Framing Tip: Ghosting

I have never seen a ghost. I thought I did, a few times. One time was when a blurry finger showed up in a picture from the last flight of my military flying career. Another was a priceless moment with grandparents when I had inadvertently smudged the lens with my finger by grabbing the camera improperly. And another, which I will expound upon, was when I hurriedly framed a picture for a local restaurant where I display my photos monthly. For those three cases, I excitedly tried to contact some kind of ghost series on TV for proof ghosts existed. Luckily, my wife caught me before I embarrassed myself. But I digress.

Ghosting, or “out-gassing.” (No, I won’t go there!)

Photographers are finding they can get more satisfying, but more costly, results printing their own photos, primarily using ink jet printers. Some printer inks are pigment based (best) and most are dye based. Dye based inks are getting very good for their fade resistance, but still trail pigment inks, or at least that’s what my secret informants tell me. But that is another exciting episode. Out-gassing, ghosting, or a foggy image inside the frame glass, may occur with either type of ink print (most prevalent on glossy photo paper) that has not been properly dried or cured. This may also happen with inks and paper that are “instant drying.” It is true even when the photo is properly matted, due to the residual trapped gasses. My informants tell me that matte, fine art, watercolor or cotton rag-type papers absorb residual gas and don’t have the phenomenon.

To hasten the drying, do not use a hair dryer. It will shorten the longevity of your prints and may scare the dog. To properly speed up the drying or curing process, you can perform the following steps for ghost busting:

1. Let the new print rest on a flat surface for at least 15 minutes.
2. Then place plain (cheap) paper on top of the print for 24 hours. It will absorb the ghosts. You may stack, if you wish, with a new sheet of plain paper between each photo.
3. If the plain paper is wavy after 24 hours, indicating moisture or continued out-gassing, repeat the steps with new plain paper and let sit for another 24 hours before framing. If not wavy, commence with your happy framing.

If you have previously summoned ghosts from improper drying, remove the glass and clean it with water or a dry cloth and use the above procedure for your photo while the glass is drying. Solvents are not recommended for cleaning the photo side of glass. If you launder your drying cloth, don't use fabric softeners. They will cause streaking or more ghosting.

You can find a more detailed discussion on Epson.com

Night On The Town

Portsmouth NH

Before the rain became a pain, I thought it would be a great evening to toddle into Portsmouth NH to snap a few pictures. But first, I had to have Nancy refresh me, as she had the day before. How do I set that self-timer on my camera? After my refresher course, I asked if she wanted to go into town with me, but she opted to remain at home with the cute little mutt we are mutt sitting for the winter while my brother sticks his toes in the warm sands in Florida. The "shadow" dog is a cute little MALE poodle. Experience has shown that when he is left totally alone, he becomes a little miffed. Thus, we thought we should rename him "Spot."

So, as I staggered alone for my Night On The Town, I thought I could make amends with Buddy/Spot if I took a picture to which he could relate. Thus, the hydrant strategically appeared as I trudged toward Memorial Bridge, which is soon to be replaced with an un-rusted structure. Then, for Nancy's holiday present (PC terminology), I took a picture of a (PC) holiday tree and downtown Portsmouth to prove I had actually been there, rather than imbibing (embalming?) at the Rustic Slammer. It worked. Arriving home, the dog jumped up and down with joy and Nancy fixed me suppah! Life is good.

 

 

Keep your lens clean and Happy Holidays

Linwood "Lin" Wickett

The Blank Stare

Nubble Light Foggy Night

Ahh, a warm weekend and no snow on the ground here in NH! So Saturday I decided to go up to Cape Neddick for some night pictures of Nubble Light holiday lights. Then Nancy surprised me by coming home from Thanksgiving (in Maine) to NH a day early (Saturday). So I decided to wait until Sunday, as it was supposed to be another warm evening. My bones still quiver when I remember a few years ago standing in the wind and the cold trying to take night pictures of the holiday lights of Nubble. But as we got closer to Portsmouth on Sunday, for the intermediate stop to pick up my photo from the gallery, we noticed the thickening fog. I picked up my unsold photo (hoping I got the correct one-mine), and with fear and trembling, we forged on, figuring that if the fog got too thick near the Maine coast, Nancy and the dog could walk ahead of my vehicle and lead us safely to the lighthouse. It was only a few miles! Alas, we arrived without much fanfare (and a good GPS), and there stood Nubble Light with a foggy glow. Now luckily, Sunday afternoon, in a rare event of my thinking ahead, I had Nancy read the camera manual for me to find out how to set the self timer on my camera. So arriving and setting the camera on the tripod, I took several shots at different settings and got a few test goodies. I liked the foggy glow of this test photo, so I am sending it along for grins.

 

Click on image to enlarge

 

Nikon D7000, ISO 1000, 1 sec with self timer, 42 mm, f 4.8, shutter priority
And all that hoorah stuff!

Seasons Greetings and keep your lens clean.

