any thing about BetterLight scan back

[Gregory Gomez]

J Michael,

Wow! Fantastic work!

Sorry for gushing and not sticking to the topic at hand. I have book-marked your web site.

Your images are a wonderful blend of artistic freshness and novelty as well as professional polish and flair.

I will pass on your URL to my co-workers in our art department.

[chris jordan]

Hi guys, I'm increasingly interested in supplementing my 8x10 rig with a 4x5 Betterlight back, and am wondering about the specific quirks of using a laptop in the field. Independently of the issues with moving subjects, what are some of the difficulties of shooting with a laptop? I always shoot near a car, so weight/backpacking is not an issue for me; I'm more concerned with problems of batteries, cables, hard drives, dust, boot-up time, pre-scanning, Photoshop in the field, etc. And is there a particularly small laptop that might be purchased specifically for this application?

cheers from Seattle,

~cj

www.chrisjordan.com

[Jack Flesher]

Hi Chris:

The main issues are size, weight, battery life and screen brightness. The BL does not require a high-power machine, only enough to run the excellent Viewfinder software. Also, HD size is irrelevant since the BL controller box houses the drive that stores the captures (40 or 80G).

Size and weight are less crucial if you work from a car, but I pack mine so size and weight were important. Battery life is also important and here smaller helps too. Screen brightness can be easily dealt with since most LF'rs carry a dark-cloth and this can be used over the laptop just as easily as over the camera. In my case, I opted for one of the new 13.1" duo-centrino Sony's with the extra-bright screen and carbon fiber case for lighter weight and added durability. It weighs 3 pounds and is thin enough to stow in my pack between the dividers and rear flap. With it, I can shoot all day on the standard battery with normal on-off shooting cycles and can read the screen in direct sunlight. For boot-time, I just leave my laptop on and close the lid which causes it to hibernate, then it only takes a few seconds to recover from hibernation as opposed to a full boot.

Hope this helps,

[Tudor Vreme]

Chris,
there are some devices have power from battery car, if you want to buy a laptop you can ask for this kind of dedicate device. I'm working with a Apple IBook 12" screen, and I know that they have a charger for car. At Apple the sleep function work excellent, I restart my laptop no more than 4-5 times in a year, the rest of the time is on sleep, and I take with me all the time ( mountains, flyfishing, office)
the 12" is small enough, easy to handle, 4 hours battery without charging.
Hope this helps

[snaggs]

yes the 6K HS is the ideal model.

You will have to deal with "things that move" in your photograph: clouds, people, trees, etc


J Michael Sullivan

How did you achieve this photo with digital and in some kind of colour! It looks like Infrared HIE ? but its colour..?

Daniel.

[David Luttmann]

Daniel,

I only guessing as Michael may have done this a different way, but I do the same sort of thing, getting an artificial color by working with the channel mixer in Photoshop. By inverting the blue and reds, you can get quite an interesting effect.

If you need any further info, let me or Michael know.

Regards,

[Jim collum]

i'm not sure of his exact technique, but if you remove the IR blocking filter (necessary if you want to capture acutal color), then you get both IR and color light being captured by the scanning back. depending on the time of day, and intensity of the sun, the saturation of the color itself can vary. Plants/grasses/leaves will almost always turn out that very pale green color.

jim

[Jack Flesher]

What Jim said...

Here is a familiar shot of Yosemite valley taken with the B/L, IR-blocking filter removed: