Momma don't take my Kodachrome away!

chrisinhouston · 05-19-2011, 09:24 PM

Spent some time today sorting through my dad's slide collection which I inherited. Mostly shot on Kodachrome from about 1952 onwards with his trusty Argus C3. Amazing how they haven't faded much after 50 years. Just getting started but here are 4 that I liked.

1. Christmas and it snowed and I had to wear those f--king shorts and that red sweater that my grandmother knitted for me.
2. Actually a very decent portrait by my dad. Sharp and great Kodachrome skin tones! Wonder what happened to that little dinosaur?
3. I played Little League because I so wanted to be one of the guys but I was so afraid of the frigging ball being pitched, and no one told me that they gave me a first baseman glove and I was in the outfield.
4. Our house out on Long Island in the winter of '58. My parent's got about $28,000 for it in '66. Now it is worth $600K or so!

xoxoxoBruce · 05-19-2011, 09:29 PM

Those pictures have stood up well.

Flint · 05-19-2011, 09:30 PM

Such rich, vibrant colors!

chrisinhouston · 05-19-2011, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flint

Such rich, vibrant colors!

Sad to say that was Kodachrome and it is gone now.

classicman · 05-19-2011, 09:44 PM

Wonderful images.

jimhelm · 05-19-2011, 10:59 PM

You were a cute little dude, chris. Reminds me of the kid in The Wall. The tweed shorts. and those look to be Toughskins in the Baseball picture. You can see the reinforced knees.

I guess your photo hobby/avocation/profession/I'mreallynotsuretobehonestyourstuffisgoodenoughtogetpaidforbutithinkforsomereasonthatyouhaveadayjob comes naturally. Did your Dad teach you about photography?

glatt · 05-20-2011, 07:15 AM

How are you digitizing them?

chrisinhouston · 05-20-2011, 07:21 AM

I'm using an Epson flatbed scanner I got a few years back, it was pretty high end then but there are newer better ones now. It can scan 8 images at time, takes about 15 minutes. I use Lasersoft's Silverfast AI software and Digitial ICE for dust removal. I still have to pull them into Photoshop to crop and adjust the color and contrast a bit more and remove any dust that the scanner software misses. It's time consuming but kind of fun; like opening a time capsule. I'm glad my dad went with slide film instead of prints which always fade and no one ever keeps good track of the negatives.

chrisinhouston · 05-20-2011, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimhelm

Did your Dad teach you about photography?

My brother who was older kind of got me interested, we would borrow our dad's camera and take pictures. We set up a darkroom in mom's laundry room. I still remember the time we tried to process our first roll of B&W film. After fumbling with trying to get the film onto the reel for processing we realized the room had light leaks so my brother suggested he open the dryer door, lean inside and get the film loaded there. He opened the door and the light inside came on...

glatt · 05-20-2011, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisinhouston

and no one ever keeps good track of the negatives.

The past few months I've been digitizing my parent's negatives. It's fun, but the results aren't nearly as good as yours. Mostly because they used a crappy Kodak 110 camera, so the negatives are very tiny and the original camera wasn't very good either. It's amazing how out of order the negatives are. Individual strips were pulled out of an envelope years ago to have reprints made, and then never returned. Just thrown into the box in the new envelope. So there is very little order to the whole thing.

But there are a few real gems, where a picture was taken on a bright sunny day, close to the subject and all the colors are good.

I've been back lighting the negs and shooting them with my camera. Adjusting the images in the GIMP. Color correction from negatives is a real challenge for me.

chrisinhouston · 05-20-2011, 07:47 AM

The nice thing is that negatives generally don't fade if stored properly, just those old color prints do. My wife's parents bought totally into Polaroids and while the B&W Polaroids weren't bad and can be scanned the color ones don't scan worth a damn.

I'm scanning my slides at 4800 dpi and saving the images as a TIFF so the files are huge, about 30 MB each! I have an extra 1TB hard drive sitting around that I need to stick into my computer to store these as I scan them!

HungLikeJesus · 05-20-2011, 08:41 AM

I didn't realize color film had been around that long.

limey · 05-20-2011, 11:09 AM

I've just inherited my Dad's slides - I may be back to this thread when they arrive here.

glatt · 05-20-2011, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

I didn't realize color film had been around that long.