Linwood "Lin" Wickett

Turkey Tease - Part II

Yesterday, our turkey friends returned for Wickett's Buffet. It is comical to see them running toward their daily treat. So the one turkey pecked away at the mirror as it did the day prior. Today the turkey rapidly circled the stump and mirror. I took a few minutes of video and then put the mirror away as I did not have a straight jacket the right size for the turkey. The attached 3 pictures are: the turkey proudly showing its fan...ny, staring blankly again at the image, and peeking behind the mirror to figure where the other turkey hides. The turkey has given us bucketfuls of laughs and several gigabytes of images.

Enjoy

Turkey Teaser Linwood Wickett

Stratham, NH

Technical: (from a non-technical camera guy)

The turkey pictures were taken with my (35x) Canon SX 30 IS not fully zoomed. ISO was 100 and I used the P mode, rather than the Av or Tv mode as it gave me the best shots. The Av mode set at F8 was too slow (causing blur) and the Tv mode would have been guess work that the camera did much better. The photos were emailed at Windows Medium Resolution. The Canon camera shoots at 14.3 mp but doesn't shoot RAW. RAW shooting is on my "round-to-it" list of things to do later with my Nikon D7000. I am getting much better results with distant feather details for birds with my Canon than my Nikon D7000 using the Nikon 55-300mm lens at 16mp. Rather than spend $ 10,500 for the lens I would want, I will stick with the Canon for these long shots for now. However, I am finding the D7000 incredible at events with no flash and high ISO. I am finding little difference in the noise level from ISO 400 to ISO 2000 with the Nikon D7000. The Canon has been unusable for indoor events with or without flash at any ISO of 100-800, but makes a great lens to supplement my D7000 for day time "birdie" shots. I purchased the Nikon D7000 at the end of July, so to further investigate its capabilities, would tax my learning curve, which is similar to the turkey's learning curve.

Turkey Tease-Turkey and the Mirror

The other day, we watched the flock of visiting turkeys feed from our back yard. One was obsessed with its reflection in the window of the pickup truck cap in our far back yard. So we added a mirror against a stump to check its reaction. It was a load of laughs yesterday as one strutted around pecking at the mirror. Last evening, a deer showed up and was casually munching on the back yard goodies. Then the deer saw its reflection in the mirror and it jumped and took off running at full speed. Hence the term, it "high-tailed it outta there!"

Today, the turkey humorist returned and was so enthralled with its reflection, it pranced around for about half an hour, even after the rest of the flock vanished to the far back of the lot. The turkey ruffed up its feathers, pranced around, pecked at the image in the mirror, and tried to attack the reflection turkey from behind. It could not figure how the other turkey (in the mirror) would disappear when it went behind the mirror or stump.

I am only sending a couple of pictures as I haven't had time to pick the best ones from the 750 or so digital pictures I took today.

Have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Linwood & Nancy Wickett

Stratham, NH

Bokeh

Bokeh: Another Linwood blank stare…

The other day, Saturday or Wednesday, I was standing in line to be seated at a local restaurant when an attractive young lady (brunette) stepped out of line and moseyed over to an odd color photograph on the wall. Then a balding middle-aged gentleman, with a thick ring of hair around his ears, and a waxed handle-bar mustache, wearing torn jeans and white sneakers, and a flannel shirt, and suspenders, and so on, stepped out of line and stood beside the young lady. “Nice Bokeh!” he said.

I waited for the young lady to draw a fist and slug him, or at least hit him with the small purse she was carrying. “Thanks, I took it myself! May I buy you lunch?”

I was floored, but figured it might be a good time to learn something new for this year. It especially hit home when I remembered that term being used at one of our photo meetings during one of our “free-for-all” sessions. (Thus, a blank stare event)

Two days ago, Monday or Thursday, I had lost my “round-to-it" and opened my November Popular Pornography to the centerfold (Whoops! That bruise beside my head came with a voice that said it was “Popular Photography”). On page 40, lo-and-behold, there was the term Bokeh again.

Okay, this may be the one new thing I learn this year, but here is the definition, in case I need to look it up again.

“BOKEH: A Japanese word that roughly translates as “blur” or “haze,” Bokeh refers, photographically, to defocused areas of an image either in front of or behind a sharp subject. It’s a phenomenon associated with the lenses and is primarily influenced by the size, shape, and smoothness of the opening defined by the aperture blades of the lens. Lenses are said to produce “fine” or “course” bokeh, the former being more desirable then the latter. Fine bokeh is characterized by smooth, circular shapes in the defocused highlights created by specula reflection s off shiny objects or directly from light sources. Course bokeh is identified by oval highlights or by highlights shaped as pentagons or octagons, a direct reflection of the number of blades making up a given diaphragm. The word is pronounced “boh-keh,” with one long and one short vowel and equally stressed syllables.”

Now I have to learn what “vowel” means. Also, now I have an idea what the Topaz Lens Effects that I purchased, was talking about.