Moonrise Over the Water, November 22, 2018

Moonrise over the Missouri River at Ponca State Park, November 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

The backwater channel of the Missouri River at Ponca State Park provides an excellent place to hike and get stuck in thick grasses (and prickly bushes). Watch out for mountain lions and Canada geese. An excellent bit of luck here with the rising moon and enough twilight remaining to light up the landscape. This was the second night I played with this composition, and the moonrise time being just a bit later meant the ambient light was just a bit darker. It pays to revisit potential spots! This is a manual HDR-style composite, with the moon being brought in from a darker exposure made at the same time.

Cattails at Cottonwood Lake, November 20, 2018

Cattails on the shore at Cottonwood Lake State Recreation Area, November 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Most of the time when I'm at Cottonwood Lake, I try to include plenty of obvious water in my photos. On this particular visit, I found myself looking for details. Seems like I'm still working on a good photo of a cattail, but this is a bit closer to my goal. I like the dimensionality the side lighting on the fuzzball provides (plus a little back-lighting). It's the curved shapes of the grass in the background that I really like, and which provide a fitting backdrop for the cattail.

Rainy Day at Fort Robinson, October 7, 2018

Rainy weather near Red Cloud Buttes in Fort Robinson State Park, October 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Following some fun fall color shooting up in the Black Hills, the rain caught up with western Nebraska and flattened out the landscape. I wanted to get outside anyway, and drove out to Fort Robinson State Park. It was quickly apparent that this windy mist would just cover my lens in a fine spritz, so I took a handful of shots and called it a day (but not before getting a snack at the Staabs food stand, which is the rule). This is a shot that has plenty of detail in the power lines, and a car hiding in the mist. There's something about the subtle detail that fog allows, and I kick myself whenever we get fog out in western Nebraska and I don't try for some sort of photo. Even if it's a quick grab, it's satisfying to work with fog.

Fall Colors at Pactola Reservoir, October 6, 2018

Fall colors overlooking Pactola Reservoir, October 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

It was a fine fall day to explore the northern Black Hills. The overlook on the west end of Pactola Reservoir was full of color, and the variety of clouds in the sky provided a nice balance against the detail on the ground and water. This is a multi-frame panorama, and just between you and me, I did quite a bit of local adjustment to deal with lens flare circles in the left half of the scene. Sometimes I'm OK with a little flare, but this scene called for a cleaner presentation. I was pleased with the low-lying red bushes in the foreground to go with the rough rocks. The small peninsula down at the bottom adds some curvy interest to that far shoreline. It would be another year before I ventured down to that far shoreline, and it's got plenty of interesting rock shards to play with.

Sunrise over Chadron, October 3, 2018

Sunrise in Chadron, Nebraska, October 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

The agriculture building at Chadron State College is located on a hilltop, making it a good spot for a weather station. I was looking for clouds on this October morning, and thought I'd see how things looked from the hilltop. As I saw the weather station with the grass and clouds, I thought it would make a nice little arrangement. I particularly like the line of light across the grass at the bottom, adding some detail and preventing the foreground from being nothing but silhouette.

Moth at Toadstool Park, September 22, 2018

Moth at Toadstool Geologic Park, September 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

“Don’t forget to half-press the shutter release button to focus on your subject!”

“I have to turn my lens like a caveman to focus. This work is brutal.”

Along the recently opened Great Plains Trail in Toadstool Geologic Park, there are occasional bursts of flowers and pollinators. I find the movements of the butterflies, moths, and bees around flowers fascinating. These little critters can be relaxing to watch, assuming there are no mosquitoes bugging you at the time.

On this hot September day, I had my 105mm close up lens from the 1970s, a lens whose look I quite enjoy. The usual photos of a moth more or less in focus were fine, but while leaning in to line up the plane of focus with the critter, I noticed the arrangement of out-of-focus elements in the composition, and took a shot of nothing but bokeh.

While some who have seen this photo seem turned off by its soft nature, I like it. I like the warm range of colors, and the subtle arrangement of angles formed by the soft spheres. I like the hint of pattern implied in the wings.