Here are a bunch from the 1930's and 40's from the LOC collection.

Spexxvet · 05-21-2011, 08:34 AM

My father put the slides into carousels - about 30 of them, 100 in each one. I've gotten through 1. It is very tedious.

05-19-2011, 09:24 PM	#1
chrisinhouston Professor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Houston TX Posts: 1,857	Momma don't take my Kodachrome away! Spent some time today sorting through my dad's slide collection which I inherited. Mostly shot on Kodachrome from about 1952 onwards with his trusty Argus C3. Amazing how they haven't faded much after 50 years. Just getting started but here are 4 that I liked. 1. Christmas and it snowed and I had to wear those f--king shorts and that red sweater that my grandmother knitted for me. 2. Actually a very decent portrait by my dad. Sharp and great Kodachrome skin tones! Wonder what happened to that little dinosaur? 3. I played Little League because I so wanted to be one of the guys but I was so afraid of the frigging ball being pitched, and no one told me that they gave me a first baseman glove and I was in the outfield. 4. Our house out on Long Island in the winter of '58. My parent's got about $28,000 for it in '66. Now it is worth $600K or so! Attached Images

05-19-2011, 09:29 PM	#2
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Those pictures have stood up well. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

05-19-2011, 09:30 PM	#3
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	Such rich, vibrant colors! __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio**

05-19-2011, 09:44 PM	#5
classicman barely disguised asshole, keeper of all that is holy. Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 23,401	Wonderful images. __________________ "like strapping a pillow on a bull in a china shop" Bullitt

05-19-2011, 10:59 PM	#6
jimhelm a beautiful fool Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: 39.939705 Posts: 4,504	You were a cute little dude, chris. Reminds me of the kid in The Wall. The tweed shorts. and those look to be Toughskins in the Baseball picture. You can see the reinforced knees. I guess your photo hobby/avocation/profession/I'mreallynotsuretobehonestyourstuffisgoodenoughtogetpaidforbutithinkforsomereasonthatyouhaveadayjob comes naturally. Did your Dad teach you about photography? __________________ There's a Shadow just behind me. Shrouding every step I take. Making every promise empty, pointing every finger at me. _tool

05-20-2011, 07:15 AM	#7
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	How are you digitizing them?

05-20-2011, 07:21 AM	#8
chrisinhouston Professor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Houston TX Posts: 1,857	I'm using an Epson flatbed scanner I got a few years back, it was pretty high end then but there are newer better ones now. It can scan 8 images at time, takes about 15 minutes. I use Lasersoft's Silverfast AI software and Digitial ICE for dust removal. I still have to pull them into Photoshop to crop and adjust the color and contrast a bit more and remove any dust that the scanner software misses. It's time consuming but kind of fun; like opening a time capsule. I'm glad my dad went with slide film instead of prints which always fade and no one ever keeps good track of the negatives.

05-20-2011, 07:47 AM	#11
chrisinhouston Professor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Houston TX Posts: 1,857	The nice thing is that negatives generally don't fade if stored properly, just those old color prints do. My wife's parents bought totally into Polaroids and while the B&W Polaroids weren't bad and can be scanned the color ones don't scan worth a damn. I'm scanning my slides at 4800 dpi and saving the images as a TIFF so the files are huge, about 30 MB each! I have an extra 1TB hard drive sitting around that I need to stick into my computer to store these as I scan them!

05-20-2011, 08:41 AM	#12
HungLikeJesus Only looks like a disaster tourist Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: above 7,000 feet Posts: 7,208	I didn't realize color film had been around that long. __________________ Keep Your Bodies Off My Lawn SteveDallas's Random Thread Picker.

05-20-2011, 11:09 AM	#13
limey Encroaching on your decrees Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: An island within the south-west coast of Scotland Posts: 7,016	I've just inherited my Dad's slides - I may be back to this thread when they arrive here. __________________ Living it up on the edge ... of civilisation, within the southwest coast of

05-21-2011, 08:34 AM	#15
Spexxvet Makes some feel uncomfortable Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 10,346	My father put the slides into carousels - about 30 of them, 100 in each one. I've gotten through 1. It is very tedious. __________________ "I'm certainly free, nay compelled, to spread the gospel of Spex. " - xoxoxoBruce

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