A Tale of Two Scans (follow-up to my "pick my entry" poll)...

[regnaD kciN]

So far, one of the top poll-getters has been "Lincoln's Grave." The version posted in my poll was taken from a more than ten-year-old scan of an enlargement I had made many years before that. I used a simple low-res flatbed scanner at my work (which was the only scanner I had access to at the time). The 640x480 size shown is the poll is about the maximum it can be sized to without losing sharpness.

So, now that I have a scanner (Epson 4490) with transparency-handling capability, I decided to do a brand new 4800-dpi scan from the original negative. I expected the new scan to look at least slightly better. What I did not expect would be that it would look drastically different.

First, here's the version made from the old scan, which I've posted on the poll thread:




Now, here's the new scan. The only postprocessing has been to resize it to match and clean up some dust spots. I made no changes to the tonality of the image.




(Notice that the cropping is different -- the second is from the entire negative, while the first came from a print that had itself already been cropped.)

There's no question that the second is a more exact rendition of what's on the negative The big question, though, is which do you think is better as an image? I'm interested in your comments (maybe especially from those who prefer the first version).

[intheflow]

1. I prefer the second one.

Much more detail! I never even noticed the no parking signs in the first one, though I voted for this photo in your "pick my pic" poll.

[Samurai_Writer]

2. I like the first one!

It's moodier, darker, and has an 'abandoned' feeling to it.

[NV Whino]

3. Second one.

I think the sign, which you can now read, adds to the poignancy of the photo.

[alkaline9]

4. I like the 2nd one for a few reasons...

1. The No Parking sign as noted above (although I DID see it in the first one, its more noticeable now).

2. The flat tires are more noticable... which is directly linked to the title, no?

3. Brighter/More Detail - the eye doesn't strain as much to make out details.

4. Wider Crop... maybe just personal opinion, but I like a little more than JUST the subject in a photo.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. I like them both...

The first for the deep shadow, but the second for the irony of the no-parking sign. This is really a cool shot, and the title makes it.

[regnaD kciN]

6. In the long run, I decided to hold this one out for a later contest...

I've been playing with this image in Photoshop (adjusting curves, cropping, etc.), trying to come up with a version that combines what I see as the strengths of each of the scans. I still haven't gotten there, and want the chance to work with it some more. But this month's contest is filling up fast, and I fear I wouldn't be done before entries were closed.

Besides, as I mentioned in my other thread, Memorial Day seems to be more appropriate as an expression of "absence of color" as opposed to simply "black and white." (Which is ironic, of course, because what brings out the "absence" in that photo is the very fact that there is a small amount of color in the form of the lone figure, but there you have it.)

I am hoping that, over the next year or so, another topic will come up for which Lincoln's Grave would work. Eventually, I'm sure, we'll get another black-and-white theme, or maybe a second coming of last year's "Light and Shadows" (for which I think this would have been ideal, but I only found the print to scan after that contest was held), or some other topic altogether.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. Second one. No contest

the signs make the pic