Re: OT - Further Digression to the Dark Side . . .

KevinM Wrote:
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>             . . .  The image at the bottom of the page
> just looks DARK to me, and I guess that over the
> years I got sick of getting images with no detail in
> the dark or light areas.   With black and whites,
> I could do my own darkroom work and address
> some of those problems.  With color, I was at
> the mercy of a lab technician who was just
> punching a clock and didn't give a rat's bot-
> tom about my photos.

I was quite lucky in that regard in the late 1990's and early 2000's when I was still shooting film (mostly 6×7 cm) — one of the lab techs at our local high-end commercial photo processor commented on one of my 2472 photos and thus I found out he was a railfan.  From then on I'd ask at the front desk for John to do the work when I had a batch of 20 or 30 large prints to do, and he'd let me come into the lab and assist with the setup in exchange for making one extra print for himself.  I remember this one in particular – getting the pilot beam exactly parallel with the bottom of the print, as much texture in the steam as possible, and the slightly warm tone of sunrise on the smokebox:

"Resurrection" – #2472 Returns to Revenue Service – May 17, 1991.   Copyright © 1991, 2016 by R. B. Sperry - All Rights Reserved.

Greg Scholl Wrote:
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> I have to agree with both of you.  I find the shot
> at Los Pinos at the bottom to be too dark also,
> and sometimes others post photos too dark.
> Looking at the shot of the engine at the tank,
> you can see there is light on the tank and other
> things, but [the locomotive] is really dull.


And I agree with all three of you.

I have expended a HUGE amount of time trying to bring out at least a semblance of shadow detail on some of my older Kodachromes (see [ngdiscussion.net]) and the long series of exchanges between a newbie to scanning (me) and an expert (Jim Gunning), beginning at [ngdiscussion.net]).  Even a fairly good digital camera can cause grief if the operator forgets to reset the exposure — especially in an unavoidable back-lit situation (see [ngdiscussion.net]).

Of course a nearly foolproof way to get an outstanding rendition of your favorite photo is to commission a reproduction using the outstanding Ellingson firmware (see [ngdiscussion.net]).  So far as I am aware, its operator still headquartered in the D&S Museum in Durango . . .    

Roosso

p.s.  For a really beautiful shot at Los Pinos Tank, see John West's photo of 'The Mad Dash' taken there on May 28, 1968.  It's in his 'Chasing Trains' album at [chasingtrains.smugmug.com].



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2019 10:38AM by Russo Loco.