Ok guys, this is just a very short post with some sample images I just recently shot in Newport Beach Southern Clifornia. The Lensbaby Edge 50 optics together with the Composer Pro II has been the latest addition the my Fuji X-series lens lineup. I every wanted to own one of those lenses to add a certain mysterious effect to my photographs. Then after Lensbaby announced a massive sale on this baby, I could not resist any longer. I will do a more detailed review on this lens in an upcoming post, but as it was very hard for me to find sample images taken with this lens and any kind of Fuji X-Series camera I thought I share them really fresh for everyone who is interested in this lens as well.
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The Power of Photographs
Why authenticity matters
The power of a photograph compared to a painting comes from its ability to replicate a scene in a believable manner. A simple click and a scene has been captured. The nature of photography relies on the illusion of reality. When people look at photographs they believe what they see and feel it shows a true moment of time. Photography collects light and the technical process is similar to how our brain receives information from our eyes. The success of photography is closely connected to the ability to provide the viewer an illusion of reality. This visual quality could be called authenticity [from Wikipedia: Authenticity concerns the truthfulness of origins, attributes, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.] in regards to the original quality of photographic material to replicate an illusion of reality.
Read MoreSketches of Solitude - Alcatraz
#fujifilmacros #filmsimulation - Alcatraz, Bay of San Francisco
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The Brave and the Bold
It is warm and humid. The rain showers in the morning included some strong thunderstorms, but now the rain is gone and I am waiting in the lobby of my hotel in Delhi. India has always been fascinating, a place full of strong and bold impressions. The summer is hot here and during winter people often fight the cold especially during the night. The harsh and diverse environmental conditions influence their daily life. I am heading for the INA market, an accumulation of many stands that form a huge open market. It will be a short documentary project that shows how people live here in Delhi.
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Jama Masjid
Flickr is not dead
Why I am returning to my terribly neglected Flickr stream and not setting up an Instagram account
How often do you hear critical voices when it comes to Flickr. The dinosaur of photo sharing has become less important over the ascent of Instagram, Snapchat and co. What once was the only and probably best photo sharing site has gone through a tough renewal and rejuvenation and might now be able to attract old friends again. This is my story why I am returning to Flickr.
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New Analog Prints from MeinFilmLab - Test
C-prints from @MeinFilmLab
I have written about MeinFilmLab before and I personally have a lot of respect of what the team around Jörg Bergs has achieved over the last two years. The lab was literally established from scratch and what began in his basement has now grown to a already renown photolab that offers a complete workflow for the modern analog photographer. I don´t know the exact numbers but I would not be surprised if the MFL already handles the big amount of analog film development in Germany. But who cares about numbers. As we all know, the photographic workflow needs a final output which is in most cases a print. While we are often happy with displaying photos on our smart phones and tablets, there is a certain fascination of a physical print.
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Fujifilm Acros in Hong Kong
Acros Filmsimulation
One of the coolest new features of the latest generation of Fujifilm x-series cameras is certainly the Fujifilm Acros black and white film simulation. On my last trip to Hong Kong I tested this simulation a bit. The Fujifilm engineers put a lot of effort into the algorithm for this film profile. The tonal value distribution is very specific and is providing wonderful black and white images.
Read MoreBetween The Light (Book)
It has been a long project, but in the end I was not even sure if I am ready to wrap it all up and call it quits. What begun as a simple exploration and not really a project has evolved to a big collection of images that I have gathered over a time period of almost 4 years. I spend these four years with traveling and walking [...]
Read MoreOptimum Resolution & Sharpening Settings for Epson Scanners
How to get the most out of your Epson V700, V750, V800 or V850
Have you ever wondered what would be the best settings for your scans with an Epson flatbed scanner? Well, there are two ways of getting those values and one of them is a s simple as reading this blog post. I did some testing with an USAF 1951 resolution target and I will share my findings with you. These settings work great on my scanner, with my mounting solution and chances are that they work for your flatbed scanner as well. Of course the optimal way of doing it, is investing some time and money and do your own tests. In this blog post I will explain what is required to do the tests and provide you with the link to some more detailed explanations. So it is totally up to you if you want to do your own tests or play around with my settings and see if they work for you.
Read MoreColor Negative Scanning Example No.2
Back again with a color negative film scanning example. I had to re-scan this image for a book project as the lab scan did not have enough resolution for the book and therefore I thought this would be an intersting example for everybody interested in scanning film.
