial histogram that Epsonscan has, and that makes a big difference to my final results. At least until I find a better way… 🙂

Today’s shot was scanned on the V550 and sharpened in Lightroom. If you look at the full size image on Flickr you might find a black cat that was keeping an eye on me. At least I think it’s a cat. It could possibly be two spots of strategically located dust that look like eyes. Or something more sinister… Eek!

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 12 July 2020

Magnet fishing

My wife and I went for a walk a few weeks ago and, when it turned out we needed to book to enter our original destination, instead took a walk beside the picturesque section of the Chersterfield Canal that joins Shireoaks and Turnerwood.

On the way up to Turnerwood we passed a man swinging some sort of weight on the end of a cord into the canal and then fishing it back out.

After reaching Turnerwood, we turned around and re-traced our path back along the canal. The man was still there, casting his weight into the water of the canal. My curuosity piqued I asked him what it was he was doing.

It turns out he was “magnet fishing”. This practice involves the use of a powerful neodymium magnet to try and grapple metalic items from the bed of the body of water. Looking it up later I saw reports of people “catching” somewhat less-than-desirable items such as live hand-grenades and unexploded bombs that have lain submerged since the 2nd World War.

At my time of asking the man about it, all he’d found was a 3′ length or rebar though.

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 12 July 2020

Norton water tower

Norton water tower (or to give it its official name Oakes water tower) sits to the south-east of Sheffield. While you can’t really say it sits atop a hill, it’s still located at a more elevated position than much of the surrounding area and as such is visible for miles around.

It’s one of those structures that is much larger than expected when you get close to it. It stands 109 feet tall.

It was originally built to supply water to homes in the Norton district of the city, including the Gleadless Valley housing estates – around ten-thousand homes at the time. It cost approximately £90,000 to build and was officially opened in July 1961, so 59 years ago as I write this.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 5 July 2020

Pandemic scenes #13

As the number of people buying face-masks and gloves has increased, so has the number of them I see discarded on the floor.

I try not to be all doom-and-gloom about the human race – we’ve achieved so many amazing things. Sometimes though, it’s hard not to think of ourselves as just a blight on the planet. Consuming that which we don’t need and polluting with what we don’t want.

It really isn’t that difficult to find a bin in most places, and if not, just take the rubbish with you until you do.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 5 July 2020

Kodak Colorplus doing the business

A quick post today because it’s approaching midnight and I’ve just realised I’ve not written anything for the blog!

So, just a picture of a church I passed that was nicely lit by sunlight. It’s perhaps a shame about the bin bags, but the scene is otherwise attractive, and maybe the bags add a sense of real-life to the shot or something.

This roll of Kodak Colorplus has been giving me some particularly saturated colours, reminding me of the look I get (and like) from the Lomography Color Negative films.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 5 July 2020

Woollen Signs

A couple of photos of the old Woollen Signs building in Sheffield. The company was bought out about twelve years ago and the site was permanently closed, having been in business since 1883. Some employees went on to form a new Woollens business trading on their expertise in traditional sign writing.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 28 June 2020

Dot Cotton caged

While wandering around Sheffield’s Kelham Island area recently I came across this piece of street art that I thought was deserving of a photograph. For those readers outside the UK, the person depicted is Dot Cotton, a long serving character of the British soap opera Eastenders. June Brown, the actor who plays the role, joined the soap back in 1985. She had a hiatus in the 90s from 1993, but returned again in 1997 where she played Dot up until January this year.

I don’t actually like Eastenders, and I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full episode (although my wife used to watch it and I picked up many of the storylines of the time via osmosis). Dot Cotton is, however, an archetypal British screen character and I really liked this small homage to her on this namesake street.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 28 June 2020

That’s torn it

I’ll post one of my weird photos today that I like a lot but which I expect many people will just wonder what on Earth I was thinking when I fired the shutter…

It’s just an advertising hoarding. One with a torn advertisement. I don’t drive past this often, but have done so on a handful of occasions recently and each time I passed it caught my eye. Usually this indicates that I ought to make a photograph.

I’m not really sure what drew me to it, although it was the faded, half-torn Colonel Sanders that first caught my attention. I also like the way that the badly faded KFC advert is peeling away to reveal a still fresh-looking advert for (I think) Sky Sports beneath, where it emerges butterfly-like from it’s pale cocoon, still daubed with the remnants of paste, almost like the man is yelling the remains of the paper away. I like how the splash of blue in the otherwise overcast sky is mirrored by the blue on the billboard. I like the cluster of poppies giving a splatter of red to the dusty edge of the car-park besides which the billboard stands.

I like it.

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 28 June 2020

Artificial flowers. Real shadows.

A shot taken back during full lockdown in April. I’d spotted that this vase of artificial flowers on the windowsill cast a nice shadow on the vertical blinds when one of the lamps was switched on. So, after a few nights of noticing it and thinking there might be a picture to be had, I decided to drag the tripod down into the living room, set up the bronica with a cable release, and make the photograph.

Yashica Mat 124G & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8 mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 April 2020

Entrance

The entrance to the City Life Christian Church with some lovely light falling upon it. Once again, the aged but lovely Superia 100 does the business.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008).

Taken on 28 June 2020