Top Diaries

My dad has a lot of photos taken by my grandfather in the Philippines during WW2 that I wish I could get my hands on and scan in. He won't let me near them, sadly.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 01:34:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 2)

Thanks afew.

Couple of additional points here. This is Kansas! It was probably 40°C when that picture was taken. Also, threshing machines were VERY loud.

I am just old enough to have seen a threshing crew in action. The work was very hard but this is the harvest--there is a joy that a growing season's worth of effort has paid off. The amount of food it takes to keep the threshers fed is staggering so in addition to the crew you see--there is another crew of mostly women who cooked from dawn until late at night just to keep them going.

So threshing is about cooperation between neighbors. It is mostly just hot dirty work but there is also an incredible amount of skill on display--social organization, mechanical maintenance, understanding when plants are perfectly ripe for harvest, etc.

Seeing threshing crews in action affected my political outlook. When I was a university student studying political science, I had an arrogant prick for a professor who one day asserted that Marx had made fun of "the idiocy of rural life." I thought of myself as a radical leftist in those days but at that moment, I knew I was NEVER going to be a Marxist. Rural life was a lot of things but idiotic was NOT one of them. Not surprisingly, the failure to properly organize agriculture was a chronic problem for the Marxists.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

by techno (reply@elegant-technology.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 06:49:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 2)

Well said, techno. I don't remember such crews myself, but I heard the stories growing up. One of my Dad's favorite stories from his childhood was of such a crew threshing wheat on my Grandfather's farm. Gramp owned the thresher, a neighbor owned a steam engine. Several other neighbors gathered to work together and it was a matter of some urgency to get everyone's fields harvested when the wheat was ready and the weather right.

One day the crew was working hard to finish a field, pushing the crew and the machines pretty hard. Suddenly the pressure relief valve on the boiler began to pop off. At the time Bill Reedy, the owner of the engine, was on the wagon feeding the thresher. When he heard the relief valve pop, he knew that very soon a safety plug in the bottom of the boiler would blow out, relieving the pressure and blowing out the fire all at once. It was a real safety feature. It meant the crew was in no real danger, but it also meant the boiler, as well as the engine, the thresher, and more importantly the harvest, would be out of commission until a new plug could be installed.

Knowing he had very little time to intervene, he dropped his pitchfork, leaped off the wagon, and sprinted to the engine to manually relieve the pressure and shut down the engine. In the ensuing silence, he looked around to find that he apparently had the entire wheat field to himself.

"Hey," he called, "where'd everybody go?"

Gradually the rest of the crew appeared from whatever cover they had ducked behind or under. "What the hell is the matter with you guys?" Bill asked.

After looking around at the rest of the crew slowly gathering from their hiding places, my Grandfather said, "We all looked up and saw you running. We figured if Bill Reedy was running, it was time to run."

We all bleed the same color.

by budr on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 02:12:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 3)

Yes indeed. Farming is also dangerous--ranking up there with underground mining and heavy construction.

In the 1979 Golden Palme winning film "Northern Lights" there is an incredible scene of a threshing crew in North Dakota. They are hurrying to finish the job when it begins to snow. It is VERY realistic.

I got to meet with John Hanson the film's director. He said that scene happened with NO special effects. They had called for extras with threshing experience. They had found machinery that had been put back into operating condition. When everything was in place and filming had begun, it started to snow. The director asked an old-timer what would have happened in such a situation. The old-timer said, "We would have kept threshing." So they kept filming--creating perhaps the most realistic footage ever in cinematic history.

The award was well-deserved!

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

by techno (reply@elegant-technology.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 05:05:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL/techno still good in Porspoder (4.00 / 7)

Farming techno in Porspoder... (Like those old tractors!)

by The3rdColumn on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:45:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL/techno still good in Porspoder (4.00 / 7)

by The3rdColumn on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:47:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL/techno still good in Porspoder (4.00 / 3)

Oh, that brings back memories. I rode on the fender of a tractor very like that, though much older, with my father and my grandfather when I was very small. I learned to drive sitting on their laps on that old Ford 9N. I literally cannot remember when I didn't know how to drive. It makes me think about my 16 year old, just now making a concerted effort to learn how to drive well enough to earn his coveted driver's license, and it reminds me how much we gave up when we stopped making our living directly from a piece of earth where such things were possible.

We all bleed the same color.

by budr on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 01:43:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Like these images of a sane world!

by The3rdColumn on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:48:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 2)

Like these images of a sane world - Kansas and Porspoder...

by The3rdColumn on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:49:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Look who's back! (4.00 / 3)

Macho Grampa Sly.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 06:06:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Bubbles. (4.00 / 13)

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 06:16:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bubbles. (none / 0)

Nice.
Bubbly joy.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 08:11:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bubbles. (none / 0)

What is it with bubbles? I've never seen a kid yet who wasn't fascinated by them.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 08:57:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL - China (4.00 / 11)

During a walking trip - Sczechuan Province - near Chengdu

Near Buddhist Temple in Liaoning Province, Manchuria

Liaoning Province

Buddhist Temple complex Liaoning Province

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 09:55:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

The Great Mao (4.00 / 8)

Not that many Mao statues still standing. This one is in Chengdu, Sczechuan Province. Both photos from 1992.

