In late 1980, I bought my first SLR camera. I was living in Greenwich Village, in my last year of law school, and pregnant. I wanted a camera for all the many baby pictures that would need to be taken, but in the interim, I took photographs of things that interested me, especially the messed up walls in the Village and SoHo. I ran across a bunch of them as I was tidying up my office yesterday, so I'll scan them for a series of posts beginning with this one.
I am disappointed with the way the photo service printed the pictures. I was bitterly disappointed by the way they did not include the entire shot that I had carefully framed. So, for example, I did not cut off the words "A New Picture" at the bottom or fail to include all the edges of the man's hat. I'm still annoyed about that! As if no one cares about the edges and corners of a shot!
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You needed a darkroom.
Except that's mostly limited to black and white for amateurs.
But then you've got more control than photoshop, probably.
An album of some early 60s photos, scanned in just by photographing the prints.
I don't know how many there are - I mean there are 260 at the moment but only a fraction are public, owing to most of them showing non-public people at Oberlin - and you see the fraction.
Scan the slides or negatives rather than the prints and you'll get the whole frame (and better quality).
Did they scan from a negative, a slide or a print? They ought to be able to get all of a negative or print. Slides require unmounting of the slide, which they do not do.
The photo copy services are not known for quality or attention to detail, unfortunately. Gotta do it yourself if you want that, or really pay a high price.
Scan the negatives yourself.
Not hard and you will avoid problems with the photo service.
Theres lots of handy little film scanners available. Most handle slides as well as negative film.
I still shoot a lot of film, mostly 120, but I handle the printing end.
rh has a picture of my Uncle Morris.
Or it could be one of millions of old Jewish bald guys who look just like that. I have a handful in my family, and Mrs. Tank has a couple Italian uncles who look the same.
"Scan the slides or negatives rather than the prints and you'll get the whole frame (and better quality)."
I haven't been able to find the negatives, unfortunately.
Also, I don't know how to scan slides and negatives. I could learn.
"You needed a darkroom."
Not too many people do their own color printing.
We lived in a studio apartment so not too much room for that.
You really think a pregnant woman should be working with chemicals like that.
I was pregnant and a law student... not much time or energy for learning new skills... though I was learning to use a camera that was not automatic.
Part of the palimpsest captured by your camera is a partially peeled off handbill advertising Human Switchboard, (probably a live appearance they were making at a local club). They were a wonderful band, and their album, WHO'S LANDING IN MY HANGAR?, (a sly reference to infidelity and/or sexual jealousy), is highly recommended, (by me)!
I saw them live at the Peppermint Lounge when it was still located on West 45th Street, (a much more intimate, and better, space than the place they relocated to on lower 5th Avenue).
I worked in the photofinishing industry for 30 years, including owning my own lab for 16 years.
If I had a dollar for every time I had to explain to a customer why the entire frame of their 35mm negative is not shown in a 3 1/2" x 5" print, I'd be retired now. The proportions just do not fit. Same thing when they would order an 8"x10" print from a 35mm negative. The proportions just do not match. You'd have to order 4"x6" or 8"x12" prints to get "all" the full frame of a 35mm negative.
And even then, the equipment required a very small % of bleed off the edges so that there weren't random borders on the edges of prints. You cannot print edge to edge full frame, no loss of image unless you are willing to do it yourself, or pay for the custom printing.
/screed
Excellent post and comments. I learned something interesting today.
The robot already knew.
Back in the 70's, I was highly annoyed by the poor contrast of the commercial black and white photo prints I'd get.
Modern film scanners are very easy to use. They usually come with simple photo editing software but you don't need that mostly, unless the negatives are in poor shape.
My mother has one and is using it to scan thousands of negatives, and she's past 80.
Hazy, are you satisfied with the contrast of your 1870's avatar?
Robot captcha word: yelly. As in "Don't be so yelly."
If you still have the negatives have them scanned into photoshop. Once in Photoshop you can maipulate them however you want.Photoshop is a photographers friend.
"I don't know how to scan slides and negatives."
You need an adapter to do that with a flatbed scanner. The adapter holds multiple slides (or a negative strip), and there's a mirror behind the images (because you're scanning transparancies).
Software that comes with the scanner or adapter will save each image in its own file.
Even with multiple images per scan it's pretty tedious. Another advantage is that colors in the negative or slide seldom degrade as rapidly as do the colors in a print.
I haven't been able to find the negatives, unfortunately.
Also, I don't know how to scan slides and negatives. I could learn.
Yeah we all mistreated those negatives in our rush to see the photos.
It would take you less than 10 minutes to learn how to scan slides and negatives. You will spend a lot more time figuring what scanner to get. Even that is a misdirection. The real key is the software.
You need an adapter to do that with a flatbed scanner.
I'm sure the Law Library at the UW has one, and you can take it for a test run. I've scanned 10s of slides at the library in my building. Very easy.
@Robert Cook
Thanks for the note on Human Switchboard! I wondered what the rest of the words were and what it all meant. I find those mysteries satisfying unanswered, but I like the answers too.
"Also, I don't know how to scan slides and negatives. I could learn."
Flat-bed scanners now do a great job on negatives and slides and it's about as easy as scanning paper. I got excellent results with an older version of one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Epson-Perfection-Negative-Document-B11B207221/dp/B008ZDCZ8Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422567229&sr=8-2&keywords=epson+perfection+slide+scanner
I'm happy to oblige and inform!
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