A Scanner Darkly
Got into university nice and early again with the express purpose of scanning my redscale negatives to see what comes out. I’ve had some prints back from AG Photolab but I’m sure that there are better images in the negatives that I may be able to get out.
I headed to the corner computer, a Mac Mini connected to the Epson Scanner and as I have used it before I know that OneDrive is all set up on there so it should pose fewer problems. However, there were problems. First off, I couldn’t log in to the system as the keyboard was not working and the mouse, being plugged into the keyboard, was not working either. I reinserted the USB leads into different ports on the back and the front but nothing, there was no red light on the underside of the mouse and no caps lock LED on the keyboard. Time to swap them with another computer, I picked one of another computer and then plugged this in and it worked. Then I was able to login and start the software necessary for the morning’s activities. Funny enough, another coursemate came in much later and was unable to log into another PC for the same reason but when they went to the pc where I’d swapped my keyboard they were able to use keyboard and mouse. Just unable to log in for some reason.
I was well underway scanning my negatives when Gavin came in and had a short chat with me about the work that I was doing, he had a look at the prints that I’d had back from the lab and suggested I carry on. Then we spoke about his new little puppy and how it gets on with his parakeet, it was a cool chat and we discussed the work that I have yet to do in the end of the year. I showed him some of the work in my journal, such as the documentation on the redscale shoots and the other experiments I’ve been carrying out.
As I continued scanning the negatives on Epson Scan Euripides came over for a chat and to see what I was doing. He asked me what the scan settings were configured as on the software and I showed him that I was using the basic settings, he suggested that I used different options such as Colour Restoration, Unsharp Mask, Grain Reduction, and Digital ICE for dust and scratch removals etc… These setting scan be seen in the screenshot below. He was ok with my notes that I showed him from my online journal on the bracketing settings that I had made, and documented on this post. The first scan I made using the new settings, with the dark area of the frame being removed, it was soooo noisy and showing some cyan coloured noise all throughout the image.
I carried on finishing off the scans, realised that I’ve labelled up the films in reverse, the 160 was the 400 and vice versa so I worked out the right labelling up and altered my spreadsheet of films and details to reflect this. After I’d finished scanning them on vanilla settings I went back to play with the settings that Euripides had showed me and I got some different results out if the negatives. Some good and some, not so much.
I had a chat with my coursemate Nikki about a few things, including the prison shoot and the results that had been shared by Pete Muller, he’s now released the still photos made whilst we were walking around with the videographer. We talked about her work too, and how she is going to try some different shots going forward, I’m interested to see what comes next as her small people on normal size objects worked really well.
In August 2022 when Liam Wong released his second photography book, called After Dark, photos of night time scenes in cities around the world, I placed an order and a pre-order so when it was published in April 2023 I accidentally had a second copy. It’s been on my bookshelf still in the cellophane and I thought often about who could receive it as a gift. I’ve thought about raffling it off at a photoclub meeting or at uni, but with Sophie’s photography reminding me of Wong’s I figured that I’d let her have it, so today I gave her the book. I don’t want anything for it and I hope that she enjoys reading it and the photography within as she said she’d been looking at some of Liam Wong’s work after I mentioned it earlier in the year.
With the scanning completed it was time to pack up and head out for the hour journey back home to Shrewsbury.
Reflection
It’s time to go through the scans and see if any of them are suitable for the Civic Society exhibition and if not go and select another from the pretty extensive collection that I have already. I will also turn some more film into redscale to see if I can get some decent shots, maybe even a roll of 35mm as well as the 120.
With the shoots that I have been doing at Shirehall, I think that I’m becoming a bit boring so it might be time to start photographing something else, but whilst there is still no decision for the site I’ll keep an eye on it.
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