Storm Clouds over Dawes County, June 10, 2018

Storm clouds over Dawes County, Nebraska, June 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

I stopped east of Crawford to photograph some thunderheads. It was a dark and stormy evening. At this location, there are a few trees and fences, but not a lot of foreground material. I think that worked in my favor, because in making the distant power lines the foreground elements, I can emphasize the scale of the storm clouds, which appear massive over the manmade structures and distant hills. I am always fascinated by the shadows clouds cast, which don’t appear to match the perspective I expect from my perspective. There’s that scale again. I like the wavy lines of the rain that appear here and there in the scene.

Infrared Tree, Nebraska National Forest, April 25, 2018

Infrared tree in the Nebraska National Forest, April 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

After the 2012 wildfires and controlled burns that ran throughout the Pine Ridge area, the Black Hills Overlook hasn't been the same. Six years later, grasses are doing well and most of the burned trees have been cleared or are cycling through naturally. The remaining trees provide good composition anchors. The evening sun lights up the grass and ridges, which I particularly like about this scene. Shooting infrared keeps the horizon a bit clearer than it would be otherwise, and gives the sky a dramatic look.

Infrared Evening in the Nebraska National Forest, April 25, 2018

 

Infrared valley with burned trees in the Nebraska National Forest, April 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Infrared bare tree in the Nebraska National Forest, April 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Infrared yucca in the Nebraska National Forest, April 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Infrared tree in the Nebraska National Forest, April 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

Film Scanning Notes

DSLR, Macro Lens, Bellows, Film Holder

I've gone through a couple iterations of camera-based film reprophotography. The first involved setting the camera parallel to a light table with the film in a negative carrier. While that is preferable in terms of absolute quality — the negative carrier holds the film flatter — it is slower than the bellows and film holder approach.

Equipment
DSLR (D800 or similar high-resolution camera)
Macro Lens (55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor or similar lens)
Bellows (Nikon PB-6 and rail)
Film Holder (Nikon PS-6 Slide Copying Adapter)
Light Source (small LED light table, strobe, clear sky)

Aside from the camera, the closeup equipment is fairly inexpensive. There are many 55 and 60mm macro lenses, and several generations of Nikon's bellows floating around. The film holder I use can take mounted slides or strips of film.

The disadvantage, as I've mentioned, is that the film strips aren't as flat as I'd like in the film holder, especially frames at the end of the strip. In the middle is less of a problem. A solid negative carrier from an enlarger does a better job, but alignment is trickier. Good for single frames, but nothing bulk. With this bellows system, a dedicated archivist can run a roll in several minutes. Take care to dust off your negatives!

The Nikon bellows system I use is made for 135 format film. Larger formats are a job for the negative carrier on a light table.

The PS-6 has a cool feature: It can be moved on the X and Y axes, allowing for reproduction of portions of a frame at higher magnification.

No matter what method you use, make sure you stop the lens down and focus carefully.

Film Scanners

Hamrick's Vuescan is invaluable when it comes to scanning film. Vuescan can output scan data to a TIFF, which can be reprocessed by Vuescan itself to create tonally adjusted files, or sent to a separate image processing application.

I've been getting superb results scanning black-and-white film with the discontinued Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV. Most recently, I ran a roll of FP4 Plus through and was pleased with the tonality, grain and sharpness of the results.

My results with the Plustek 7600i have been less positive. The 7600i does not produce the same critical sharpness as the Minolta IV. Further testing is necessary.

Film Scanning Workflow

Start with clean negatives and a clean environment. You'll go through a lot of canned air, so keep a fresh bottle on hand. Microfiber cloths are handy, particularly in areas where regular dusting is a part of life.

The Minolta IV's negative carrier can hold up to six negatives. Carefully load your negatives, give them a final blast of air and insert the carrier into the scanner.

Run a low-resolution preview in Vuescan, and check your settings before making the final scan. A few things to note: output to 16-bit grayscale, save raw file on scan. I need to test 16-bit RGB to see if it improves tonality over grayscale. Set color profile for output to ProPhotoRGB, set a monitor profile if you have one built.

I have not profiled the scanner itself at this time. Doubtless this would further improve tonality. I need to obtain a profiling target and get this set up.