This one in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Opposite ends of the country.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:00:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

China - The Wall (4.00 / 12)

Barbarian View of the Wall - but from the civilized side.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 10:03:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

These are very interesting Gringo. Thanks.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 01:32:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thank you.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 03:05:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Magnificent view!

by The3rdColumn on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:28:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

All politics aside, China is a fascinating country.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 03:05:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 8)

Mother, listening to her daughter's plea that she would like custom-made dreadlocks for her 14th birthday.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 11:19:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Strange Illusion (4.00 / 5)

Look closely at Mr Grumpy (left) and Miss Pleasant (right). Then move your head back a metre or so - they change places.

Created at the University of Glasgow (it says here).

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 11:27:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Family portrait ... (4.00 / 8)

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 03:00:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You know...I'm not really 8 ft tall!!!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

by Sam on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 04:02:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

What's that in hands?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 04:58:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh...about 24 hands...!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

by Sam on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 05:34:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I'm calling the Guinness book of records. 2.4 metres? Gerraway....

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 05:41:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Does Colman know where your withers are?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 05:44:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 8)

Elevator doors at the Delft public library

The new library building opened last year. It's wonderful! They have design furniture, beautiful and functional modern architecture, a lovely cafe with a stage for local talents, a music listening area, a play area for kids, art exhibitions, Wii games and of course plenty of books. Even in English. I'm planning to shoot a 8-picture fashion series there next month.

You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes. --More--

by tzt (tzt) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 04:43:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

How funky! I really like the shot. How was the vignetting achieved?

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 03:00:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 1)

Haha, photoshop filters. :-p

You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes. --More--

by tzt (tzt) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 04:33:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 1)

I suspected that! It works well though.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 04:38:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Princess... (4.00 / 8)

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

by Sam on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 04:57:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Princess... (4.00 / 7)

Some kind of Icelandic nag. 5 kms out of Reykjavik.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 05:08:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Brother & Sister (4.00 / 9)

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

by Sam on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 05:21:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 3)

Today morning I went to McLeod Ganj (where Dalai-lama is currently giving lessons) and bought in bookshop foundation course in photography from Peter Cortrell. Never thought I would have to buy the book like this but it dawned to me that it's necessary if I want to proceed further from amateurish pic-making.
The book is fortunately not big and after short reading I marked in my mind about the Golden space, layout of pictures in 9 quadrants and so on.
As I have already made many thousand photos I need to adjust them in Photoshop according to these principles as my publisher recentl;y asked me to submit my photos for quality-check. I hope they will be called at least satisfactory.
And I will adjust photos for my presentation of my Indian travels here, I plan surprise.

by FarEasterner on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 04:33:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Excellent! I hope we get to see some of the results.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 04:39:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Learn the rules only so you know when and why you're breaking them. But you know that already, I'm sure.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 04:50:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Some advice needed (4.00 / 8)

Here are two shots taken in Glenary's restaurant in Darjeeling. I suspect the right one is what I need but interiour is also important, right? What do you think?

Please rate this photos:
First is landscape, view of Kanchenjunga (8680 metres) from Gangtok, capital of Sikkim. Is there anything wrong with it?

Second picture of destitutes queueing in one of Chotiwalas (restaurants) near Har-ki-Pairi ghat in Haridwar, I suspect some devotees sponsored free breakfast for them. I think it is not a sort of picture for guidebook, am I right?

by FarEasterner on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 06:51:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Some advice needed (4.00 / 3)

I like the one on the right at the top. The view from the window is stunning and it is lost when exposing for the interior (which is a bit messy and distracting, it's not needed in this photo). I think the almost silhouette of the woman works well. I'd crop it a little tighter around the window, to get rid of some of that dark block at the bottom, cut out the bit of the next window you can see along the left and make the window with the view and the silhouetted woman the key features.

I like the second one but it does not look very sharp or crisp. The colours could be a bit bolder, maybe more saturated but that could increase the noise/grainyness of the shot. Do you have photoshop or other software? I sometimes find that using levels in photoshop, cuts out that slightly hazy look in photos like that, a lot of my landscape shots look like this. Other people may have better advice on how to improve the colours.

