UPS just dropped off my recent 35mm scans from ScanCafe. The scans were made from my most valuable underwater slides. (For 20 years, I photographed in most of the world's oceans; I even dived in Lake Baikal, Siberia.)
I popped the CD into my computer and true to form, the scans looked exactly like my slides – the good ones and even the ones that were poorly exposed. I'll blame those photo faux pas images on the nitrogen build-up in my brain :-)
Anyway, the image on the left brings back a great memory from Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman. But as you can see, the original slide is more than a stop underexposed. HDR to rescue.
"What?" you ask. "How did you created an HDR image from a 20-year-old slide?" Easy, in Photoshop, I went to Mode and changed the 8 bit image to a 16 bit image, and then used Photomatix to create a pseudo HDR image . . . in less time than it takes to make a safety stop before surfacing.
If you have some photographs that you or your parents took during the days of "Sea Hunt," don't lock them away in Davy Jones' locker. Send them to ScanCafe and set your sails for the creative horizons that await you in the digital darkroom.
Hey, if anyone out there would like to see more posts about underwater photography, give me the OK sign.
And speaking of HDR and ScanCafe, click here to win some free scans.
Explore the Light,
Rick
P.S. You can get a discount on Photomatix and other plug-ins on the Plug-in Experience.