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Legacy Photography


raymac46

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Yeah, yeah I know that most photos are taken and shared these days using a Smartphone. But folks who do this miss out on all the geeky fun of using a real camera. Last month I was out using a 5 year old DSLR with a 30 year old film based lens that I had to manually focus. Now that my eyes were fixed I can manually focus a camera again. And I look like a real photographer, not a doofus.

 

bridge-Nov-2019-1024x576.jpg

 

 

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Nice photo, as always, Ray.

I'll always be just a picture taker rather than a photographer! The artist gene is totally absent in me.

I have lots and lots of old photos and don't want to buy a scanner. I did buy a slide scanner and finally got those 48 year old slides converted to jpg and saved on CDs and USB sticks so I can throw the slides away.

 

Question to anyone that is a photographer or just a picture taker:  I have boxes and bags of old photos and saw I should take a picture with my camera (I'd probably use my 8" tablet) to turn them into jpegs that I can archive.

Has anyone done this? If so, what tips can you offer before I tackle this over the winter months?

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This might be a place where I would actually use a smartphone to make images. Smartphones (at least the good ones) have computational photography capabilities that might keep all of an old photo in focus if it happened to be curled a bit on the edges.

If using an actual camera, I would try it with the macro settings and get as close as possible. Even then depth of field might be a problem. If you could somehow put the photo between two panes of clear glass and obviously avoid flash, it might work. But honestly with the prices of all in one printers these days, a platen scanner is your best bet.

 

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/22726/what-is-the-best-way-to-digitize-old-photographs-for-preservation

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Here is a photo of a very curled calendar image from a series of pics taken for my daughter and her family (not by me.)Calendar.jpg

 

This was with a rather low end Samsung A50 Smartphone camera. So it is possible I guess if you are happy with this quality.

 

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Ironically, today in my weekly android newsletter mentioned this app for an android phone

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos.scanner

 

It looks to be worth trying to get the old pictures digitized. I'll report back after I find the time to do some and see if it works for my needs.

Some of the pictures are really old. (My great grandmother's 50th anniversary and my grandmother's 21st birthday).

 

I'll also try it on the newest all-in-one to see which method I prefer (looks better to my eye).

Edited by zlim
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  • 3 weeks later...

I won't be trying the photoscan app. I searched to see if the pictures are uploaded to google and it appears that they are.

https://www.picturesandstories.com/news/2017/8/4/why-you-should-not-use-googles-photoscan-app-to-scan-your-old-photos

 

Since I have this "feature" turned off on my phone and tablets because I don't want any of my photos uploaded to google, I don't want it turned on.

I'll use the flatbed scanner and from reading it appears that 300dpi is fine for a 4 x 6 black and white photo.

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V.T. Eric Layton

UMMM! Lasagna for Christmas Eve! Now that's my idea of a yummy dinner for that event. Unfortunately, down in my neck o' the woods, the Latins prefer that nasty ol' mojo pork with white rice and black beans. It's not bad. It's just that I've eaten the carp for 50+ years at the family Eve celebrations. I'm ready for something different. :)

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When my mom was still alive and we'd bring her here for Christmas. I made spaghetti pie for Christmas Eve because it was quick to make after we came home from Church.

It has no meat, just like my lasagna so I'd offer sausage and meatballs on the side, like my mother-in-law always did.

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  • 1 month later...

DSC_1326-scaled-e1581463536927.jpg

 

Tried out a 70-300 film lens today. This is an equivalent 450mm telephoto shot from my front porch, looking at the stop sign down at the street corner.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't know if this post should be called "legacy photography" or "silly photography" but I recently resurrected my 20 year old Nikon F80 film camera and have loaded up some very old Fuji film to see if it's still any good.

The camera still appears to work well. Whether the pics will be brutally underexposed using the recommended ISO sensitivity remains to be seen. I am only going to shoot one roll and get it developed and scanned.

There's lots of stuff on the Interweb about the return of film. Millennials appear to have rediscovered analog photography in the same way they have vinyl LPs. Plenty of bumph about how there is joy in waiting a couple of weeks for actual paper prints - so you can see you screwed up exposure or focus. That is supposed to make you a better photographer. I admit I learned this way - and I still take my time and shoot deliberately even with a digital camera. But gimme a break.

  • There are 2 (count 'em) major camera makers who still produce 35mm film cameras - Nikon and Leica. These are expensive boy toys.
  • Most color slide film is gone and you can't get it processed locally anyway.
  • Kodak is winning market share from Fuji but we are talking about 2% of all photographic imaging so it ain't a big market.
  • There is a finite number of used film cameras. The newest ones are 20 years old. The most desirable ones are closer to 40.

My F80 is a fine machine for its time. It has auto everything, easy film loading, can set the film ISO via DX reading. The lenses I have for it are wonderful. But its time has passed. Film was great for 150 years. No longer though.

Edited by raymac46
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