For multiple reasons, lighting the trophy was a difficult task. The “innovation” text is dark gray, almost black, making it very difficult to show against a black background (use of a light specular highlight was used to make the text stand out). Also, the text is printed on two layers of glass creating a double-text ghosting effect. 

As always, comments are welcome.

After the modification, I tried my first medium-low resolution scan (50 megapixels at 1200dpi, 16bit grayscale). Anything higher quality would’ve taken too long to scan since I still haven’t designed a way to mount the scanner to the camera. I had to basically hand hold it. The scan took about 30 seconds and I moved a little bit. Also the focusing was done in low light without a loupe and the camera was working at a fairly wide open aperture for the format, so the photo is a bit softer than it could be.

Here is a rough crop from the photo above compared to a similarly composed photo taken by my 12mp D300 with a roughly equivalent focal length.

Keep in mind that this project is still a very early work in progress. I plan to eliminate the rest of the vignetting as well as the banding and eventually the camera will shoot color 400 megapixel images.

For part 1 of the project, click here.

Check out the concept and my progress after the break….

The concept:

The idea is simple, but not original: attach a modified scanner to the back of a camera. However, this will require heavy modification of the scanner. Also, mounting the scanner to the camera and focusing will require some ingenuity.

The Scanner:

Canon LIDE 80 (for now) - $30 on ebay
 
Canon’s LIDE scanners use a unique color LED system combined with a mirror-less micro-lens design that makes them perfect for photography with some heavy modification. These scanners are also great because they only require a USB cable for power allowing for more portability (connecting to a laptop on location).

The Camera:

8×10 View camera - $200 used
 
A large format camera (or at lease its lens) is needed to project an image large enough to nearly cover the entire bed of the scanner.

Limitations:

• Exposure times are slow and anything moving will look oddly distorted. This effect can be very artistic, but is not always intended.
• A 400mp 16-bit raw file will be around 3gb and will take a very long time to expose!
• Scanning in color will require multiple exposures as well as an expensive IR blocking filter.
• Banding and scan lines need special treatment (multiple exposures).
• The setup is very large and cumbersome.
• After disabling the LED in the scanner, some software won’t allow you to use the scanner

Current Progress (a few hours into the project):

Step 1: Remove the lid 

Step 2: Using a flat-head screw driver, carefully remove the plastic guides on the long sides of the scanner. 

Step 3: Leaving the film guide attached to the glass, slide the glass toward the back of the scanner, lift up on the film guide end, then pull the glass straight out. 

Step 4(a): Here is a view of the micro lens array (the black dotted strip) and the LED (the white strip near the top) The lens array is hot glued in and is a bit of a pain to remove. 

 
Step 4(b): Using some needle-nosed pliers, carefully remove the micro-lens array. Start at one end and pull up until the glue breaks free moving down the line.

Step 5 - Disable the LED( sorry but no photo): Use gaffers or thick electrical tape to cover the White LED strip leaving about 1-1/4” of the LED exposed at each end. Covering the entire LED would be ideal , but most scanning software won’t allow the scanner to work without some light shining though. 

 
Here is a comparison shot  of my progress so far. Note that the CIS housing creates a keyhole effect which I will later correct. The scanner also shows heavy banding that can be fixed with dark-frames (similar to the frames I use to get rid of noise on my star streak photos). Also notice that the sheep is white in the scanner images. That’s because the scanner scans near infrared.
   

Goals to complete this project:

• Modify the CIS housing to remove the keyhole vignette
• Create a “holder” to attach the scanner to the camera (I was holding it by hand in the photos above) The holder should allow me to focus on ground-glass before attaching the scanner
• Figure out a way around the software limitations so that the entire LED can be covered up
• Get a IR blocking filter (B+W and tiffen both make them)

Credit goes to Mike Golembewski for his in depth article on how to do this.

Keep watching for updates….

I tried to stick to a minimalist theme, shooting towards the sun with no lighting, a single lens and no photoshop treatment (just a bit of toning in lightroom). At one point I turned the focus off on my camera and just shot without any focus. Those photos are my favorites from the trip. As the saying goes, sometimes less is more.

Model: Kristina Wiggins. Comments welcome.

Lots more photos after the break…

Wacky Equipment Setups:

Fielding Cathcart:

Nick Higman:

Me:

Everyone Else:

One thing that is different about the exposures below is that I’m now using a different stacking technique. Instead of firing off a sequence of 30 second exposures at a higher ISO (800-1600), I’m using an intervalometer to shoot 5-min exposures at ISO 400. This results in better noise performance and more control over the brightness of the sky. The intervalometer also eliminated an issue that most Nikon D-SLRs have: a limited number of continuous shots in a row. No matter what quality and exposure length, all of the Nikons that I’ve tested (D3, D300, D200, D2x) have a limited maximum frame count when shooting continuous (my D300 is 100 and if memory serves me right, the D3 has a 125 shot limit). Once this limit is reached, the camera stops shooting and the remote must be unlocked, then locked. This makes exposures longer than an hour (at 30 seconds) very difficult. Now can take an unlimited amount of shots for any exposure length and just walk away (see the second shot down for example). I plan on posting directions on how to use both Nikon and Canon intervalometers soon. Until then, enjoy the photos… 

Above: A stack of 5 min exposures adding up to just over 1.5 hours. We gelled the inside and outside of the old captain’s quarters with our pointing north to get this photo.

Above: This is where we camped for the night, finally getting to bed around 3:45am after a long night of shooting. For this shot we decided to just let the cameras stack through the night. Exposure time: 2 hours, 15 mins using 5 min exposures. Gelled like the previous shot, this time facing south-east.

Above: Finally, here is a less serious (noisy) shot taken at ISO 3200 for 30 seconds with the D300. This is the iconic Bonsai Rock at Lake Tahoe taken a few weeks ago. Jupiter is setting near the center of the frame.

Realizing that its been quite a while since I posted anything new, I’ve finally let my conscience get the best of me and decided to share some photos from a recent shoot. About a year ago, I met the official photographer Hummer’s off-road racing team, John Pappenfort. John’s a great photographer and was nice enough to get me in as the second team photographer for the recent “Vegas to Reno” race put on by Best in the Desert Racing Association.

It was a great couple days! Using radio and GPS, we chased the race trucks for 12+ hours, setting up on the track and shooting the whole time. At night I set up strobes and experimented with the artificial light in the pits with good results (see the first two photos below).

By the end of it, my cameras were pure white with dust (no kidding). The race ended with three out the four Hummers finished first in their class with over 200 vehicles in the race.

Be sure to click the photos for captions and more details, comments always welcome!

Comments welcome…