This is a photograph of the side yard in the house I grew up in, in Milford, Connecticut. I recently found it while going through some boxes of old stuff. Here's the interesting part. This picture was taken with a 4x5 view camera probably when I was still in college, so the picture is about 45 years old. Instead of using film in the camera, I used a piece of photographic paper that I would normally use for printing. The result is a paper negative, instead of a film negative. When I found the old paper negative, all the tones were reversed - the white sky was black on the negative, and the dark lawn was white on the negative. So I scanned the print on my scanner, and then in Photoshop, I reversed the tones to get this print. What is amazing to me is the wonderful atmospheric quality of the image. It blew me away to find this, and to see what I did way back then, kind of without knowing. But I recognize this quality now, and will make a nice print for my wall. The apple trees and the pear tree are now gone. It is wonderful to see the sheets my mom has put out on the clothesline to dry. It really takes me back to remember my mom putting all our wash on the line to dry - everything always smelled so fresh and clean!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A Paper Negative
This is a photograph of the side yard in the house I grew up in, in Milford, Connecticut. I recently found it while going through some boxes of old stuff. Here's the interesting part. This picture was taken with a 4x5 view camera probably when I was still in college, so the picture is about 45 years old. Instead of using film in the camera, I used a piece of photographic paper that I would normally use for printing. The result is a paper negative, instead of a film negative. When I found the old paper negative, all the tones were reversed - the white sky was black on the negative, and the dark lawn was white on the negative. So I scanned the print on my scanner, and then in Photoshop, I reversed the tones to get this print. What is amazing to me is the wonderful atmospheric quality of the image. It blew me away to find this, and to see what I did way back then, kind of without knowing. But I recognize this quality now, and will make a nice print for my wall. The apple trees and the pear tree are now gone. It is wonderful to see the sheets my mom has put out on the clothesline to dry. It really takes me back to remember my mom putting all our wash on the line to dry - everything always smelled so fresh and clean!
Glad you found this old negative and put so much work into it. Quite different than it is today. I'll get the laptop out to show Mom.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible that it does look so different and yet I recognized the house and yard before I read your comments. I did notice the sheets on the clothesline and thought of how fresh they smelled...bsk
ReplyDeleteGorgeous. I love it!!
ReplyDelete