About Slides?
 

I wasn't sure where to post this question, so hopefully this is ok?

I have decided to apply for the grant money, and need up to ten slides of my work. I have never needed to do this so Im not sure of the best way to go about it. I have looked over all the tips about photographing your work and haven't seen this part addressed.

Would it be better to take the pictures with my slr and send to have developed? OR Take with my digital (or scan in pics from the slr) manipulate in Paint Shop Pro to get it as close to the real thing as possible and then send those corrected images to somewhere online?

I have found that no matter how much I follow the rules about taking the photos, they never come out looking like the real thing, and I always end up putting them through PSP to "fix" them.

Has anyone used any of the online companies that make slides and recommend anyone?

I live in a small town and wouldn't begin to know where to take a roll of film to have slides made for something like this.

Mary,

Try the "search " button at the top of any Forum page. If you search for 'slides', you get this .

I don't personally know of any internet service that produces slides from digital images or prints, but I'm sure there are many. If your digital camera has lots of megapixels,you might be better off going digitally. The problem with prints is that they compress the values in the lightest and in the darkest areas. Once you scan them, then send them off to have slides created, the final result will be compounded even more. The reason to take slides in the first place is to try to minimize the distortion of your image. The reason you probably have poor results with taking slides is that you are likely using daylight film, and not matching the time of day (10-11 am or 1-2 pm on a clear day) to the light temperature your film expects to find. Matching light temperatures is just as important with print film as with negative film.

At the very least talk to a photoprocessor in your town and find out if they can advise you. If there is a deadline for your grant application coming up, you'll just have to do the best you can. Good luck,

Chris,

In your professional opinion, would having slides made from digital files

www.slides.com

They do great slides from digital files. You will need a high-speed internet connection as the files you will upload are between 25 to 35 megs per slide.

Just to continue the muse, am I confusing the "slides from digital files" issue? A recent contest guideline stated that work done through digital manipulation would not be considered, but perhaps that was meant to refer to digitally created work, rather than digitally recorded work.

Any curators, jurors, or art society officials out there who would object to slide entries created from digital files?

I hope someone can answer this Steven. I don't enter competitions because I usually can't afford the professional photographers, but it could possibly work with my digitals.

I take much better slides with my digital camera than I did with my SLR. I'd urge everyone to give it a try - don't ever let something like this stop you from entering a competition or applying for a grant. (And congratulations, Mary, for applying for a grant. Let us know how it works out, I'll bet there's lots of interest on the Forum about grants.)

I used to have lots of trouble with glare on my oil paintings when I used indoor tungsten lights with my film camera. I now shoot indoors under skylights. The bright, diffuse, coolish light seems well suited for this purpose. I'm attaching a photo of my studio showing my setup. The easel holding the painting is to the left and the camera tripod is on the right. It is really important to use a cord release on a digital camera, by the way.

I don't have as many color problems with my digital camera as I did with film. Part of the trouble is that many pigments "flash" unpleasantly with film, especially the cadmiums (and, I suspect, the thalos, though they're not on my palette).

I have had no trouble uploading tif files to a local photo place, though I'm going to try Michael's suggestion, they are less expensive. It's so easy to crop the file in Photoshop and then send it out via the internet. I used to hate to crop a slide with silver tape.

Linda,

Just being nosy, is that your house you paint in? Or a seperate studio?

Steven et al,

In my opinion, whether professional or reckless, the only point to sending slides is to most accurately show the painting you have done. Not to change it, but to make the slide look as close to the original as possible. How else would one judge?

If artists essentially want to cheat and "fix" the paintings' problems, then they **** well better execute the changes prior to the show.

I think that the bottom line is, you want to show the judges the image that most accurately represents your painting. In a competition that is 'live' it will immediately be evident whether an applicant has fudged. When a competition does not involve viewing original work, there is basically no way to weed out what I would call "digitally altered images". But in the long run, all will, I think, become evident.

After looking at this thread and talking to Linda Brandon, I think that if your digital camera has enough megapixels, you will still be financially ahead to zoom an image to a production lab, compared to the purchase of slide film, processing, and duplication.

Chris,

I am not speaking for Steven, but I understood him to mean digitally altering the photo to have the color/light look more like the painting. In other words, I usually have to fix the contrast or hue saturation after I photograph mine because my photography skills are lacking. I don't change the look of the painting - I just make the photo look like the actual paintng. Would that be considered some form of cheating as well? If my unaltered photo is too light then it is not presenting the painting correctly to anyone.