Somerset, May 1990

[Musicman]

A small selection of images taken back in May 1990 with a Canon AV-1 and 50mm f/1.8 on Kodachrome slide.

This has been the first complete roll I digitised with my Sony A7 and an FD 50mm macro lens, as outlined in a thread in F&C: Using a Sony A7 as a 35mm film scanner

1.


Wells Cathedral West Front by cybertect, on Flickr


2.


Wells Cathedral West Front by cybertect, on Flickr


3.


Wells Cathedral West Front by cybertect, on Flickr


4.


Wells Cathedral Corbel by cybertect, on Flickr


5.


Chapter House Steps by cybertect, on Flickr


6.


Glastonbury Tor by cybertect, on Flickr

 

[PMN]

All this is seriously making me consider getting a setup like this, I'm seriously impressed!

Just one small comment, are the colours in one or two a little on the vibrant side for Kodachrome? Was that straight out of the camera or did you push the saturation a bit in PP?

 

[Musicman]

I know it looks almost like Velvia, but I didn't touch the saturation.

The second one certainly is very saturated on the original slide; I remember being surprised at it at the time.

I think it's probably due to shooting straight up with the bright-lit stone pushing the exposure down and consequently darkening and increasing the apparent saturation of the sky. It was one of those very clear days you sometimes get in early Summer when everything looks as if you have polarising filter on your eyes.

Edit: I just checked the original RAW file of #2 from the A7 and it had nothing done to it apart from a WB compensation to neutralise any cast from the light source behind the slide (my iPad). Everything else was at Lightroom defaults. The rest were treated fairly gently in LR: mostly an S curve and occasional lifting of the shadows.

I'll confess to using Lightroom to tweak the perspective a little in #1, but it wasn't anything major.

 

[PMN]

I know it looks almost like Velvia, but I didn't touch the saturation.

The second one certainly is very saturated on the original slide; I remember being surprised at it at the time.

I think it's probably due to shooting straight up with the bright-lit stone pushing the exposure down and consequently darkening and increasing the apparent saturation of the sky. It was one of those very clear days you sometimes get in early Summer.

I was actually going to say the second is almost like Velvia! I also wondered whether it could also be just a high shutter speed due to the bright conditions, and I guess it was!

Great results either way.

 

[Jao]

Rob, these are a great set of images in their own right, but add to it the approach you are taking to digitising film and they become even more impressive. I am working with a V500 and a Plustek 7600i, the budget end of the scanning spectrum. Your approach is giving me serious food for thought about the upgrade path!!

Back the the images though, thay are all lovely and saturated ina very natural manner. 2 and 5 stand out as my favourites and I'd be happy to have those on my wall, which is my acid test!

Lovely work all round from a creative and technical perspective, looking forward to seeing more

 

[ChrisR]

Re no 1: G'Osh! (Though when I first saw it, I wondered how the heck you got that particular perspective view, thanks for the explanation!) No 5 is also mysteriously interesting, but so far doesn't float my boat nearly as much as no 1, which is magnificent.

 

[Musicman]

Thanks peeps.

One other point of note that's occurred to me to mention - I'd previously profiled the A7 with an X-Rite Color Passport, which cranked up the blues a little compared with the Adobe Standard profile in Lightroom, though that should, in theory, improve the colour accuracy.

I've also just had one of those horrible moments of realisation that these pictures are now a few months older than I was when I took them - tempus fugit!