In the video I show the steps I do in SilverFast HDR Studio. SilverFast HDR Stduio works with linear scans and if you are interested in how you make these scan check my previous blog post for a detailed explanation.
Read MoreHow to make linear scans with SilverFast 8.8
This is going to be a short post. In order to use SilverFast HDR Studio as an archival workflow solution as well as for a optimized FineArt workflow I find the idea of creating linear scans fascinating. What we basically do is splitting the workflow into two parts. First is the scanning process and second the post-processing that is required for every scan. During the scanning we make sure that we capture all relevant data from film. In order to do so, we do not alter the data in any way and we save the file as a linear 16bit Tiff file.
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The Battle with Dust & scratches 2.0
LaserSoft Imaging SRDx Plugin Review
Everybody who is developing film at home knows that dust is your worst enemy and while it is surely the best practice to avoid getting dust on your negatives, it seems like a fight that we cannot win. In the end there are always small dust particles on the film which we need to be cloned out during post-processing after scanning. If you print in the darkroom you have no other choice than cleaning your negatives carefully before putting them into the enlarger. Canned air and dust blowers as well as small brushes are your best weapon if you want to avoid the elaborate manual retouching process. Digitally we have other tools available. Among the clone and healing tools in Photoshop we can also work with filters. These filters target defects and blend these defects into the surrounding pixels. Photoshop has its own "Dust & Scratch" filter which already works nicely. Of course you cannot expect magic and manual retouching with the afore-mentioned tools is always required especially for larger defects as the filters have a harder time to deal with them. LaserSoft Imaging, the company behind SilverFast has recently released a Photoshop plugin for this task. Everybody who is using their scanner software might have noticed a new filter which is called SRDx. This filter especially targets defects that cannot be detected by hardware based infrared dust and scratch removal.
Read MoreThe City Inside The City
In the middle of Singapore's Business District lies the busy and very interesting neighborhood of Tanjong Pagar. The name is Malay and means "cape of stakes". It was once an enclave for Chinese and Indian dock workers and has become a colorful and multifaceted district. In the middle of this neighborhood you find Tanjong Pagar Plaza, a small shopping and merchant site that accommodates the huge housing and apartment complex provided by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
Read MoreCalifornian Summer
A little summer inspiration with this very short travel essay. All taken on film...
Yasshica Electro 35GT / Kodak Ektar 100 / scanned & processed by MeinFilmLab
Read MoreArchiving Slides
A workflow concept using an Epson flatbed scanner and Silverfast HDR Studio.
It has been a while since I posted my last video here. After my visit to Photokina in September I realized how many photographers see digitalizing their archive of slide film as a big challenge. I do agree that it is a time consuming task, but the reward of having the complete body of work on the hard drive is worth it in my opinion.
In this video I introduce a concept that includes Silverfast HDR studio. The scanning part of the workflow will be detached from the processing part and this will make the whole process absolutely future proof.
Read MoreTiger Striped Skies
Tiger Striped Skies
My new series showing the cultural and social contrasts in a contemporary Asian city. Modern architecture is dominating the cityscape, but between the fascinating buildings, we find traces of human life. The cold and clean architectural masterpieces surround various social communities and all the people who are living here, sharing the place and adapting to the new challenges.
Photographs taken during day and night by Sebastian Schlueter
Read MoreLamma Island and the Village of Yung Shue Wan
Escaping the bustling city life of Hong Kong is as easy as hoping on a ferry and take a comfortable 30 minutes ride from Central to the city of Yung Shue Wan. The small village lies on one of the many outlying islands called Lamma Island that belong to the territory of the city state. The moment you arrive on the island you probably immediately understand that this island and the community living here is different to other places in Hong Kong. There are no cars and apartments are restricted to be built within an area of 800 square feet per floor.
Read MoreColor Negative Workflow - Example No.1
This will be a short video, that shows how quick and easy a workflow for scanning color negative film can be.
Read MoreAnalog Portrait Workshop with Jesse Struyvelt
Supported and organized by MeinFilmLab Germany
Choosing a workshop is not easy. Many photographers and self acclaimed photo experts offer workshops these days and I suggest that most of these workshops are either ineffective, boring or aim at beginners. The most important aspect to look at when choosing a workshop is obviously the photographer who is conducting the workshop. This does not necesseraily mean it should be one of the big names, but it should be a person that has something valueable to tell. I don´t attend workshops often, but when I learned about the workshop conducted by Jesse Struyvelt happening during the Summer Festival of the MeinFilmLab, I was immediately hooked. No doubt I wanted to join.
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