12
May

Where do they sell eye color calibrator

I’m not talking about the color of the eye here, but how the eye perceives color.

Martin gave me a couple of prints on the harman gloss paper when we met this weekend. I was kind of hoping that Harman had packed the paper I got wrong since I perceive it to be warmer in tone than the luster paper I have. I’m talking Epson premium luster, Ilford smooth pearl and Fine Art Pearl. Everyone else, except for the guy I talked to in the photo store here in Oslo, seems to think it is whiter and colder than most other papers. Well, Harman didn’t pack my paper wrong, Martin paper looked exactly the same as mine. That leaves only my uncalibrated eyes and brain. Somehow the cold/warm scale must be flipped up there.

I think I will try an experiment tomorrow. I will photograph a stack of different papers and open the result in photoshop. Maybe the eyedropper tool will tell me something. After all, a cold tone paper should have more blue in it, and a warm tone more red.

11
May

encounter of 3rd degree

I had the pleasure of meeting Martin Doonan (doonster blog) yesterday. Martin was coming home from one of his regular visits to Kristiansund or Stavanger, and made a stop when he passed Oslo.

I picked him up in the morning, and we spend the whole day in my usual forest. It was a baking sun from a clear sky, so the photography conditions was lousy, but it was a pleasant day for a walk. I was brave (or stupid) enough to guide us to a part of the forest I didn’t know, and eventually we got lost a couple of times trying to follow a track that simply disappeared. However, Martin was an excellent hiking comrade, polite and never turning to sarkasm when I lost my direction.

Even if the photography was not that good, we got the chance to discuss many things, both photography related and other stuff. The communication we do on these web channels gives a very limited view of the personalities, so it was very fun to finally meet one of the bloggers in person. I would highly recommend to try and set something up if you pass the neighborhood of some fellow blogger. And if you pass Oslo, do send me a message. I am happy to meet up for a chat and a coffee, or even a small expedition if I have the time for it.

09
May

Harman scuffing problem?

It seems the Harman Gloss FBAL paper still has a surprise or two for me. Earlier I complained about how susceptible the surface is to scuffing. It was enough to just pull the finger nail lightly against the surface to get big nasty marks. My solution to this was obvious, just be careful. I didn’t however see how these prints could survive for long in a folio binder or in a hand bound book.

Today I picked up a print I made little more than a week ago. It was kept precious for about five days until I decided to edit the image and make a new print. After that, the print spend almost a week among the trash at my desk, rubbing against all sorts of office hardware. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was almost spotless. I dug through the pile of test prints, and even the ones with a lot of stuff marks were resistant now.

My conclusion is simple and obvious. This paper / ink combination needs a long time to Cure. I already knew the surface needed to settle over night to look its best, but it Seems like you should leave it even longer before it is fully hardened. Haven’t experimented, but I would let them alone for two days before I start to handle them.

So, one more issue out of the way

A side note:

I don’t really know for sure how the ink is working, but I know the pigments are encapsulated in some sort of polymer, a then mixed with a fluid solvent. When the ink is applied to the paper, the fluid evaporates fairly quick, but what if the ink really needs even more time to cure. If the polymer encapsulation is not fully hardened, but forms stronger bonds between each other and the paper after the fluid is gone. This is quite common in different types of paint, so why not. That would explain why the print needs this long time to settle. The differences between papers may easily be explained by how deep into the paper the ink soaks, and the adhesive properties of the surface coating.

08
May

Too many bridges

After the first shoot, I can see the problem with editing and rejecting images coming up pretty soon. I haven’t counted them all, but I know there is at least 28 bridges to photograph, maybe more. That is a lot of pictures.

I foresee some difficult moments when I have to reject a strong image that doesn’t fit, while keeping a weaker one that fits into a strong sequence. Well, if I come to the point of having to reject a strong image, it means I have made one, so I shouldn’t complaint.

07
May

Pictures from the first shoot

Yesterday afternoon I went out for my first serious shoot on my brand new SoFoBoMo project. I don’t plan on showing you every single shot I make, but I do want to post my work in progress. I drop obvious rejects and all the bracketed shots. From the first day, I have put out 13 pictures, which is just less than half of the setups I made during my 1.5 hour expedition.

Click on this link to get to the gallery.

07
May

New wordpress theme for photobloggers

Just saw the announcement from wordpress.com about their new Monotone photoblog theme. I don’t think I will start to use it myself, but it was quite cool. The big thing is that it analyzes the content of each photo it is about to display, and then changes the color scheme of that page to match. If you follow the link above, you will see a demo. and unless it is rigged, it seems to work well.

06
May

sofobomo - I’m in!!

Finally got the something to happen. The subject is bridges across the river that divides Oslo between east and west, Akerselva, and first results will announced tomorrow, now I’m off to bed.

Due to late start, the finish date will of course be May 31th.




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