AaronSpruit

Recently I’ve taken the time to scan some slides that my folks have. I’ve always been fascinated with them, especially as we deal with so many pictures on a daily basis. These were printed out, and in a format that required a special machine, where you all sit around and watch – for better or worse. For some reason, I’ve found this very fun and I figured I’d give a little “how-to” for anyone that was curious as how I went about it, along with a few before/afters.

Here is a picture of my setup (ignore stuff in the background, I was outside until I got too cold).

The equipment I’m using:

• Nikon D800 w/ 5 stop bracketing at 1EV each stop (-2 to +2)
• 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor
• Manfrotto 322RC2 Ball Head
• Manfrotto 055MF3 Tripod
• Super cheap eBay Manual Macro Lens Extension Tube Ring
• Nikon BR-5 mount ring 62mm
• Nikon BR2A lens reversing ring 52mm
• Nikon BR-3 52mm Mount Adapter ring
• Nikon Slide Copy Adapter ES-1 52mm
• Lightroom tethered to camera
• HDR Efex Pro 2

I set the camera to bracketed exposure – 5 shots from -2EV to +2EV. I then tether the camera to lightroom, and quickly fire off the 5 shots (I tether so that I’m not touching the camera and so I can better see the output on screen). In lightroom I stack the images, properly set a realistic date, and then export to HDR Efex Pro 2 to combine all 5 images together. Depending on the type of shot, I select different settings. As you can see from below, it makes a pretty big difference.

One I have the final image, I color correct it, based on the slide type and color cast. For example, Kodachrome has a distinctive blue tint to it which should be corrected. And tada!

This is not the greatest show ever in America. In fact, it’s awful. Just saying.

It was our first full day in Australia, and the guys here had decided to go to an AFL game.  It is getting into the finals, and so the game we watched didn’t really mean anything other than determining home field advantage.  Both St Kilda and Carlton are in the final 8, so it was a great game to watch.

We were right near one of the goal posts and 27 rows back.  It was a pretty awesome experience.  The pace of the game was just incredible.  These guys are running around a field much larger than an American football field, and they go non-stop.  There are no timeouts, out of bounds, play clock, etc.  They are just full out sprinting and smashing into themselves for 25 minute quarters.

I have no idea if it is as exciting while watching it on TV, but being there and experiencing it first hand for the first time was incredible.

Oh, and it was held at the MCG.  The stadium holds over 100k people, and is one of the 10 largest in the world.  Other cool things about the MCG is that there is a waiting list to get seats.  From what I hear, when a child is born they are put on the waiting list, and then they usually get seats in their 30s or 40s.  Just incredible.

Oh, and the whole thing is located a 20 minute walk from downtown (from where Yow-Yow and I are staying), and it is right across the street from where the Australian Open is played.

Here are some of the pictures from us leaving Chicago to head to the airport, along with a few shots from Kauai.  Not a whole lot of pictures from Kauai this time.  I figured that everyone had enough from the last slew I put up from our wedding.

As seen on the home page, we have made it to Melbourne successfully and we are in our temporary apartment.  I don’t think Yow-Yow is quite adjusted to the time change yet, as she was up till 4AM last night reading, and is still sleeping as I read this.

So far so good!

Oh, and there is a new wordpress plugin for SlideShowPro Director.  It is exactly what I have been looking for.  What does this mean for viewers at home?  Well, potentially a site redesign.  The current theme I’m using isn’t the greatest for Director compatibility (files get saved multiple times, if you change anything to a file in Director it doesn’t get updated on the site, etc.).  Who knows when I’ll have time, but it is definitely on the list of things to do now!

An example of what the new plugin does is below.  I’m definitely going to be changing a few posts to make it work a lot better!

I know I’ve posted a watch prior, but it is hard to forget your first love.

Due to SPG having a certain promotion happening right now, a colleague and I are hopping between hotels here in Singapore.  We knew that we we had a special rate at the Marina Bay Sands, but were never able to actually get it.  That is, until yesterday and tomorrow nights.

Having not paid the S$20 to go up to the Sky Park before, I was very excited to be able to actually use the infinity pool.  Needless to say, even though it wasn’t the nicest day out, it didn’t disappoint.

Our rooms had pretty decent views too.  Granted, we were in the cheapest rooms (floor 22 or below), and we looked out over the ocean and construction.  Still not horrible by any stretch.  Nothing like some panorama action via the cell phone.

Once I get home, I should be able to post some real pictures.  The sad part is that my cell phone is bad, and makes me wish for a better camera, as does my Point and Shoot.

Joel’s pictures have now been added to the gallery. I also have all of Adam’s pictures, so will probably be adding them here shortly too. There aren’t nearly as many as Joel or I had, so it won’t take that long to go through them.

Speaking of getting Adam’s pictures, that means I have some of the pictures from Sincere Fine Watches when were there to visit.  So pretty is the Zenith Chronomaster Open Grande Date.

Update:

Adam’s pictures have since been added.  Also, the wedding photographer’s pictures have started trickling in to us, and I am pretty impressed so far.  I can’t wait to put them all up here for your perusal too!

I haven’t done a birthday post in awhile, but it gives me a good reason to throw a post up.  Nothing like being in Singapore with a stuffy nose for your birthday.  Not to mention for your 30th.

What I really wanted to post about though, was that I have Joel’s pictures from HI.  He gave the lot to me, and I’m going to run through them over the weekend and add them to the wedding gallery.  He was able to go through the ones from the reception, but doesn’t look like he touched any of the later ones.  I’ll just be cleaning up basic things on his (dammit Joel, correct your slightly off horizons!), but want to keep them as basic as possible.

I may throw up a few daily images too.  All depends on how much time I have.  Oh, and I have gotten word from the wedding photographer.  Apparently Ken and his wife took around 800 pictures, so he is slowly going through them.  He will be uploading them to SmugMug (I’ll post a link) and then he’ll send me the DVDs and I’ll probably upload them to the Wedding site too.

Well, I finally finished going through most of the images from the wedding and honeymoon.  I can’t believe from just Yow-Yow and my camera we had just shy of 900 images!

The good news, is that I was able to trim that down to a slightly more manageable 560.  Oh, and you guys can go check out all of them right now over on the Our Wedding page (links are at the top right of the page too)!

As mentioned, on the page, I highly recommend going full screen and taking some time.  There are also links to everyone else’s images.  If yours our missing, please let me know and I’ll throw up a link!

I forgot to mention it in the last post, but while in Singapore for any amount of time, you should really get Makansutra for your Hawker’s delight.

The layout sort of sucks because it is laid out in either type of food or macro location (N, S, E, or W).  What they really need is a good map for each location.  The Singapore locations are not obvious (unless you are a local), and even the road names confuse me at time.  Unless you have a data plan on your phone for some online maps lovin’, you really need to plan ahead.

Highly recommended, and while I’m away Tom is marking up my copy that I picked up in Singapore.  I wish they had a Kindle version though.