Sunday, July 10, 2016

DIGITAL Trip Shots #1

For the first time on any of my Asian trips I tried shooting serious digital photos, OUCH no film! I wanted to see what I could do with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24mm F1.4 lens. This is what I got! Still have lots to learn with this tool.

It seems so weird to not have negs for these images, makes me feel a bit sad. Still it is nice not to have to clean up all the little hairs and dust spots you get with scanning negs, especially 35mm like these.

Note* Am very limited in what I can do in photoshop, much more comfortable in a darkroom. With these digi images this was the best work I could do, no cropping or collages allowed. Only converted them to b/w, pumped up the sharpness a dad, burned, dodged and adjust brightness/contrast (sort of like in a darkroom). If I do more digi work in the future with the Canon I will need to improve my photoshop technique. I need to find out the best way to handle blown out white highlights which is common on things like thousands of white bags in bright sunlight in the dump.
Note** The images in this blog are all low res versions, I have higher end RAW files on my hard drives. Not sure how big these could be printed if needed, but probably quite big.
Note** I would like to thank my friend Larry for teaching me about this camera lens combo and inspiring me with his world class photography.
Update* I think the digital stuff is going well enough to continue working with this camera system. I hate not having a negative thou! I wonder if I can get some kind of film recorder happening allowing me to print these type images in a real darkroom.
Update** Looking at these 10 first choices and how I worked with them in photoshop. I think in the future I need to tone down the contrast some and let the longer tonal scale of a digital negative come out. I tend to print heavier grain and contrast with my 35mm Tri-x neg shots,  I am not sure that works best with these new 100% digital files.

Dump pigs, Mae Sot Thailand April 2016
Young boy in dump, Mae Sot Thailand April 2016
Groom with daughter in the dump, Mae Sot Thailand April 2016
Khune Anapon homeless man, Bangkok Thailand March 2016
Khune Ooh homeless lady cooking rice, Bangkok Thailand March 2016
2 young boxers, Klong Toey slum gym, Bangkok Thailand April 2016
75 year old sailor telling me tales of his amulets, Thailand April 2016
Young boxer Klong Toey slum gym, Bangkok Thailand March-April 2016
Bald man in Klong Toey slum, Bangkok Thailand March--April 2016
Young Burmese sailor bathing on his boat,  Thailand April 2016