I find the bottom one really interesting but perhaps you are right, it is not for a guidebook, unless the book wants to highlight some examples of poverty.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 07:06:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Thank you for advice to crop the 1st picture.
Second picture I took simply from window in my hotel, due to distance the view is not perfect, that's why I resorted to zooming and losing quality. I have idea how to use this photo though - I want to crop shining lumps of mountains in equal quadrants, then assemble them in panorama image like pieces of mosaic. I think it maybe used for decoration of Sikkim chapter.
About third people say - it's ugly scene and great pic but definitely not for guidebook.

by FarEasterner on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 07:19:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

forget to ask (about second picture) - do you know how big (in pixels) picture for decoration should be if in book the panoramic photo should be around 3*7 or 2*6 centimetres?

by FarEasterner on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 07:31:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Not sure to be honest. I would say as big as possible for quality but that isn't always possible. They can reduce the size for their own purposes. The guidebook people ought to have some idea of what is needed.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 07:41:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I am not an expert, but apparently you need ~300 pixels per inch to print at an "acceptable photo quality" of ~150 dots per inch. That's 120 pixels per centimetre, so 360x840 pixels for 3x7 or 240x720 pixels for 2x6.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 07:42:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I wanted something like this:

but unfortunately as original photo was just 1024 pixels in width such collage may be printed only as 2x6 or even smaller.

by FarEasterner on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 08:51:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Nice idea. Shame about the resolution though.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 08:53:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

One can increase the number of pixels quite a bit without negatively affecting details; however, increasing the size of the photo will not help a photo that lacks sufficient detail to begin with. In such cases the lack of detail may become more obvious. I have software to increase pixel size up to 600 per cent. If you like, send the digital file to me and I'll give it a try. No guarantees that it will produce wonders, but it could work (stargazingcamel@aol.com).

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sat Feb 23rd, 2008 at 03:46:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thank you for offer of help - if I need enlarging the picture I will know where to write ;)

By the way maybe you know how I can reduce grains from scans (for example in Photoshop) that they will look like camera-made picture? I have some scans (actually advertising materials) which I have to include in my book but after scanning them I realized that the texture of scans is different from photos. Or it's better not to scan them but photograph? I tried one time to photograph but it was worse than scanning.

by FarEasterner on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 08:24:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

You should be able to choose the resolution that you scan in at. Higher resolution should give you a similar result to the original picture.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 09:44:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I tried but when I increased resolution too much (for example starting with 1200 dots per inch or so) picture quality does not improve much but used disk space - yes.

by FarEasterner on Mon Feb 25th, 2008 at 04:25:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Scanners will sometimes pretend to support higher resolution than they do ...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Feb 25th, 2008 at 04:29:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

More than you wanted to know I'm sure, but...

Yes, I've noticed a lot of grain in some of my scans also, especially from negatives that produce higher grain to begin with. For example, the higher the ISO number, generally the more apparent grain you will see. Good film at 100 ISO or below produces little apparent grain at moderate sized enlargement while ISO 800 will show more. I believe that grain is also more apparent in negatives than positive (chrome/slide) films. The other thing I have heard is that scanning resolutions at 5000ppi and above somehow avoid magnifying the grain that you and I see from our scans. Unfortunately, my film scanner maxes out at 4000ppi.

Another solution is to use a scanning software that has built in grain reduction. A German company (Lasersoft) produces a scanning software called Silverfast Ai that has a built in grain reduction program that works very well. I use it on my flatbed scanner for print scanning and medium format transparency scans. Unfortunately, Silverfast is not inexpensive unless you get it bundled with the purchase of a scanner as I did. I've been toying with the idea of obtaining it for my film scanner, but it runs over $300, and it's good for just the one scanner. Each scanner has its own version.

You might try scanning at a lower resolution and see what effect that has on reducing grain. In Photoshop try using the Filter>Noise>dust&scratches or the median filter. Also be sure to buy low grain films to begin with. Check manufacturer's or photo web site for stats on products.

I used these two filters on the photo below. First pic is the untouched version. The second is dust and scratches, and third is median. Both filters seem to blur details somewhat depending on how you set them, so be careful and be prepared to use a sharpening method to bring back detail. By the way, this photo wasn't all that sharp to begin with and before cropping, this it included the whole animal and quite a bit of background.. Sharpening is also necessary for scanned photos/transparencies that will be used for books/magazines, etc, in order to get the best product, but that's a whole complicated subject by itself.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 03:17:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thank you so much. I never knew about software.

Of course I tried using Dust & scratches in Photoshop but it was not perfect. Then I used Adobe Image Ready (I don't remember precisely what i did but I think when I opened a photo or scan it used to say it can optimize it and in some scans result was little bit better).

Then i found how to improve - just next to Dust & Scratches button there is one - Reduce noise with three parameters. After many attempts I found when I put upper one at 0, and the rest at 25%, result is quite satisfactory. You can try also.

by FarEasterner on Mon Feb 25th, 2008 at 04:32:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]