Old smoke pulls

[Sam]

I found some old smoke pulls from engravings I did about 15 years ago. I photographed them and inverted them in Photoshop to make them a positive instead of negative. The quality is poor and the tape is yellow with age.

Cheers / ~Sam

 

[Peter E]

Those scrolls sure look good Sam. Thanks for showing them.

 

[Patternweldor]

Hi Sam,

The detail in the shading that you obtained with the smoke pulls is amazing. I really like the shading it surely gives it depth, not to mention the great balance in the layout. I have used block printers ink in the past, it works pretty well but it is easy to get it on too thick and it can smudge certain areas. I am going to try the smoke pull method, it seems to give more tones of grays and it seems to accent the shading better. Maybe I will not want to see all of my detail!!

Thank You for showing this,
Chris H.

 

[Sam]

Chris: A photo is certainly better, but there's nothing wrong with an old fashioned smoke pull. After I pull them I put the tape on a piece of clear acetate so you can see through both sides. Everything is yellowing with age and will eventually deteriorate, so photos are best in my opinion.

 

[Patternweldor]

Hi Sam,

That is a good idea about the acetate, I have always just used paper but the option of viewing though both sides sounds good.
I was just down to the camera shop yesterday and I am going to have to upgrade my camera, I have a lot of old medium format cameras that I used to really like to shoot with but with time and film availability I had bought a Canon power shot pro 90 a few years back, it still works well but for close ups I have trouble focusing, it has low megapixels but has a great lens that seems to make up for the megapixels. I looked at a Canon Rebel and a Canon G11 it would be nice to have the interchangeable lenses but the G11 seems to be set for macro now, decisions! decisions! If they made an affordable digital back for the old hasselblad I would just get that, but I want to still try to keep the farm!

Thanks for your time and tips,
Chris H.

 

[Sam]

I sold all of my film stuff a few years ago. 4x5 Toyo, Nikon 35mm and a slew of lenses all went on eBay. The new Canon DSLR's are amazing and very affordably priced. They even shoot hi-def video! Of course you'll spend nearly or as much for decent glass as the camera body. I've found the Sigma 150mm macro is excellent for shooting engraving, and cost much less than Canon glass. It's the only non-Canon lens I own and the autofocus is dreadfully slow, but I only shoot manual so that's not an issue.

 

[Patternweldor]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the info, It took me back yesterday when I was in the camera shop they still had developing supplies on the shelf. That is a good idea on the macro lens, I like the idea of the slr, but the lenses do become costly, they had an older canon digital slr that was on consignment I think it was an EO1 ?? not exactly sure but it looked like a nice machine they said it was a very good camera, well I guess I will have to check it all out.

Thanks for the information!
Chris H.

 

[Charlie]

Smooooth, dem scrolls are sooooo smooth !

you don't get jerked around looking at em.

Just a warm, smiling, feeling.

This would be my example of the best that a human can accomplish.

 

[Kevin P.]

"The quality is poor and the tape is yellow with age."
That may be so Sam, but it's always educational.
Kevin P.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Sam, I think they still look good, but as you said, keeping them as digital photos will keep them like they are now.
This remembers me to my dad who made a lot of "slides" (diapositives). In those times the colours where not that good and after some years they turned out mostly red.
Also because of the humidity they are also "being eaten". Sure they are more than 50 years old now, and some years ago I have photographed all off them using a digital camera on tripod wile exposing them on a screen.
After that I have been buzzy for a while in Photoshop to correct the colours agoain that much as it could.
It is amazing how they look now, made some copy's for all family so at least they are not lost.
But we must realize that whatever we try, after we are gone, a lot of what we thought was important will be lost, ass no mater what we do, people always try to "invent the wheel" again.
And if one looks at his own history, sometimes one has a "precious item" from his grandparents, but much farther these treasures won't survive.
It is probably human kind trying to do what is impossible.

And if digital information will held longer than the old fashion black and white photographs, a lot people think it wont, I don't know but sure a lot more will be lost.

arnaud

 

[filbertius]

But do be sure to make multiple backups of those digital pics (and anything else you don't want to lose). That box full of smokepulls and photos may well survive after the computer disk has crashed.
I was scanning some old photos of my father a few months ago. There are prints nearly 100 years old which are still in very good shape - as well as photos only 30 years old which are about to crumble (I assume it was paper with acid).
I am trying to keep both digital AND physical copies of the really important things.
Gary

 

[Montejano]

The pictures show a design work and very nice style of engraving.

Friend sam, my congratulations and thanks for showing .

Antonio

 

[jetta77]

Killer scrolls Sam, man there just that good...

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Wonderful smoke pulls Sam.

Yip, photos are great from a purely practical point of view..........but there is something about a smoke pull. Maybe a certain romance and olde worlde charm and it ads to the mystic of what we do.

Imagine Nimschke's book without them and all you saw was photos. It would lose a lot of it's artistic appeal.

It would be a crying shame to see them disappear and replaced solely with clinical digital imagery.

Cheers
Andrew