"Going Away"

[ShortlinesUSA]

Yep, that's right-- March 2017, and still shooting slide film...

[Grewup on the CW]

Originally Posted by ShortlinesUSA

Yep, that's right-- March 2017, and still shooting slide film...

Well I be... Cool old school stuff. If you retry the pic, maybe put a splash of sunshine on the shiny dark black underside/trucks.

[Wendel Moran]

Originally Posted by Noct Foamer

There's an old saying: "If your photo lacks impact, move in closer." Kent in SD

A friend of mine used to state that a bit differently, but with the same meaning: "When in doubt, zoom in, not out."

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by ShortlinesUSA

Yep, that's right-- March 2017, and still shooting slide film...

And it looks like it. That image is full of issues.

[ShortlinesUSA]

Originally Posted by JimThias

And it looks like it. That image is full of issues.

That's about as helpful as tossing a 50-page report back on an employee's desk and saying "This needs work."

Care to elaborate? I find the biggest issue with scans is that the compression applied by the site brings out some flaws (that is, the scan looks better than what winds up on the site). Same for some digital shots from what I hear.

Admittedly, even though relatively young to be shooting film, I am pretty well stuck in analog. I have Photoshop 7 (full version) but beyond contrast, color balancing, clone stamping, and sharpening, I don't know or use any of the other tools. If there are any you would recommend to make my scans look better, I'm all ears and willing to learn.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by ShortlinesUSA

That's about as helpful as tossing a 50-page report back on an employee's desk and saying "This needs work."

Care to elaborate? I find the biggest issue with scans is that the compression applied by the site brings out some flaws (that is, the scan looks better than what winds up on the site). Same for some digital shots from what I hear.

Admittedly, even though relatively young to be shooting film, I am pretty well stuck in analog. I have Photoshop 7 (full version) but beyond contrast, color balancing, clone stamping, and sharpening, I don't know or use any of the other tools. If there are any you would recommend to make my scans look better, I'm all ears and willing to learn.

Sorry, man...just trying to do my best Troy impression.

Anyway...spots, spots, and more spots!

[ShortlinesUSA]

Copy, copy.

[Decapod401]

Originally Posted by ShortlinesUSA

Admittedly, even though relatively young to be shooting film, I am pretty well stuck in analog. I have Photoshop 7 (full version) but beyond contrast, color balancing, clone stamping, and sharpening, I don't know or use any of the other tools. If there are any you would recommend to make my scans look better, I'm all ears and willing to learn.

Mike,

Due to some setbacks in working for a series of startups, I've been financially bound to film for longer than I would have liked. Now that I've found a stable full-time gig, I'm anticipating getting a D750 starter DSLR this spring. If you can, go digital - I think you'll be happier in the long run.

I have never learned much in the PS realm, but I think that you may like Lightroom - fooling with PS always frustrated me. With that said, I heard criticism of mine and other's film work that the skies were pixelated. With every image that I fully process, I now use the selection wand and blur all of my skies. It takes extra time, especially when there are power lines in the background, but it does minimize the spots.

[ShortlinesUSA]

I appreciate that input, Doug. You're right-- sharpen the image enough to make the train look right and the sky looks like a Lite-Brite. And I have more friends using Lightroom than anything.

Sticking with film here is a personal choice, knowing myself all too well. At the ripe old age of 46, I know without a doubt I will not modernize with the times and update my files every time a storage media becomes obsolete (I can see myself in the Liberal, KS public library because it has the last computer with a CD-ROM reader). When I'm old and subsequently dead, you'll at least be able to hold my slides up to the sky and see what I did.

Secondly, the slides are actually a hobby. Holding the results of a day's work in hand, cataloging them, and filing them are just as much part of my hobby as getting trackside and taking the photos.

I know film and its development are not the future of photography; I still debate what I'm going to do when the last E-6 developer throws in the towel. But then again, Ektachrome is coming back. Who knows.

Hope to see you trackside sometime. Love your work here and on Flickr.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by ShortlinesUSA

Secondly, the slides are actually a hobby. Holding the results of a day's work in hand, cataloging them, and filing them are just as much part of my hobby as getting trackside and taking the photos.

Whenever the choice was organizing slides versus going out and shooting more, going out for more won every time!

Nowadays, my two PCs and three external drives are highly organized. On the other hand, my slide collection remains absolute chaos.

[Decapod401]

Originally Posted by miningcamper1

Whenever the choice was organizing slides versus going out and shooting more, going out for more won every time!

Nowadays, my two PCs and three external drives are highly organized. On the other hand, my slide collection remains absolute chaos.

That has been a long-standing debate - how to organize the slides. I was pretty good about labeling them, but they went back into the yellow boxes after that. The "old heads" in the Allentown area turned me onto coin boxes. These boxes, made for coin mounts, that are about the size of a slide, can hold about 200 slides. Now, most or my slides are sorted by RR/subject, and I can usually lay my hands on a slide fairly quickly.

As I digitize my slides, I'm entering all pertinent data into an Excel DB, so I can find an image with little effort.