Memories, Tucked Between the Pages of my Mind . . .

Not too bad for a 60 year old slide. I’m the tall blonde. c. 1957/8

After a lengthy wait, today I received a link to the scans of 850 of my dad’s slide, which I had sent off for processing in late September. To say I am happy with the results would be a lie. Part of it is my fault. I didn’t adequately clean some of them. Who knew 60 year old lint could stick so well to the surface of a slide. And I did send some knowing that they were not great shots, but I didn’t have the desire to scan them myself and it is so hard to tell looking through a slide viewer.

Tall Blonde Again, c. 1958

But the overall result of many of the scams is not great. The focus is soft too on many of the,m the contrast is harsh, the colors shocking. Of particular note are the 50 or so slide scans that have a bright pink/magenta cast. I know they were not pink when I sent them; I looked at each slide twice to eliminate the really bad ones. If the scanning company has turned the originals a bright pink/magenta, I will be very unhappy. I know that some slides were on Ektachrome slide film. I’m wondering if that could have made the difference, depending on the color balance settings of the scanners the company used. I will have to wait and see.

But I couldn’t resist posting a few good ones that fit the holiday themes this week.

My mom on the left, my Aunt Lucy on the right. c. 1955
I converted this one to B&W to get rid of the red. . 1961

Join the following two challenges this week:

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #128 And Here Comes the Holiday Season…

A Photo A Week Challenge: Christmas

A Lighter Moment of Three

Please Take Me Home

Take Me Home

I needed to smile today—this photo made me happy.  With apologies to K’lee & Dale. 🙂

 

K’lee & Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge: The Power of Three

K’lee & Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge: Toys

Transitory Toys

Bubbles, Transitory Toys, Placa Nova in front of the Cathedral, Barcelona, Spain

K’lee & Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge: Toys

Color Your World 2017: Hot Magenta

Magenta in Miniature

Toys, Christmas Market, Paris, France

Jennifer’s 2017 Color Your World Challenge: Hot Magenta

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Kids with Toys

The Ghosts of Christmases Past

I had to dig way back for some photos so they are not the best quality.  But they make me smile.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Kids with Toys

Imagecraft Bootcamp: Low-Key Images

Toy Lights Go Dark

Low-Key Original

Low-Key Original

Low Key Final

Low Key Final

I decided to give the Imagecraft Bootcamp low-key exercise a shot. The original color image shows a toy booth at the night market near the Buddhist temple in Katagrama, Sri Lanka. I used camera raw to make the adjustments. After converting the original to black and white, I played with the tone curve. I also decreased the intensity of several colors, especially purple (which I moved to zero) and magenta, to create more solid dark spaces. I used the adjustment tool to highlight some of the eyes and faces and the plastic balls. I still wanted to more solid black areas so on the main adjustment menu, I reduced the blacks and increased the shadows. I upped the clarity to 30. Is this what I should have aimed for?

Imagecraft Bootcamp: Low-Key Images

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