Yes, very nice. Moody. [How many rolls did you take at Christmas?]

I'd have to think about that one. Lets see, 4 rolls at the Marysville Parade. 2 Rolls at Edmonds shoreline. 4 rolls of night cityscape. 3 Rolls night shooting in downtown Edmonds. Plus some misc. stuff all around. Probably 15 or so rolls taken around 2-3 weeks at xmas. I really need to speed myt scanning up. Spring is on the horizon and my shooting should pick up a great deal. Need to be caught up before then. -=>Donald

Attached Link: mikepanic.com v3.0

Mike: Grain is caused by circumstances of the shot. Night street shot with available light (no flash) using Ilford Delta 3200 pushed to EI 6400. What I had to do to this one, which is why I didn't think I'd get any kind of decent photo from it, was remove a seriously distracting backgrond (she's actually crouched in front of a car). Let me see if I still have the original image around before I did anything to it. -=>Donald

Hmm...well there seems to be a lot more detail in the original.....grain doesn't look so bad in this either but that is probably because it's not a crop/larger view. I see what you mean about the clutter.

What's with the dog. Bsteph

Michelle - Yea...also, the grain is sort of "blurred" out in that one; going from 2571x3895 to 424x640 tends to lessen detail and then I didn't do any sharpening on it. Final photo is about 40% of the original. A lot of the grain that's showing up comes from trying to clean the blacks up. Heck of a lot easier to do that with color. May try it again. Didn't even notice the loss of detail until you said something (that's what happens when you stare at 8 or 9 photos one right after the other). Think I may try again to see what I can do with this one. I've been toying with a multi-layer idea for cleaning b&w noise/grain. May as well give it a shot on this one. BSteph - Ummm...if I remember correctly, it was wearing a shawl, granny cap and glasses. -=>Donald

Attached Link: mikepanic.com v3.0

I tend to think the story it tells is an incomplete one. Lets face it, it's a bad shot. I have no idea how the heck I missed framing this one so bad (I'm almost sure I was trying to shoot her with the dog as it was looking back to camera right). I wasn't standing that far from them, maybe 10 or 15 feet. I had my 28-200mm zoom on the camera. If I wanted to isolate her, I could have easily had a tighter shot. I dunno...only thing I can think is it was one of the last shots that night and I'd just about had it. I got to Fremont 2.5 hours early to scout the route and lay claim to my spot. By the time I took this I'd been there almost 6 hours, I was hungry and I was so cold I couldn't feel my feet anymore. As I look back on the Trolloween series, though, I think almost all of the shots don't as much tell a story as they isolate the subject, devoid of any real clues to the location or idea of what the person is actually doing. That was a conscious effort on my part; shooting with isolating or ambiguous backgrounds when I could (last thing I wanted was a great shot ruined by somebody standing in the background doing something stupid). :) Ah well, 4 in the morning - can't sleep and I'm close to babbling. Think I'll go check out the galleries. :) -=>Donald

Ughh...ok now I see the grain.....! runs screaming.....ok I'm exaggerating but I'm not a big fan of grain, however I do understand why there is so much! :~) Couldn't be helped for sure!

Eleven rolls for Halloween, fifteen for Christmas, your "productive" period yet to come... my day job is definitely interfering with my creativity... This has been one of the most thoroughly interesting and educational series presented in this Forum this past year. It has touched upon subjects ranging from high speed films and grain, to film scanners, to "optimizing" and restoring images, to the ethics of candid street photography, and altering out "mistakes." Along the way, we've seen some fine moody images, like the one above, and Star has taken several orders for fairy T-shirts. Thank you, Don, for all of this wonderful material!

Don I have enjoyed you set of pictures from this event Like the grain effect and colouring not to sure about the very dark body area and one leg. 11 rolls Im about to go to London taking pictures I hope 10 rolls will be enough LOL. what I would give for a digital SLR and edit as I go along. :0)

Don, ignore them critics.... that first one is a cracking shot, grain an' all. Don't dis your original shot too much..... it's from that shot that you've created the first. Makes it sorta like MichaelAngelo criticising the ceiling of the Cistine (sp?) Chapel before he started on it..... Y'know what digs the top pic for me? You've got the white of the car (but without knowing what it is on that one) contrasting her dark jacket, and then the lightness of the skin through the stockings contrasting the darkness of the wheel well. Cool. (",)

Thanks guys. This has also been one of the most informative series for me. The information and insights that everyone here has shared has been invaluable. Misha and Snapz - Ha...I've got a friend who often budgets 20-30 rolls for each day when he goes someplace interesting for vacation. Cripes...Forget the vacation, I couldn't afford the film and devo costs. :) Jordy - Thank you. It never ceases to amaze me how different people see the same thing differently. I guess that's what makes it all so interesting. :) -=>Donald

I couldn't agree more with ya, Misha! :-) (oh, btw, where do I place those orders? I think Mich wants one too heh heh) (*