[sevenj]

December 13, 2011 at 10:03 pm

Very nice, I saw the top 2/3s first, beautiful colours and light. Personally I would crop out at least the bottom 1/4. I find the lead in very nice but there’s just too much of it and it distracts from the most pleasing parts i.e the rest of the image.

Well done.

[sevenj]

August 26, 2011 at 5:22 pm

Thanks for the replies!, re. the middle photo, I had in my head about an irish guy who swam across to the island in 2006 (10hrs! I think), i think I left the splashes in to be a reminder of hostile the waters are around here, this was a very calm day. But I’ll include a different shot without spray.

(1 of 1) by johndmurphy, on Flickr

Regarding the last one, there isn’t anything in the shot specific to the settlement, Ithink I just liked the imposing nature of the cliff face
and yes did find the b/w conversion very pleasing, having a polarising filter makes this alot easier.

[sevenj]

June 21, 2010 at 8:01 pm

I don’t have anything online at the mo’. Renovating my home at the present and all things photo have to take a back seat. So far all my contacts from 5×7 have been on printing out paper, as I got some years ago a 5×7 split back frame and couple of boxes of pop from retro-photographic before they stopped making it. It’s handy as you don’t need a darkroom. Though hopefully I shall have some sort of darkroom before the years out. Good luck with your search.

[sevenj]

June 20, 2010 at 9:14 am

I got a burke & james 5×7 last year, it’s pretty managable with 2 or 3 film holders. These are availabe quite cheaply, They are not very well made so one would have to be cautious in buying. As for movements, they are all present but the implemtation is poor. The construction is wood and the locking mechanisms are woeful. As such I really just use it as a rigid camera to produce large negs for contact printing, as is your intention. All three of my 4×5 optics give wide open coverage on this format.

The geared focussing is pretty rough, It may sound like i’m dissing this camera but if you can tolerate it’s shortcomings it’s a very economical route into 5×7. Regards John

[sevenj]

March 29, 2010 at 7:01 am

I have a benro ks 1 in good condition. E65 if you’d like John

[sevenj]

March 21, 2010 at 12:45 pm

Hi, I’d be interested in the head, I’m in need of a large plate head for a LF camera. If you’re willing to split pm me or could do a swop for a benro ks1 head? John

[sevenj]

February 24, 2010 at 10:50 pm

hi, that’s a nice considered composition, i like how the ceiling ties back into the boat. it makes an interesting shape.
Good tonality too. John

[sevenj]

October 14, 2009 at 6:36 pm

lay down small amounts of clear tape, 3m comes of easiest. use this as a guide, it’s important to use small amounts and
clear tape as any reflectivity is taken to be from the negative thus would throw off exposure.

[sevenj]

October 13, 2009 at 10:10 pm

Hi, Well it certainly will be a learning curve and don’t be put off if it takes some time to get consistent scans. I’ll ramble out my workflow –
bearing in mind i don’t use a neg carrier and use silverfast.

for 35mm scan at 2400dpi, any higher on this scanner is just a waste of space, for mf and lf I scan at 1200.
leave sharpening at none, some people scan b/w in rgb colour in the belief that it gathers more info, I’m
not convinced and generally scan in grayscale, the files are much smaller, but for 35mm they’re not too
big anyway. The masks in the neg carrier help the auto exposure thing do its job, but that can often be way off.
I make a manual crop around the selected frame, make an enlarged preview and toggle on/off the auto exp. and ccr
(colour corrections) and decide whether to scan as is or use the levels and curves facility. There is a crude eyedropper]with which you
can check black/white points. Name the file and scan. Listen to music or respond to a post on a forum….

Open the file in the image editor of choice, don’t be too disheartened if it still looks crap. I open straight into lightroom,
levels, curves, colour balance if colour or tone if you like for b/w, I don’t sharpen at all yet, I open a copy with these
adjustments in photoshop and clone out the inevitable specks, I perversely enjoy this part, and do any dodging/burning,
this is saved again and opened in lightroom and sharpening applied.

I’m sure my workflow could be improved and i’m open to suggestions, but it does the job for me.
you will spend some time learning your own way. Stick with it and post up some results.

[sevenj]

October 8, 2009 at 10:01 pm

“How do you find the film holders out of curiosity” Pap. I just set the neg on the glass and put late glass on top, I haven’t done any tests as to whether or not
I’m losing any sharpness due to focus. I like having the film rebate visable and the holders crop slightly. I’m gonna get round to filing them down sometime, but
as most of my stuff recently is large i haven’t bothered. But using glass as a pressure plate gives another 2 surfaces to clean and re-touch. Bummer

[sevenj]

October 8, 2009 at 7:39 pm

hi damien, I’ve had this scanner for about a year- I got it cheapish c. €150 thru work and found that it does an acceptable job. I used it for
scanning mainly 6×6 though it’s grand for 35mm for web, I’ve printed 8×10″s from some 35mm scans and consider them acceptable.
In the las t8 months I started shooting 4×5″ and scan them in two sections and stitch in ptgui, it’s a less than ideal situation but will do
till I can convince myself to get an epson V700.

You’ll find it will take some time to get to know the scanner software, the canon gui is v. user friendly but the bundled silverfast software,
while looking rough gives more control. You can check out examples of scans on my flickr. All of the film was scanned on the 8800f.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndmurphy/show/ Any other questions just ask and good luck. John

[sevenj]

August 19, 2009 at 5:19 pm

hi damien, I got a 8800f last year, it’s fine for web stuff and comes bundled with silverfast software which has a dated gui but gives more control
over scanning options than the canon version. I found the neg holder a bit faffy so i tape to the platen.

any other questions just ask.

[sevenj]

August 18, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Thats why expensive filter manfacturers like lee justify their cost. Cheaper filtration usually have unwanted casts, this is especially evident in nd filters which should have
no discernable colour cast – the problem is exacerbated by stacking. You don’t say what filters you’re using, I got ‘hitech’ nd grads from a place in the uk, and found hoya
was good also, these are relatively low cost options. Cokin seem to have a reputation for inaccurate filters but i have little experience of them.

[sevenj]

August 18, 2009 at 6:30 pm

I’ve got one of those nikon zooms, i never use it anymore on my d200, but i have a 50 1.8e and a 28mm 3.5 and use them quite often on it. They should work fine on a d200/d300
and with little or no modification they could work on other nikon dslrs. Of course you would loose metering, but for slow paced shooting like landscape/stilllife this is no biggie.

In these cases i prefer to focus manually anyhow, and manual focussing on a 50 1.8e is much nicer than on nikons newer prosumer zooms, unless you’ve got a good budget I’d say hang on to the primes. John

[sevenj]

August 18, 2009 at 6:21 pm

I prefer the monochrome versions. for me they seem to emphasise the textures and are easier on the eye than the colour versions.
Composition looks good too. John