Hello, everybody! Trondheim, Norway

[Hovmod]

Tormod here, from Trondheim.
I'm in my 40s, and I'm one of those eager amateurs, you know...

My history with photography has been a mixed bag of being a really bad 35mm photographer with fair b/w darkroom skills and OK technical understanding in the 80s, putting it all behind me through the 90s, and getting progressively more expensive digital gear in the 00s until I suddenly found myself dunking tri-x in Rodinal again and felt so much at home that I sold off all the D stuff and stocked up on real gear...

A range of Nikons was expanded with a Hasselblad 501, then my good photographer friend who's gone 100% digital decided to unload some old equipment on me, and all of a sudden I was the proud owner and obsessive user of a Fuji GX680.

As if that wasn't enough, she sent me a big box of expired film, and a few weeks later she called and asked if I wanted to take over her Sinar!

So now I can never, EVER, blame the equipment for a bad photo.

I'm very new to the Sinar, and have developed less than ten sheets so far. Among those ten were no less than THREE Velvia sheets that I got mixed up with the efke 25 sheets (hey, Efke 25 and Velvia have VERY similar notches, and my LF braille isn't quite there yet...), but I AM getting results, and I am having FUN!

So I thought I'd join your community, hoping to be able to get better at this fine pursuit by osmosis if nothing else.

This would be an example of where I'm at now, scanned at 2400 on a canoscan 8800, two partial scans stitched together.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4908476337_6bdcd81828_b.jpg

(aargh. I just opened the tank, and found that I've developed two unexposed sheets. I need to upgrade my concentration and order. This will become expensive...)

Look forward to learning from you all!

T

[Tim Meisburger]

Well, I've done dumber things than that, several times... (maybe we all have)

Lovely photo. Welcome to the forum.

Tim

[Vick Vickery]

Welcome to group therepy! :) Like all photographers, you will make mistakes...its just part of the game. Have you pulled the darkslide with the lens open yet? Pulled out the film holder before replacing the slide? Held your hat into the picture instead of just shading the lens? See, you're just starting to find out what you can do wrong!

[Hovmod]

Group therapy, indeed...

Hey, Processing Velvia50 in Rodinal as efke 25 didn't turn out too bad, so I'm chalking that up as a partial success... :D

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/4910742562_e216ab1de0_b.jpg

[Eirik Berger]

Velkommen skal du være Tormod!

This forum is really great for all kinds of questions. It has been my place for learning and problem solving. THe "For sale" section is very good too.

[Charles Hohenstein]

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for showing us a new way to use Velvia!

[Hovmod]

Takk, takk, thanks a lot and you're welcome, Charles!
I've already exposed a couple more Velvia sheets that will get intentional Rodinal treatment... :)

[Ezzie]

Hei Tormod, fint sted å fordrive tiden dette. Ser du har fått resultater allerede.

I´m even more of a novice with this sort of photography than you are, so I won´t be giving you advice on anything. There are however some vastly knowledgeable people here, so there´s a lot of knowhow being shared. LF images have a particular intrinsic quality, don´t they? Oh, and I like your results already.

[Hovmod]

Novice?
I've seen your home made hand held, mate... :)

[pound]

welcome. I like both photos. How difficult it is to stitch the 2 scans into one? will there be uneven light areas at where the 2 scans met?

[taulen]

I cant say for what he does, but when I do it on my epson v600, and stitch together with PS cs5 "panorame tool", I almost always get perfect results, until now, I only had to do some light retouch myself on one scan to make the seem "invisible" =) But of course, you have to have a pretty OK computer to do this with bigger files, aka. high dpi, at least when doing it in tiff =) But it works very well.

[Ole Tjugen]

Velkommen Tormod!

You've found the right place here. :)

[Hovmod]

welcome. I like both photos. How difficult it is to stitch the 2 scans into one? will there be uneven light areas at where the 2 scans met?

I use an app called DoubleTake, which has a few options to fix rotation and exposure problems, but yes, it's important you don't let the scanner make too many decisions on its own. The first couple of attempts there was some kind of auto level thing on, which on one occasion separated two halves of a shot by so much it was pointless. White on one was dark grey on the other.
There's a function for stitching in Photoshop as well (I use Elements), but it's more automatic and doesn't let me rotate and fiddle as much. And not having any kind of holder or rails or anything on the scanner the two scans are NEVER completely aligned. Plus I think it struggles with the sheer size of those scans, esp. at high resolutions. I get better (and faster) results with DoubleTake. But I'm a complete newb at this, so I'd get advice elsewhere, tbh. :)

[Hovmod]

Hi, Ole and taulen. Lots of Noggies here, I see.
Funny, I can't say I've stumbled upon many LF people walking around. I see the odd Hasselblad/Mamiya or Leica, but guys under dark cloths? Not really. So where are you guys? In your dark rooms? :)

[Ole Tjugen]

Norway is a large country with a small and scattered population, at least the photogenic part of it.

Also - "walking around" and "LF" is a rare combination, at least for those of us who like using big heavy cameras. I do occasionally walk around with a Speed Graphic, but I don't walk far with an 8x10" camera, tripod, holders, lenses and so on!

[pound]

I use an app called DoubleTake...)

Thanks Tormod. Great.. i may go for the Canonscan 9000f to scan my 4x5 and other 135mm stuff. :)

[pound]

I cant say for what he does, but when I do it on my epson v600, and stitch together with PS cs5 "panorame tool", I almost always get perfect results, until now, ....

orh thanks. will check out if there such a function in my lower version of CS. i like the v750 but cant justify paying for one yet. A canonscan is easier :)