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Electronic-Chaos-PPW

A happy accident

A happy accident
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May, 2015

Views

124

Likes

Awards

People's Choice in Strange Photo Result Photo Challenge

Virtuoso

Outstanding Creativity

Emotions

Impressed

Behind The Lens

Location

Have you ever had a "What the Heck?" moment? Well, mine came as I was searching through unmarked boxes of slides last week to determine what was in them. In one particular box were slides taken during a trip to Portugal and Spain in June 1984 with a Nikon FTN and Ektachrome film. For the life of me, I could not identify exactly where the pictures in this box were from. As I was examining them using a projector and screen, this image popped up and thus my "What the Heck?" moment. At first, I just dismissed it as an error but I kept coming back to it trying to figure out what had happened. Around this particular slide, I had been trying to shoot some night images of street lights from a high position most likely the top of a hotel or hill. What I was trying or not trying here is not clear. Was this on purpose or just an accident-I don't know? In any case, I decided that this image needed to be rescued from the box. So I scanned the slide with my Epson Perfection V700 and SilverFast Archive Suite. The resultant image was further processed in using Picture Postcard workflow in PSCS6 Extended. Although I call this Electronic Chaos, close examination shows a much more orderly process. As you look at the light streaks across the image you will notice that there are multiple repeating patterns. Some of the lines are solid and some dashed, and they rise and fall in a chaotic manner. In the upper right, it looks like out of focus and smeared buildings if you squint just right. But no matter what the image is or how it came about I just like it and hope you do too.

Time

Nightime

Lighting

I had been trying to shoot some night images of street lights from a high position most likely the top of a hotel or hill. What I was trying or not trying here is not clear.

Equipment

Camera: Nikon FTN Lens and Filters: not recorded Film and/or ISO: Ektachrome Aperture: not recorded Shutter speed: not recorded Location: Portugal or Spain

Inspiration

I enjoy night photography and of course, with a Nikon FTN, I had no way to know that this accident occurred until I developed the slide film.

Editing

Picture Postcard workflow in PSCS6 Extended, This is my go-to post-processing method. But I had to convert the slide first So I scanned the slide with my Epson Perfection V700 and SilverFast Archive Suite.

In my camera bag

Well, I am far from using a Nikon FTN these days. My camera bag usually has my D810, a 24-120 f/4 zoom, a 300 mm f/4 PF lens and a 16mm fisheye.

Feedback

Obviously, this was a happy accident. So I think, one way to produce something similar is to use a very slow shutter speed and wave the camera around. This looks more like an electronic glitch. I think the real lesson here is even errors can create interesting images and you may find that an image may contain a section or in this case a whole image that would make an attention-getting photo.

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Electronic-Chaos-PPW

A happy accident

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow robsb

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