Scan at the highest resolution the scanner has available. This is 3200 ppi for the Minolta IV, and it produces relatively clear, sharp results. Note that the Plustek 7600i has 7200 ppi available, though it produces less than 3600 ppi in reality. Scans from the 7600i can be downscaled to save space. I halve the physical size with nearest neighbor interpolation and save the result.

Output the scan as a raw file in DNG format (doubtless a straight TIFF will allow an equivalent workflow). Load the DNG into Lightroom, and open it without adjustment in Photoshop. Invert the colors, convert to grayscale if needed, and save the file as a TIFF, taking care to maintain 16-bit mode. I prefer zip compression to save a bit of disk space. Since I make most further adjustments in Lightroom, there is no speed penalty that I can detect with zip compression.

Underexposed film can be scanned with better color by setting the scanner to underexpose. This appears to produce aliasing, although further testing is necessary to determine the nature of this issue. Ten-inch prints from two such files do not reveal the artifact.

Apply tonal adjustments to the new TIFF in Lightroom as you would with any other photo.

Spotting is a time-consuming affair, and not worthwhile to run on every photo. The Minolta IV does not have an infrared channel, so Digital ICE and its equivalents are unavailable. Black-and-white film doesn't work with those tools anyway, so it's manual spotting all the way. Pick a subset of the roll; only your selects should be worth a spotting pass.

Load the TIFF into Photoshop without adjustments from Lightroom; you want to work on the unaltered file. Do all spotting work on a separate layer. I use the manual healing brush and the spot healing brush, depending on the type of blemish. Spots on broad tonal areas clean up nicely with the spot healing brush, while spots in complex areas are usually better suited to manual healing. The clone tool comes in handy as well, from time to time. To help spot blemishes, add a curve adjustment layer and invert the curve, or make an extreme inverse-S. When you use an adjustment layer as a visual aid, make sure your clone source only uses the "Current & Below" layers, not all layers. Save the final layered file (without the adjustment layer) and, optionally, use zip compression on the image and layer data to save a bit of space.

Back to Lightroom for further tonal adjustments, input sharpening and other work. With FP4+ developed in Arista, I find about 10 percent luminance noise reduction softens the grain without eliminating any detail. Indeed, the grain in well-exposed negatives is seldom troublesome in this case. Export the files as desired.

Rollei ATP/1.1

A high-resolution panchromatic technical film, similar to Kodak's Technical Pan. Developed in Diafine 4+4, my first roll came out nicely. I shot most of it through an R25 filter to darken the skies. Results overall are good; the film scans easily and the resulting files are clean, with subtle grain and good acutance. Recommended rating ISO 32; EI 80 produces excellent results in Diafine 4+4. Coming soon: results for EI 80 in Diafine 3+3.

Kodak HIE

An infrared film, discontinued in 2007. My roll was four years expired, but did produce images. Developed in Diafine 4+4, the negatives are low-contrast. I shot the roll through an R25 filter. This roll did not produce the same clean negatives as ATP/1.1, though one should not expect similar results. Scans with the Minolta IV are low-contrast and heavy with grain; attempts to increase contrast similarly accentuate the grain. I plan to make a few traditional prints as well to compare results. The lack of an anti-halation backing on this film is intriguing; the soft/sharp combination seen in others' photos can be pleasant.

Tri-X

A high-speed panchromatic general-purpose film. I am using the modern 400TX version. Recommended EI for Diafine 3+3 is 1600; this produced thin negatives. Scanning these underexposed frames is difficult and the results are rather grainy. Also noted large horizontal lines across clear areas of scanned frames; further testing necessary to determine if this is an artifact from the scan or inherent to the film. Better density at EI 800 in Diafine 3+3.

Rollei Ortho 25

EI 25 for Diafine 5+4, with a 1 minute presoak.

Rollei Infrared 400S

EI 200, Diafine 3+3
EI 400, Diafine 6+6 (EI 12—noted for deep red or opaque filters—check this)
EI 400, Diafine 3+3 (no filter—note minimal agitation—check this)

Fujifilm Neopan 400

EI 640 for Diafine 3+3

Angostura Ice, February 2, 2018

View over the ice at Agostura Recreation Area in February 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

On a cold winter morning, I drove up to Angostura Reservoir to see what I could see. This is a pleasant view from a hill above the northeast dock, looking toward the east shore. It's a straightforward study of a strong diagonal intersecting the many organic shapes throughout the scene.

