Medley (swimming)

[LaFoto]

For some reason I have ploughed through my old CDs and DVD with either my very first digital photos, or scanned prints (thus digitalised) and worked with in one or the other manner, and this collage here (film, print, scan, put together) reminded me of the fact that I haven't seen nor photographed my daughter swimming for over 2 1/2 years! It is about time I accompany her on one of her meets to take some more up-to-date photos, I say!!!

 

[jols]

are they out of focus? or is it my moniter

 

[LaFoto]

They are scanned prints ... scanned PRINTS not negatives, and scanned on a not-quite-so-good scanner. So yes, they may well seem out of focus. If I remember right, several others from this same meet and light conditions had motion blur because the light was poor and I did not hold the camera well enough (no tripod was used). So yes, they may well be/seem out of focus. Though I believe that her head is sharp in all of them (which used to be least moving in the moment of my taking the pics) - I would need to undig the PRINTS even in order to be sure.

 

[LaFoto]

Yes, I know their quality isn't any too good.
More reason why I will have to accompany her to a swim meet soon to take new ones, better lit, better exposed, better focused - but the scanner had some say in what you get presented here, too! (But to be honest, the prints show more signs of wrong white balance than my digitalised versions here do).
But even back then I was happy to see the four strokes represented, with her head above the water the moment I pushed the button (!) () - my VERY first attempts to capture her while swimming all had a "diver" in them, but certainly no swimmer!

 

[Battou]

They are scanned prints ... scanned PRINTS not negatives, and scanned on a not-quite-so-good scanner. So yes, they may well seem out of focus. If I remember right, several others from this same meet and light conditions had motion blur because the light was poor and I did not hold the camera well enough (no tripod was used). So yes, they may well be/seem out of focus. Though I believe that her head is sharp in all of them (which used to be least moving in the moment of my taking the pics) - I would need to undig the PRINTS even in order to be sure.

What PP software are you using?

I reasently discovered that the PP spftware I had been using for crops, resize and watermarking is making my images appear out of focus.

 

[LaFoto]

It is my antediluvian version of Photoshop (6.0) ... though don't ask me how I made that frame ... if I still made that in Paint (which is how I began to make frames), then there is my explanation for why they have lost so much.

Though, come to think of it - it is my SCANNER! It's just NOT good.

 

[Battou]

It is my antediluvian version of Photoshop (6.0) ... though don't ask me how I made that frame ... if I still made that in Paint (which is how I began to make frames), then there is my explanation for why they have lost so much.

Though, come to think of it - it is my SCANNER! It's just NOT good.

My scanner was very cheap and fairly lame (less than $80 USD new.) Right up untill the other night I assumed it was responsable for the problems I was having with clarity of my images. I found that MS Photodraw was importing the large images rather poorly and it caused a lot of problems. On top of that I was compressing them more than once to jump from program to program making it worse. If you are infact using paint for boarders and frames you could be encountering something similar with the transfer maybe.

I do have an example of what I mean by the degridation from multiple programs if you want to see it, The diffrence is huge.

as for suggestions I would try creating some boarders on Photoshop and try to eliminate a second program.

 

[LaFoto]

Yes, I am doing that today. These photos (still taken on film with the PRINTS being scanned) are more than 2 1/2 years old and were taken in my pre-DSLR days (when also PS was still mostly Greek to me). That's why I keep saying it IS about time I accompany my daughter (who is the swimmer here) to yet another of her meets again in order to take better photos of her swimming (maybe even the medley again) NOW.

 

[Battou]

Well, It might still be worth it to see if you still have the original scan and reprocess it just to find out how much was caused by the scan via direct comparison.

Even then, it's no reason to put off attending another of your daughters swim meets and taking some new ones to add to the collection.

 

[LaFoto]

Ooops, I would need to dig out the prints and re-scan and then process again, I'm afraid. Should I do so?
I think you are right: before I "refresh" photos of her 12-year-old self, I better go along to another meet now and take photos of her present, 14-year-old self! And try to do better, now that I photograph digitally.

Nevertheless, I am still kind of happy to see how nicely these four represent the four strokes of a medley .

 

[Battou]

Ooops, I would need to dig out the prints and re-scan and then process again, I'm afraid. Should I do so?
I think you are right: before I "refresh" photos of her 12-year-old self, I better go along to another meet now and take photos of her present, 14-year-old self! And try to do better, now that I photograph digitally.

Nevertheless, I am still kind of happy to see how nicely these four represent the four strokes of a medley .

The decision is yours to make, I make the suggestion based more on the fact I remember you saying you wanted to do some black and white but a portion of the reluctancy was the scan quality. I figure suggesting this may be of some help to you. In determining whether or not it is in fact the scanner or not would greatly effect whether or not you go exclusive to digital or work both formats.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, while the scan quality of THIS scanner I now have used to be much superior to the one I had before, it has much deteriorated and I am not quite reluctant to use it at all. But I might try. Just so we can see if not I can bring out more from the scans of these prints ... and if not I might feel enticed to shoot more film again, too???