Ed Dickie Photography

capture

I shoot mostly digital now with my main camera being a Nikon D700. I have an assortment of new and old lenses, but my current favorite is the new Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 FX. My second favorite is actually a very cheap Micro Nikkor 55mm that I use for macro and copy work, but also panoramic montage since it has virtually no distortion and maintains sharpness at infinity. For film, I still use an older Mamiya 645, a Nikon FA and a wonderful (manufacturer unknown) fixed super wide 4x5 with a 65mm Super Angulon lens. Depending on the film, modern color films can really shine with skin tones, wild colors and dynamic range. Film is sent out for development and scanning, but I sometimes scan on my Leafscscan 45 which can handle sizes up to 4x5. There's no dark, smelly closet in my house, but I regularly apply traditional darkroom techniques to my image processing be it scanned film or digital capture.

post

If the shots are casual, I'll just shoot Jpeg's, but I alway have my camera shoot simultaneous Jpegs when I shoot Raw for reference and web posts. Adobe Lightroom and other Raw converters have come a long ways, but I still find myself performing Raw conversions using Nikon's Capture for critical images. All other conversions are handled by Adobe Lightroom were I also do my organizing, basic and some not so basic adjustments. I'm a stitcher, cropper and at times a pretty heavy manipulator, but at the same time there's plenty of untouched images I release straight out the camera. Most monochromatic or toning conversions are now handled in Lightroom with a host of other proceses involving things like layers or montage being performed in Photoshop. My goal is to maximize the image's potential while in most cases staying true to the scene in my mind. It's pretty easy to get carried away and my portfolio surely exhibits many a foray into extreme alterations, but in general, I like to work quick and focused and not get too carried away with the endless tools. Currently my storage array is around 2 tetrabytes with backups so I do find programs like Google's Picasa to aid in quickly scanning poorly filed images. Early on I did a lot of virtual reality work were I used Panotools to bring it all together. I loved that work and hope to revisit it for some ultra wide angle print ideas I have festering. My largest stitched panorama I've done to date has an 8 bit file size of over 350mb's. My only issue with printing a file like that is how to present and preserve it. A 12' long print is hard to frame, so I'll probably go with a more industrial solution. I do most of my own printing on an Epson 7800 which I generally keep primed with matte black ink for heavy fine art papers. I do love glossy as well, but generally favor the more glare resistant and textured surface of a good matte paper. My current favorites are Hahnemuhle's Photo Rag and Epson's Velvet Fine Art. Having such a great printer really allows me to fine tune the translation from screen to paper, sometimes even adjusting for paper type, glazing and display environment if known. I also do my own traditional framing and mat cutting and I'm actively researching "glazing free" methods of presentation. My personal take on archivability is do it when you can, but ultimately we live in the present and a file can always be re-printed to continue it's legacy. A reprint, if properly documented, will probably look better 20 years from now on the latest 32 ink nano jets anyways.

The digital revolution has turned a lot if us into lab technicians. There was a day when you focused on the shots and let the few highly trained lab folks take it the rest of the way, but I digress.