How much post-processing do you do ?

Darrel, Digital ICE does soften the image ever so slightly, but a little USM restores it again. If you scan many col negs or slides it can save hours of spotting -- many of the labs I've used leave a lot of crud and scratches on the negs. ICE doesn't work with traditional B&W films like Tri-X. I process my own and they're pretty clean when I scan them. Not much touching up to do.

I don't have an inkjet photo printer -- when I want prints I upload them to a service that prints them on standard photographic paper. My B&W's look pretty good using that process -- I won't say as good as a custom darkroom print, but close.

Gene
 
Dear Richard, wow those links are great!! Maybe that's what Lenswork uses in their "hybrid" printing too. I"ve been wondering for the longest time, just what does Lenswork use which they promote so much about. I think the technology is great! It not only allows traditional print quality but more imptly, allows the traditional industry to still survive!

But interestingly tho, one site says they use ilford BW papers, yet with the closure of ilford BW paper section I wonder what does this spell in the future? is the demand still not great enuff commercially?
 
Dear Gene, I have tried printing onto standard colour photo paper from photolabs, and the one thing that really bugs me is that its really hard to get pure blacks, instead I get blue blacks (no pun intended!), brown blacks, maroon blacks, etc. And I may be fussy here, but I really like the look of fibre based paper. but I have to admit, its so much easier to PS and print at the photolab than to trial and error in the darkroom which can be really really frustrating at times (not to mention costly!).
 
Although I have both a film and a flat bed scanner, I've recently discovered the delights of lab-made CDs. Now I get my film processed, with a CD of all the frames, in an hour and I only need to scan anything I want to print really big, which hasn't happened yet! For posting or sending to friends, the CD images are just fine.
 
Same here. I stop printing my photos long ago and I am a hybrid film photographer. I shoot in film but display my work digitally. I feel that I could reach out to more audience this way. I am in the process of compiling an e-book on Singapore nurses. :)
 
That's a great bunch of answers guys, thanks everybody for their answers and contributions !! :)

With XP2, I get a CD with scans that by now are pretty decent and they deliver scratch-free negs as well. I guess in this case it's a good thing the store is operated by a mid-aged photographer and his wife. The store is of a well known franchise (QSS) but C41 and scanning is done there, no need to send things out.

Peter, please let us know when we could see some preliminars on that book !! :)
 
Hi Taffer,

Perhaps when it is ready I send you a CD of it? :) In fact I am really tempted to do a 1 year project on Singaporeans in the spirit of Robert Frank's 'The Americans'. :)
 
Peter said:
In fact I am really tempted to do a 1 year project on Singaporeans in the spirit of Robert Frank's 'The Americans'.
Click to expand...
Go for it Peter! Nothing like a really good project to keep you actively shooting!

Gene
 
I use the dust and scratch removal feature of Photoshop. I will use the intensity mapping feature (curves) to bring out the intended portion of the picture rather than the burned out portions that send so many automatic printers and auto-gain control mechanisms into the abyss. These are all things that can be done in a traditional darkroom. I try to match colors with the original negative/print as much as possible. I hold myself to a 15% increase in saturation when the scanner has washed out the scan, using a 5x7 machine print as a guide.

That is now, this is then: The 1980's: I used to write all of my own code for image processing and image recognition. I even got a paper published with Nina (she gave me credit) on some of the techniques for finding cancer cells in microscope slides. That was my regular "Honey-DO list" for years, "Honey, I need an object recognition subroutine".

FFT's, scene metrics, image implantation, scene generation,automatic artifact removal, pattern recognition, and get paid for it! For fun I wrote a program that read in the Wolfenstein image file, decodes it, and substituted pictures of my Cats in all of the framed pictures of the scenes. I even put them behind bars in the Jail. It found the Color Palette and mapped all of my 24-bit pictures into the games color palette using a 3-D Histogram. All the bad things that come from using SLR's, right?
 
I don't. Found a great lab in town. No time or space. However, I will be getting the darkroom up & going soon. Large one @ work. Just needs an enlarger.

Russ
 
When I had a wet photo lab, I did many of the same things which one can do with photoshop type programs. Including combining elements from multiple images. Of course there is the staples such as exposure control, contrast control, cropping, dodging, and burning. Comes back to ethics. To represent your work honestly. If the image is a cobbled together impression, then it should be represented as such. Photographers, unlike painters have a higher duty to be open with how thier images were created. Everyone knows a painters works is an interpetation but with Photographs, things are not so concrete. If we present photographic interpetations as reality, fooling the public for a time, it won't be long before all photographs are seen as works of fiction. So we should use our editing programs to our best ability, but don't hold up the work for something it is not. Personally I tend to like my photographs much the way I exposed them. But I will rotate, crop, and make adjustments for brightness and contrast trying for the most pleasing effect.
 
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