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Efcubed Photography bio picture

Welcome to the Efcubed Photography Blog!

Roger A. Dallman Jr.    Roger started in photography in 1979, as a secondary job in the Army.  He shot "grip and grins" and Army events.  He began shooting portraits and weddings on the side for extra camera gear money.  He won several photo contests and an Army journalism award.  After career assignment changes, he put the cameras aside and sold his darkroom equipment. In 2006, he bought his first digital camera before a trip to Europe and was hooked again. 

Today he is a dedicated Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop user-advocate and NAPP member.  He is active in photography groups and teaches digital darkroom techniques.  He prefers to shoot portaits away from seamless paper and static lighting.  He is also a photo retoucher and restores old photos - a handy skill when working on his genealogy hobby.

Mark B. Segal.    Mark started shooting when he was 13 and has done it off and on since then.  As a Navy brat and then Naval Officer, I got to go to interesting places.  I wish I had taken my camera more often.  I love the way the camera allows you to dissect the world and shape what people see of it.  Photoshop and Lightroom are great tools to help capture what you thought you saw from behind the lens. 

I love helping people salvage and restore their photographic memories as links to their past.  The patience and dedication needed are usually far beyond what the images are worth, except to the person who owns the picture.  Seeing the smile or tears from when you've brought back an image from the cracked, torn and faded pile is a reward in and of itself. 

Bring back those nice bright colors

Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 9:37pm Posted in Rambling

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day…

 Paul Simon

 

Well what happens when those nice bright colors have all faded to a dull shade of gray?  As I am working through scanning all my family slides and negatives for the last 50 years, I keep seeing what happens when sunlight, time and imperfect chemistry fade the pictures.  Luckily for us, bringing back those colors takes just a few moments and will thrill and amaze.   I have a very low amusement threshold.

 

In most editing programs these days the first thing you have the opportunity to fix and the one which has incredible impact is the White Balance.   The human eye automatically processes the adjustments without even thinking about them.  Our camera sensors don’t yet have that full capability.  Fluorescent lights cast a green tone on skin, yet we see people looking normal—well as normal as they can be.  Tungsten lights are blue, etc, etc.

 

Here is a nice example of a fresh from the scanner old photograph from 1963 in Hawaii.

 Xmas 1963

 

 

 

 

 

  I can assure you the colors did not look like that. 

 So a quick adjustment of the color temperature, by finding a point that should be a nice neutral gray, like the curtains and a slight additional tweak and …

 Xmas 1963-2

 

 

 

 

 

An image the way that it should look, is restored.  

Next time, restoring really faded black and white pictures is just as easy.