matussik

Thank You all for your kind feedback!

I'm glad you see the symbolism Szamot ;-)

best wishes, Jan

Thank You very much for your enthusiastic feedback Alf! Much appreciated. Best regards, Jan

Hi Peter,

30x45 is as far as I went with my scanned slides too and the result is very nice. Larger prints should be realisable too as long as they are not meant to be seen from a close distance I guess. But I have never tried. The sharpening for large prints is something I don't master well at all... I never know how far to go, which radius to choose etc. The latest print I made was better than the firsts as it looks sharper seen from a distance but at full size on screen it looked relatively ugly but you really need to get close to the printed picture to spot it (I've used an on line lab). Best regards, Jan

Shot in the Moroccan Sahara. We were in the middle of nowhere when

those three children appeared in the dunes walking towards us. Your

comments and critiques are greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Jan

Hi Peter,

I have made some tests with the scanner and I have figured out that the option reducing the grain is called "digital GEM"; I had it activated for ages and never touched it... I made some comparative scans raising the strength of the GEM each time, here is the result. What do you think?

Best regards, Jan

Thank You Peter! We had been sleeping out a few 100m away from those dunes and I had spotted this location when we arrived the evening before. I used the time between dawn and sunrise to get back and set up the equipment. I think the clearness of the air is due to the fact that there was no wind at all to raise dust on that morning, no haze neither due to the aridity of this location and its great distance to the sea which is known to create dew in the morning when moistened air masses are blown from the sea over the desert. Best regards, Jan

Thank You Pierre, Stan and Ruud for your enthusiastic feedback and encouragement! Kind regards, Jan

fantastic light! Great use of the mountain as a guide through the scene and crisp details. Well done! Kind regards, Jan

Your title fits perfectly to that spectacle of winding curves coming back and forth through the whole image! The soft tones are beautiful too and the contrast with the darker sky makes the dunes stand out nicely. A unusual scene to see a lake between sand dunes. Superb shot! Well done. Kind regards, Jan

Surreal colour spectacle ranging from purple to orange! I like the details and composition too. Great capture! Kind regards, Jan

This shot was taken at sunrise in the Egyptian part of the Sahara

somewhere between the Farafra and Kharga Oasis. Your thoughts are

greatly welcome! (best viewed larger) Kind regards, Jan

I like it a lot! You've found a great POV to should the Aldeyjarfoss falls that results in a neat composition with a nice flow for the eye up to the falls. The silky effect due to the long time exposure is alluring. Great shot! Kind regards, Jan

Yes you're right Peter, as the corn is visible, the scan should be ok. I wasn't sure if this was the corn as I don't really see it on my scans?! Now I'm getting concerned that my scanner configuration is softening the image to get rid of the corn?

Thank You Andre and Raymond for your heart warming feedback and time! The light was magical on that evening and as it was midsummer the evening light would last for hours, leaving the place was heartbreaking ;-) Kind regards, Jan

I'm glad you enjoy the picture Alexander! Thank you for your kind words and time!

Thank you very much for your thoughtful suggestion Stephen! I gave it a try and I like the result, here it is:

Thank you very much for your kind words and suggestion about the framing Larry! I understand your concern, here is the edited version with a white framing. Kind regards, Jan

A very nice picture Fred! I especially like how the tracks in the corn field guide the viewers eye through the picture. Nice colours and eye catching cloud formations with beautiful light. Kind regards, Jan

Here is the true raw without color, levels (..) corrections

oops I have to correct my statement -> the attached image is colour processed (I got into the wrong folder) but it is the only processing of this file, no noise reduction and no sharpening; it's my digital full resolution original -> I perform noise reduction and sharpening only after resizing for the web or resizing at print size (from what I read sharpening should always be the very last step in processing).

Best regards, Jan

Hi Peter,

thank you for showing me the details! I have to admit that I expected to see more details in the scanned images of the medium format slide, but I have no experience at all with this format slides and maybe I'm expecting too much? What kind of scanner are you using? What scanning resolution have you been using? I've downsized the raw scan to get a similar size as in the digital images and then the scanned image looks a little bit softer but with less noise than the digital version.

Attached for comparison a 100% raw scan at 4000dpi out of my Nikon 5000ED of my image "La conciergerie".

Best regards, Jan

Shot in Iceland. Thanks for looking! Your comments and critiques are

are welcome! (best viewed larger). Kind regards, Jan

Great capture! It has it all: great and expressive expression on his face, vivid colors, a nicely reduced dof that makes the subject stand out nicely despite of the busy background but it still leaves enough details though and of course having the flying knife pointing at him adds drama and is also pushing the viewers eye to the subject. Well done! Best regards, Jan

A splendid picture with a great mood! I like how the eye is dragged from the foreground to the light-house by the path drawn by the darker rocks and movement of the water. I agree that a little crop from below would balance the foreground and sky. Great capture! Kind regards, Jan

@ Alf

yes, the curve drawn by the snow and hill side immediately attracted my eye and was the source that lead to the picture. We had exceptional light conditions that day, well in Iceland the light is almost always beautiful, but with the clear sky and bright but soft sun it was truly amazing! May the light be with you! Jan

@ David,

thank you for the kind comment! After having spotted the curve in the snow, those green patches were exactly what I was looking for my foreground. If you have the opportunity to go to Iceland some day, GO FOR IT! Regarding the landscape it was certainly one of the most spectacular places I have visited, but regarding the light conditions it was indisputably and by far the best trip I ever made. Cheers, Jan

@ Pierre,

I'm glad you like the picture Pierre! thank you for your time and kind words. Much appreciated. Kind regards, Jan

@ Joseph,

Thank you Joe for your time and heart warming feedback! All my best, Jan

Hi Peter,

I wouldn't know how to rate the noise of the digital shot as I'm not used to shoot with DSLR but there seems to be some little white spots in the original picture that you have eliminated in the processed one which indeed has far more alluring colours than the original. I've compared your raw images to a raw 4000dpi scan of a night shot on tripod and my scan looks a little bit softer than the digital image :'( -> yes, the details of the digital picture is good! But I imagine that with a medium format slide as with your Pentax a high resolution scan would blow the digital image away?

I have received the slides of Corsica including my few attempts of star trail images: there is one I shot at dusk at the shore that has beautiful colours in the sky, unfortunately there was some artificial light around and the foreground is completely blown with only the shadow of my tripod crossing it... but I had taken some shots earlier with correct foreground but no star-trails, maybe I can try to merge the shots; maybe I'll have the time to give it a try this WE. The other trial were taken in the mountain (same night) but the sky is pitch black and I have to take a closer look at the slides (only seen on the light table so far) -> one has a too dark FG; the other could be ok but maybe a little blown and harsh due to the flash bursts...

best wishes!

Jan