Archival Scanning with Vuescan and Epson FastFoto FF-640

Introduction

Scan from FF-640. Sunset over Ponca State Park. (Photo by Daniel Binkard)

The Epson FF-640 is an auto-feed scanner primarily intended for digitizing the stacks of 4x6 and similar size prints that you've had sitting in storage since switching to your digital camera. Quicker than laying each print on the flatbed.

After running a few hundred prints through it, my conclusion is that it's good for building a reference library of your analog archive. Once everything is scanned, I can sort and filter using Lightroom, alongside my existing digital photos.

There are several issues to be aware of, which I detail below. With the dust and tone quality issues in mind, I find that the FF-640 works well enough for my purposes. 

Building a Reference Library

My film collection is organized by the date I took the roll(s) in for processing, and I use those dates to name and organize the scans. Unfortunately, I didn't keep good records for more specific shooting dates, but this still allows organization within a month and year of whenever I actually took the photos. Wherever possible, my goal is to use external references to find the correct dates, and update the files as needed.

Library Naming Convention

/YYYY-MM-DD-Desc/YYYYMMDD####.tif

At the moment, I am numbering files in the order I scan them. I may rename files to match frame numbers in the negative strips, although that is less critical.

Matching Prints and Negatives

The print scans will form the foundation of the reference library, and I will replace them with negative scans as I make them.

Running the Scanner

The FF-640's strength lies in its speed. It can run through a stack of prints in short order. The specs quote something along the lines of one second per print, which is certainly fast enough. I have been running prints through in stacks of six, although more should be possible. It is important to fan the prints and make sure they are clean before loading them. The scanner double-fed a few prints in my initial runs, but I haven't had issues with that since then.

Operation

I am foregoing the dedicated Epson software for the FF-640, preferring to use Vuescan. Vuescan allows auto-feed and duplex operation, along with automatic saving and file naming. At this point, I choose and folder and file name prefix with Vuescan, load a stack of prints in the scanner, and let it run. The only issue I have at the moment is cropping to the print size. Vuescan allows the user to set automatic crops with good control, and I need to explore and fine-tune those settings. Currently, I am saving full-size scans, and batch cropping in Lightroom.

Dust Lines

Crop of full scan with shadows opened to show dust line (light line above trees) and banding (the rest of the lines throughout). Click to view crop full size.

Unlike a flatbed scanner, the auto-feed mechanism in the FF-640 runs the print past a stationary scan head. The drawback is that a single piece of dust on the scan head's glass cover results in a line running the length of the image. In the beginning, I tried to be diligent about checking images every few scans, and re-running them if I found dust lines. Unfortunately, even prints that I've stored fairly cleanly in their envelopes end up depositing dust in the scanner. There's really no way to avoid the dust lines without cleaning the scanner after every individual photo. At that point, may as well head back to the flatbed and abandon getting your whole library digitized.

I decided to let it be, and live with the occasional dust line. Since the scans for this reference library aren't intended to be the highest quality reproductions, I can live with the dust. Beware, however, if you are hoping to use this scanner to get consistently clean scans.

Image Quality

The FF-640 is limited to a maximum 600 pixels per inch. This is large enough to see details in the scans, but certainly pales in comparison to the 1600 or 3200 or whatever ridiculously high resolution new flatbed scanners offer. For my reference library, this is not a problem, and keeps the file sizes under control.

I have not made any detailed tests for color accuracy. Since the prints themselves were automatically color-corrected, I am not concerned about maximum accuracy. Better to save that effort for negative scans.

Of greater concern is the low quality of the scans themselves. There is plenty of banding visible in the dark areas of scans, reminding me very much of a Canoscan from about 2003. This is the biggest disappointment for me, considering it's a 2016 model and should be able to do much better. My old Epson Perfection 1660 from 2002 produces far cleaner shadow detail. In the end, I will live with the results, but beware that the banding makes clean post-processing adjustments difficult if not impossible. For a reference library it's not the end of the world, but really, Epson, is this the best you can do at this price?

Other Uses

Because the scanner can run documents up to letter size, it's a quick way to archive paper documents. I have done a couple already, and can see using the unit for that purpose once I finish the primary task.