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My new book "The House and the Cape"
I've finished up a body of work, and self-published it in a new book, titled "The House and the Cape".
It consists of photos of my wife's family home on Cape Cod, and the landscapes and seascapes that surround it.
Although not intended as such, the book stands as an elegy for the family's home, as it was recently sold after four generations.
The photographs were made between 2003-21; I used a 4x5 camera and b/w film. The images in the book were copied from 11x14 prints.
I used Blurb to publish it; you can look it up on their site under "bookstore" by typing in the title. About a third of the book is available to preview there... feel free to purchase a copy!
I've attached a few photos from the book. Enjoy-
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Checked it out
Very nice
Not in my budget for a while
Thank you
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Nice book Mark.
I feel you captured the soul of the place with the details, furnishings & corners.
It makes me sad it has been sold.
Nice tribute.
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Nice book. Did you do anything to get the blacks black?
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Alan, thanks. My procedure was simple. I had made 11x14" prints all along. I set up the copy stand and lights, and photographed the prints with my Nikon D600 and my old-workhorse 55/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. Then edited the raw files in Lightroom, and converted them to jpegs. Those were inserted into Blurb's "BookWright" software to lay the book out. When finished, I sent it off to have a proof copy made. it's an iterative process... I fixed things in the design, and a few typos, but I didn't have to re-do the image files.
I am pleased how well the images turned out, especially when I gave up so much control. The issue, perhaps, was not to "get the blacks black" but to keep deep shadows from blocking up entirely. And while the original prints have tonality and detail that the book images lack, I think that the pictures are well served by the reproductions. There are many ways to go about this... I found a simple way that served the purpose.
Randy, thank you. I don't really expect anyone to buy this very personal project.
Serge, thanks. It was not planned this way, it's a bit bittersweet, but such is life. At least I've finished the project.
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Excellent, Mark. Various relatives have had places on the Cape...one just sold their place on the Jersey Shore and bought a place on the Cape. Only been out there a couple times...pretty cool (visited an Aunt in Mashpee once).
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sampson
Alan, thanks. My procedure was simple. I had made 11x14" prints all along. I set up the copy stand and lights, and photographed the prints with my Nikon D600 and my old-workhorse 55/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. Then edited the raw files in Lightroom, and converted them to jpegs. Those were inserted into Blurb's "BookWright" software to lay the book out. When finished, I sent it off to have a proof copy made. it's an iterative process... I fixed things in the design, and a few typos, but I didn't have to re-do the image files.
I am pleased how well the images turned out, especially when I gave up so much control. The issue, perhaps, was not to "get the blacks black" but to keep deep shadows from blocking up entirely. And while the original prints have tonality and detail that the book images lack, I think that the pictures are well served by the reproductions. There are many ways to go about this... I found a simple way that served the purpose.
Randy, thank you. I don't really expect anyone to buy this very personal project.
Serge, thanks. It was not planned this way, it's a bit bittersweet, but such is life. At least I've finished the project.
That's interesting because I'm working on my first Blurb book - my grandson's first birthday party in color. It came out slightly dark, and some of the shadows are too blocked up. I am going to add more brightness. But I don't know if I should add it to the White or Exposure sliders to make the picture brighter. For the shadows, I'll give a little more with the shadow slider. But it's the overall brightness method I wonder about. Any suggestions?
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Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
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Well, I just winged it... what looked good on my monitor was what I sent. I did notice that in Blurb's "BookWright" software there is a control labeled "enhance image". When I tried it, it brightened up my pictures quite a bit, too far in fact. In Lightroom there are many ways to get similar effects, too; I'm no expert so can't advise there.
Here are a few more images from the book. Not sure how they'll reproduce here!
Re: My new book "The House and the Cape"
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sampson
Attachment 234570Attachment 234571Attachment 234573
Well, I just winged it... what looked good on my monitor was what I sent. I did notice that in Blurb's "BookWright" software there is a control labeled "enhance image". When I tried it, it brightened up my pictures quite a bit, too far in fact. In Lightroom there are many ways to get similar effects, too; I'm no expert so can't advise there.
Here are a few more images from the book. Not sure how they'll reproduce here!
Blurb technician recommended I try "enhance image" first and skip messing with the original edits. I tried it and found that it also sharpens the images as well as lightening them. So when I did a PDF of the changes, there were huge artifacts on the pictures. So I'm back to lightening them up in Lightroom and skipping "enhance image" Apparently, you want to use the enhancement feature at Blurb when you haven't made any edits, to begin with.
