My First Post

[BLS]

This is my very first post, so I hope all goes well!

The County Historical Society asked me to photograph this bridge because it's on the Nat'l Register of Historic Places. Please give me your thoughtfull and honest opinion.

Should tell you that I use negative film, so I had to scan my print. As always the scanner ate some of the color. So what you see here differs from my print, most notably: the green in the opriginal print (except for the foreground grass) is more of a Spring Green.

 

[ksmattfish]

Hmm, "this gallery marked as private"....

 

[BLS]

Well, my first attempt didn't work. I'm giving it another try.

 

[JonMikal]

I love the composition and mood, but why is it so grainy?

 

[MuffinPrincess]

It is very moody and peaceful, I like this a lot. But yeah, why is it grainy? What speed film were you using? Or did it just turn out like that after you scanned it?

 

[judehei]

the grass in focus doesn't really do it for me, but looking past the grass, it's a really amazing shot. Maybe next time try moving the focus to a log or something in the water. I think it needs a more definate focus point so you're not lost in the mess of grass.

I do love the bridge and the reflections though. Great job

 

[mentos_007]

I love the mood here. And I agree with focus... Grass isn't so important here. but it's a wonderful shot

 

[Corry]

Wow. I love it! Makes me think if I walk over the bridge there's gonna be a huge castle before me!!! Heh heh!

 

[mentos_007]

castle?? and a prettey prince on a white horse??? huh Shrek again

 

[BrettG]

Awesome picture. Grainy, yeah, but in my opinion I don't think the graininess hurts it at all. It makes it seem more bleak.

 

[LizM]

VERY nice! The grainy is the fog isn't it?

I really like the shot!

 

[SWFLA1]

BLS -

IMHO this is an exceptional pic....as is... it conveys the stately manor an historic site deserves....

very, very good!!!!

 

[BLS]

Thanks, Everyone, for your comments.

About the graininess. I used ISO 200 film. The original 4x6 print is not grainy; neither is a 5x7 print I had made. Although the bridge is faded, so to speak, from the fog (which was very dense), it doesn't really look grainy in the prints.

I took this shot w/ a 28mm lens @ f22, with the focus set manually to a focal distance that makes everything in focus from 2.5 feet to infinity.

Funny, no one who sees the print complains about graininess. But the image here does look grainy.

So how did it get so grainy? I wish I knew. Here's what I did with the print to upload it here.

I scanned it w/ a HP deskjet 940c and saved the file as TIFF. Next I played with the color in PSE, trying (unsuccessfully) to match the color in the print. I also used the Unsharpen Mask because the scanner always messes up the sharpness. I then saved the file as JPEG. Later I resized the JPEG image to make it small enough to upload to VillagePhotos and saved it again.

What did I do wrong? I'm new to "digitizing" my prints and using PSE. I consider myself lucky to be able to do it at all, let alone to do it well.

Any help you can give will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[captain-spanky]

i always have problems getting film images to a decent standard when they've been scanned so i've got no idea what to do... but i just love the circles the bridges arches make.... there's a bridge near us which can look like that but only when the river is swollen... congrats on the pic! very nice

 

[deb]

It may not be graininess as much as low-contrast. Try increasing the contrast to see if you get a more traditional look. I personally like the "foggy" look, it gives the picture a mystical or magical tone.