Scanner as camera

My son Wynn, Looking more like a creature from John Carpenter's, Sci-Fi/Horror classic, ,"The Thing," than his usual self.

I've always wanted to try and use my desktop scanner for more than just scanning prints, tear sheets and the occasional negative or slide, I wanted to scan 3D objects. I have seen some really nice still lifes created this way, bouquets of flowers, sections of fruit and such but I'm always more interested in images of people.

I began with a few self portraits. The results were not so flattering, my nose was bulbous and even larger than normal and it looked like my ears were on the back of my head! Thinking maybe I should try again but with better subject matter, I called Wynn into my office. I explained to him what I doing and asked him if I could scan his face. Being a typical twelve year old, he was quite eager to be scanner fodder, even after seeing what it had done to me.

The first few scans were kind of funny, Wynn had a nose like a pig, from pressing it to the glass but the "Eureka" moment came when Wynn turned his head during a scan. I liked the result. On the next scan I instructed Wynn to turn his head to one side and wait until the light reached his nose then slowly turn his face to the other side.

Scrooge and Ghost of Christmas Past

Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to
me.' asked Scrooge.

'I am.'

The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if
instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.

'Who, and what are you.' Scrooge demanded.

'I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.'

'Long Past.' inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.

'No. Your past.'

Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend. He then made bold to inquire what business brought her there.

"Your welfare," said the Ghost.

Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:

"Your reclamation, then. Take heed."

It put out its hand as it spoke, and clasped him gently by the arm.

"Rise. And walk with me."

It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle, was not to be resisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.

"I am mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."

"Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit, laying it upon her heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this."

As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen.

- A Christmas Carol, Stave 2: The First of the Three Spirits

Ebenezer Scrooge's Grave

"The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.

'No, Spirit. Oh no, no.'

The finger still was there.

'Spirit.' he cried, tight clutching at its robe,' hear me.
I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must
have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I
am past all hope.'

For the first time the hand appeared to shake.

'Good Spirit,' he pursued, as down upon the ground he
fell before it: 'Your nature intercedes for me, and pities
me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you
have shown me, by an altered life.'

The kind hand trembled.

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it
all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the
Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I
will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I
may sponge away the writing on this stone.'

In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to
free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it.
The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.

Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate aye
reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress.
It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost."
- A Christmas Carol, Stave 4: The Last of the Spirits

Thanks to my neighbor, John, for once again appearing in one of my holiday photographs. He originally appeared as Scrooge in "Ignorance and Want" video that can be seen HERE. John was also Jacob Marley for THIS holiday card. Thanks to Wynn for being The Ghost of Christmas Future. Last year Wynn played the role of The Turkey Fetcher, Tony Hughes was the Poulterer.

Pop Art Portrait

In general my photography style is fairly straightforward. Find a subject, light it simply, follow a few basic rules of composition and shoot. Follow up with basic adjustments in Photoshop and the image either works or it doesn’t.

It’s good to shake things up once in awhile and that’s exactly why I’m taking a class in digital illustration. One of our assignments was to produce a pop-art portrait. Of course, Warhol was the king of pop-art but I drew my inspiration from Roy Lichtenstein. I preferred Lichtenstein’s single images, over Warhol’s repeating images.

Homage to Monet

My son Wynn, his friend Jack, and I participated in the National Wildlife Federations, Great American Campout, hosted by The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. The campout was promoted to get children and parents to turn off their computers, TVs, iPods, cell phones, Wiis, and other high tech devices and spend a night with Mother Nature.

After setting up our camp site, I grabbed my Canon G9 and Gitzo reporter, tripod and we hit the trails. First stop was Springhouse Pond. The reflections in the water reminded me of Claude Monet’s impressionistic paintings of water lilies. I made a series of photographs while Wynn and Jack tried catching frogs.

After processing the image normally, I decided I wanted to make them look even more like Monet’s by using the Match Color feature in Photoshop. I did a search for Monet on Google Images, and found one of his paintings with colors I thought would work well with my pond photos and then copied it to my desktop. I opened the jpeg and my pond photo in Photoshop. Making sure my photo was active, I went to Image> Adjustments > Match Color. In the Match Color menu I selected the Monet jpeg as the source. I played with the Luminance and Color intensity sliders and when I liked what I saw, I clicked OK.

HDR Railroad Car

My family and I where in Scranton over the 4th of July weekend visiting my wife's parents. I decided to go down to "Steamtown National Historic Site" to take some photographs. When I told my wife where I was going she asked "How many photographs of trains do you need?" Her question was not without merit, I have photographed there many times, the decaying engines and rolling stock offer limitless photographic possibilities and are ideal subjects for trying out new equipment and techniques. This time I wanted to try the HDR (high density range)feature in Photoshop, and I knew the interior of a railroad car would be an excellent test subject as it would contain both murky shadows and bright highlights.

HDR merges multiple exposures of the same scene into one image with an expanded tonal range. Using my cameras auto exposure bracketing feature, I was able to make three exposures in rapid succession. The first exposure would be two stops underexposed, the second, properly exposed and the third, two stops overexposed. The idea being that when merged, the extra shadow detail from the overexposed frame and the added highlight detail from the underexposed frame combined with the normally exposed frame would yield an image with a tonal range that would not be possible in a single capture.

While it is possible to hand hold the camera and let Photoshop try to align the exposures it's better to use a tripod for HDR.