I made this picture two weeks ago. I asked their dad if I could take their picture. You must grow up a little faster when you're a bartender's kids. I'm really thinking about switching to all black-and-white phtography. One problem is that all that beautiful exposure lattitude - especially the shadow detail - is lost when you try to digitize the image. The proofs from this roll look tons better than the scans. Any suggestions?

Oh - I forgot to mention: Tri-x Pan film, Rokkor 58mm lens at f/5.6 (I think - maybe f/4), Tripod mounted, 1 second exposure. Joe

Cute character shots of the kids Joe, sorry I can't help with the techie stuff!

Wow, that's a great shot...especially when shooting kinds at a long exposure, without having them move or do anything funny :) Great work.....love that dark Tri-X btw!

That's a great shot Joe! Very grainy looking here....does it look this way in print?....or is that from the scan?

Don't know what you are using to scan. You and Rork should compare notes as he seems to be getting beautiful results. I've found when scanning B&W PRINTS on a flatbed scanner I get better results scanning them in "color" mode than "grayscale." More depth to the tones; guess its because it is using three different black and white points (a curve for each color), rather than a single curve. I do not know if something similar would work when scanning a B&W negative as a color slide. You are right about color negatives having more exposure latitude. The C-41 based B&W emulsions are supposed to get some of this back. But then you lose all the control of developing your own. I usually shoot color negatives and convert to B&W in photoshop, but I'd guess I'm losing something. Neat picture BTW.

OK - for one thing, I over-processed this one a bit. One of my problems is that these proofs were not focused correctly in the enlager. (I've got to find some good B&W processing. My last experience was even **worse**!) I attempted to 'grit it up a bit' with the post processing. Now that I look at it again, I'm thinking "OY! what did I do?". So - in a nut shell we've got blurry enlargement on a cheap scanner, over-processed to try to compensate. Here you see a detail - untouched, except for .JPG'ing - from the original scan. Notice that the boy stood pretty still, but the girl moved quite a bit during the 1 sec. exposure. If I were to (..and I **will**) bring this neg' to a good B&W 'salon' (once I find one), it would be a *beautiful* print. Talk with ya'all soon. Thanks, Joe

Here: This one looks better, and includes the full 58mm lens perspective. Plus, they stood pretty still for the long exposure, and I think it scanned a little better for some reason...

Very cool pics, both of them, you captured the kids' "attitudes" beautifully - and I bet that lil boy is a handful! :-)

Now I like the second one the best. Also, now I know that I don't want to crop the framing, either. I love all the stuff that's surrounding them: the jars of jerky at upper left, the booze bottles on the shelf, the glowing bottles in the illuminated coolers; the stacks of shining glasses, the decorative beer tapper handles at upper right, the cash register - then in the forground is the mixed drink, and ashtrays on the bar top. ..And I love how the girl is hiding behind her big brother a bit. I think that there is extraordinary balance in this picture, especially considering that the sheer number of objects that were photographed could tend toward a cluttered appearence. My eye follows a comfortable, easy path - but keeps bringing me back to the people. I'm not kidding when I say that as I've spent hours studying this picture over just the last few days, I have gone through a turning point in my whole understanding of photography, and I can begin to see the direction that my work is taking. Thanks all, Joe