Handcolored negatives to debut at Celebrate the Arts

Varying degrees of success getting the saturation I want with neutral black and white surrounds. With the exception of the yellow rose...that was purely an exercise in color contrasts and pen point vs broad side coloring to build texture.  I think it all worked, 'cept the first.  Am slowly learning that it isn't exact opposites on the color wheel when scanning hand colored black and white negatives to make them into positives.

A bit on scanner settings. I do scan max DPI with the Epson Perfection V600.  I scan from the profession mode where I can get the best control of the final output.  The max DPI is 12800 which even from a small negative yields huge files...along the order of 50-70 megs depending on the detail in the image.  I chose the scan in 48 bit color to capture all the subtleties of the color I apply to the negatives.  I still use the Black and White film as type as opting for "color negative" gives it all a ghastly orange tint that simply can't be corrected out.

File resizing for image size and usable dpi for images is done with the help of Adobe CS5. While we are on the topic of CS5, have I mentioned recently how much I love the "spot healing brush tool"?  Its simply magic and is the most useful tool in working with scanned negatives and "spotting" out rough spots in the color or removing dust particles.  No matter how clean I keep things there still is dust that makes it into the scan...microscopic stuff that I can't really see until the scan is blown up, yet the tool removes it and blends in the scene perfectly.

These images will be appearing in the trusty satchel of images and possibly framed for the coming Monrovia Association of Fine Arts "Celebrate the Arts" to be held on October 8/9 in the heart of Old Town Monrovia in Library Park.  (Monrovia, California, not Libya).

Hand colored negatives for the Celebrate the Arts

I love the impressionistic look of these images.  Color that is translucent overlayed on a sharp crisp image below.  Adds a dreamy quality to them.  Agree?

You can see them at Celebrate the Arts, dry mounted and all set to go in my satchel of goodies to dig through.

Celebrate the Arts is in its 48th year.  It is hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts and will take place October 8&9.  More details HERE.  Come see me and all the terrific artists that will be there.

The joy of hand color negatives

In theory using the opposite color on the color wheel will get you the color you want.  In this case for reasons unknown that theory didn't work.  I used a nice shade of green expecting red and got purple.  I still like the result, note how the bleed beyond the signpost seems to make it glow.

This is part of the experimental hand coloring of negatives to add artificial color to a monochromatic scene that I have been working on over the last few months.

The scene was shot on Tri-X pan, developed in 1:1 D76 for max details and contrast range.  The finished negative was hand colored with a Crayola brand "super tip" marker then scanned with an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner at max dpi.  Adobe's photoshop was used to resize the file for printing and publication (like this web sized image).

It will be one of several hand colored negatives printed for the satchel of loose prints at the coming Celebrate the Arts.  I'll be in a space right on the sidewalk near the corner of Lime and Myrtle in Library Park here in Monrovia CA 10/8-9.  Come see me and my work in person that weekend.

See me at Celebrate the Arts in 2 short weeks

Its coming and coming fast.  Much to do to be ready for the Celebrate the Arts hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts.  It will be held in the heart of Old Town Monrovia in Library park located at 321 S Myrtle Avenue here in good ole Monrovia, CA.  It will be on October 8 and 9 from 10AM until 6PM.

The image "Spring Bouquet" will be one of my featured images at the show.  It started life as a high resolution digital file that I reworked in the Orton Style.  This involved numerous steps creating masks and such to creat the off color, partially out of focus view of the world that only a Lomograph can do.  Of course if you are using a real toy camera such as a Diana and good old silver based films you can create such an image with only a quick click of the shutter button and scan in the resulting image.  I have to do things the hard way.

Regardless, enjoy the quick sneak peak at what I will be showing at Celebrate the Arts.

A little time at the LA County Fair

I spent a little time at the LA County Fair the other day.  They had a great little history of neon signs exhibit up. Some cool stuff, of course this one wound up being my favorite.  Have an older folding camera similar to that in the sign, problem being is that I just can't get film for it anymore.  :(

Right now its all about getting prepared for the Celebrate the Arts fair being hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts here in Monrovia CA.  Its a great little fine art event that is well attended and everyone seems to do well...or as well as anyone can do given the current state of the economy.  More on it HERE.

I'll have quite a bit of new stuff to add to the hamper of loose items as well as newly framed for this show.  That is what I'm doing now...printing stuff for mounting and framing.

Hope to see you all there on October 8-9.

A little low light action photos

I have a bit of a dilemma here.  I love low light and abhor flash.  Making matters more difficult at the Ventura Raceway this past Saturday is the protective fence that keeps cars from flying into the stands also buggers up the auto-focus on the camera as the camera wants to focus on that stationary fence rather than the action.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to focus on fast moving cars manually in low light?  Buggers I tell you.

Regardless, I did get some images that were usable from the races.  The highest ISO (1600) my camera can go to is also a bit noisy, most noticeable in the shadows when viewed at maximum size.  That ISO isn't as high as some of the newer DSLR's can achieve but does yield satisfactory handheld images. The ISO limits speeds to under 1/100 second which yields blurred images of the fast moving cars...not a bad thing when you are trying to convey their speed on the track.

More pics in my flickr set.

Thanks to all who voted for me.

Color me humbled and tickled pink. This little art blog, all about what I do and how I get there made it into the semifinals for voting in the Most Valuable Blogger Awards 2011 run by KCBS here in LA.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll be updating with more images very soon now that the dust is beginning to settle with a bunch of projects I have had up in the air of late.  (Look for more examples of hand colored Black and White work in particular).

Its been all about cars the last few days.

I've been shooting, some B&W but need to finish the roll so it will be a short bit before I get to that part. Funny how it works, not like the digital realm where you just offload immediately and not have to worry about "finishing" the roll.

This week has been busy over at SoCalAutoBlog. So much so that its been at the expense of everything else I need to be doing. Its a good thing to be busy, just would like a little balance in the deal. Today was the 21st Annual Street Rods Forever car show here in Monrovia and spent my morning there.

The three images here are HDR images. Today was just a crappy day for car shooting...overcast and dull shadows. It may be an even overhead light but it still sets you up to lose shadow detail. This saved the day. The HDR post processing was done with Adobe's CS5 and is a stupid easy process. Pick the frames, the blending (I chose photo realistic) and voila you are done.

More from the day in my flickr set.