More on photo editing before Photoshop

In a number of posts I have talked about photo editing in pre-photoshop times.  A recent article in PetaPixel talks about how editing was done - quoting an early photographer...

http://petapixel.com/2015/12/01/this-1907-article-describes-how-photos-were-faked-a-century-ago/

Photo manipulation before Photoshop at the Met

A couple of years ago I read a really interesting book called "Faking it: Manipulated photography before photoshop" by Mia Fineman which also was the basis for a Photography exhibition held at the Met. I was reminded about this when I saw a recent post in PetaPixel.com.

"Faking it" describes the art of photographic manipulation before Photoshop and shows that photographic manipulation started very early on in the development of Photography.  

Mia talks about seven different types of photo manipulation which are designed to:

1. correct faults in the original photograph and to compensate for the limitations of photography (the example in the article below from PetaPixel falls in this category)
2. create "art" photographs
3. persuade people - for political and ideological reasons
4. amuse and entertain - "novelty" photographs
5. represent images for print
6. create surreal dreamlike images and
7. deliberately change the photographic image (using modern manipulations and composites pre-Photoshop) - she calls - Protoshop....

Its a fascinating read and shows that photographic retouching and manipulation is not new - its a real skill the requires a eye for detail and understanding of proportion, composition and anatomy and patience to re-create reality, its just the tools have changed .....

http://petapixel.com/2015/10/30/this-1902-photo-of-general-grant-is-an-early-example-of-compositing/

For those of us who live down-under the Met has put the entire exhibition online at:       http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/faking-it 

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Why not all scanned images are created equal

Recently I was reading the magazine section of a newspaper and was surprised by the poor quality of some of the images in an article I was reading.  The images were blurred in parts and had lost resolution and information, I suspect due to the fact that they were never scanned properly in the first place, that is, the resolution they were scanned at was not sufficient for publication.

A lot of people think that scanning an image just involves putting it in a scanner and pushing a button - easy-peasy - so why pay someone?

The answer is its not just a matter of having good scanning equipment - its knowing how to get the best out of your equipment, the right settings and the right resolution for the purpose.

Before I scan I analyse the image to gauge things like its detail and also damage.

I ask:

• What do you want to use your images for?
• Do you think you might want to print them in the future?

I also consider:

• What is the best digital format. If they are colour images for example, I want to try and capture as much of the colour as possible
• If they are damaged.  I want to give people the option of being able to fix them, if not now  - maybe in the future.

Scanning is also about knowing the best format to save your digital images for the future.  So if you have a collection of slides, negatives or photos call me because I can help you with your scanning needs.

Ashwini Chaskar and the Craft Gallery

Another local Wellington artist I have had the privilege of working with is Ashwini Chaskar. Ashwini produces beautiful digital water and batik effect images as well as detailed black and white ink works.  Ashwini  approached me to print these for her when she sells her images on the Craft Gallery - a new online Gallery featuring works of Australian and New Zealand artists.

See more of Ashwinis work at:

http://www.thecraftgallery.com.au/brands/Ashwini-Chaskar-.html

And on facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aadi-Art-and-Crafts/1405740319704994

Organising those summer snapshots

Source :wikipedia

So you are back from the Christmas holidays with a pile of snaps....

Hopefully you have downloaded them onto your computer and backed them up in the cloud or elsewhere.   And you filed them so you can easily find them?  Maybe you haven't? Are they still sitting on the camera?.

Whoops!.......

Well its the new year, there is no time like the present to get organised!

There are many different ways of organising your digitized images. Our personal collection of digitized images consists of scanned negatives,slides and photos as well as digital photos, videos, and movies plus we have music sound recordings. We chose to place our digital data into folders based on the date they were taken/ recorded, then into sub-folders based on subject. The date folders are named based on the year and month they were taken. Our file folder notations look like this:-

201401

201402

201412

201501

  

2014 indicates the year and the suffix  01, 02 and 03 indicates the month - January, February, March etc.Using a number based system like this means that the files will automatically sort in chronological order.

Within each date folder individual images, recordings and movies are sorted into sub-folders which are given topic or event names based on their subject matter, for example: Johns birthday, Beach trip, Flowers in the garden.

This system allows us to continue to add to it using the same notation. As we scan older images they can slot in at earlier dates....newer images under later dates....

How do you organize your digital images and data?  Share your ideas under comments....

  

Reproducing original artworks for Nicky Kane

This year at Carterworks we have had the privilege of producing a range of giclee prints for local Wellington artists. Giclee prints are high resolution archival prints. Nicky Kane is an established Wellington based multi-media artist. Nicky asked me to reproduce one of her paintings as well as a pen and ink work of a native bird that she will be offering for sale.  As an artist I understand how important it is to reproduce colours accurately as close as possible to the original artwork. I was able to work with Nicky to achieve a print result that captured her stunning original. 


Diamond by Nicky Kane
Giclee Print on Epson Hot Press Bright Paper 

You can find out more about Nicky's work for Brave Art here :
http://www.braveartnz.com/nicky-kane--bette-cosgrove.html

You can contact her and see more of her inspirations and art work on her facebook page, Taking Issue, here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taking-ISSUE/676687949073090?ref=profile

Photo preservation and digital restoration references

On the 18th of August I gave a talk to the Wellington Southern Bays Historical Society in Island Bay about Photo preservation and digital restoration.  I thought it might be useful if  I put all the references I gave out in the talk in one place:

Where to get archival storage boxes and enclosures in NZ

Port Nicholson Packaging in Petone:

http://www.pnp.co.nz/

Conservation supplies in Havelock North

http://www.conservationsupplies.co.nz/

General archiving information

The practical archivist blog has useful information about archiving and sorting your family photos and heritage items

http://practicalarchivist.com/

Both archives NZ and TePapa have information on their sites about sorting and looking after photographs


Useful references for dating photographs

For photographic processes  http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

Also Gawain Weavers' site contains a very useful chart which you can use to help identify the photographic processes employed in 19th Century Photographic prints

http://gawainweaver.com/processID

For NZ photographers since 1840 - the photographic database link is:

http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/DigitalLibrary/resourcepages/photographersdatabase.aspx?RD=~/DigitalLibrary/topicpages/photography.aspx

RogerVaughan  updated reference to this site 
http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/dec/dated.htm

Some links on clothing styles and fashions
http://www.fashion-era.com/Dating_Costume_History_Pictures/how_to_date_photographs_top.htm

http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/1870-victorian-photo-gallery.php