I am not going to go into details regarding my personal life, other than I discovered deep dark places I never want to venture into again. However, I have finally resurfaced, with the help of family and one very special person. That aside, it’s time to get my photographic life back in shape. All I really lost was 2010.

So, I still have no clue as to frequency of posts on LIDF for the foreseeable future, but I am going to make an effort to keep some fresh content up. My writing and development duties over at X-Equals take a precedent over LIDF, and I’m behind over there as well. So the next few months are a time to dig out and make a fresh start.

So content will be slow to come for a while, as I play catch up and attempt to redesign the blog. I have a few post ideas simmering, nothing major, but useful. Once I get my Kodachrome slides in, I will work up a piece on scanning Kodachrome.

Got a new product line of Lightroom presets coming up on X-Equals. XeL is a new preset platform, rethinking the way in which presets are used in Lightroom. There is a full series of XeL toolkits in the pipeline, which will be dropping throughout the year. In case any digital shooter are reading, hop over and check it out.

Also, in progress for a few months are two new eBooks. I have coming a book covering a SilverFast + Lightroom workflow, from prepping film to printed photos. There is also a version of the same book eschewing SilverFast, focusing on a VueScan + Lightroom workflow. Both books focus on how to get the best scan quality possible from consumer grade film scanners. Hope for both of these to be available by July as PDF, ePub, and Kindle files.

Well I’m going to wrap up for now. You all know I’m alive, and hope to be back helping revive film photography quickly. Catch me on Twitter @mwgray.

Be back soon.

Michael

Change, it is somewhat of a constant in life, as contradictory as that may sound. Since LifeInDigitalFilm’s inception about a year and a half ago, the blog has made many little changes, shifts if you will, but never strayed too far from the original purpose. That purpose was to distribute my film emulation presets. However, as with all things in life, its time for a change.

Over the past year and a half, the mere task of emulating film has led me back into the warm embrace of the darkroom arts. I actually shot multiple rolls of each film I emulated to get an accurate feel for each film, both objective and subjective. For a while I was shooting just for the purpose of emulation, but the old Minolta Maxxum 7000 felt wonderful in my hands, and when the test rolls came out of the rinse I started to feel that old magic reignite.

Since the inception of LIDF, I have went from shooting 100% digital to shooting 20% digital and 80% traditional (I truly loathe the moniker ”Analog” for film photography). I still shoot digital for my paying jobs mostly, but almost all my personal work originated in silver salts embedded in gelatin. Keeping a digital focus on LIDF became work, both because I was enamored with the old ways and a guest spot on X-Equals led to becoming a regular contributor to the site. With the gwoing interest in film and a constant workload at X-Equals, LIDF began to suffer.

So recently, while working with Brandon of X-Equals on some upcoming projects, we discussed the future of LIDF. As it is, I am a major part of X-Equals, both in writing and product production, but I didn’t want LIDF to fade gently into the night. We can up with a plan together, which I am going to lay out to you now.

• LIDF has a new direction, one I have been slowly shifting toward over the course of the past year. LIDF is now going to focus on the needs and issues of the Hybrid Photographer. Those who choose to meld the strengths of film with the abilities afforded us by the digital darkroom. Using traditional and modern tools hand in hand to take the art of photography to the next level.
• To further this direction, LIDF will no longer have any digital content. From articles on digital photography to presets, including my film emulation presets. My articles relating to digital will now find a home on X-Equals, as they have been for over a year now.
• The film emulation presets will continue again in the future, they will be found at X-Equals from now on. Make sure to sign up for the X-Equals+Digest to be the first to get your hands on future Cold Storage film emulations. Also, sales of Cold Storage are no longer being done through LifeInDigitalFilm, X-Equals is the sole provider of my preset endeavors. The “Presets for Sale” link at the top of LIDF still works, but all sales are routed through X-Equals infrastructure. Or you can go to the X-Equals Store, instead.
• As X-Equals and LifeInDigitalFilm come more instep with one another, one focusing upon digital whilst the other upon film, there will be changes to LIDF. A new theme is in the works, replacing the excellent Mono theme I have been using. Also a change in hosting is very likely as well. I’ll keep you updated on any expected down time as those events move closer.

So now you know what is changing, here is some of what you can expect.

• Fresh articles on the arcane art of scanning. I started a series a while back on scanning, but other issues prevented me from getting it moving along, however they are well on their way to completion and posting.
• More in depth coverage of the two preeminent pieces of scanning software on the market. SilverFast and VueScan. I have touched upon these before, but both will be recieveing 30-Day Reviews, where I review the software after an intensive month with the software, in the coming weeks. Beyond the reviews, look forward to in-depth scanning workflows for both of these fine pieces of software.
• I’ll keep you up to date on new scanner releases as soon as I find out about them. Plus I will have reviews for the hardware I frequently use and share my thoughts and techniques with you.
• I love Lightrooom, and I find it just as powerful for the Hybrid Photographer as the Digital Photographer. We will look at the non-destructive workflow Lightroom offers, as we use the tools made for RAW files upon our scans.
• Plus, I will completely outline my personal scanning settings, which in the end become my fDNG files. 48-bit TIFFs wrapped up in a warm DNG blanket to provide additional security for your images as well as a litany of metadata to help you utilize your scans in Lightroom.
• We will experiment with some alternative photography methods, from printing in the darkroom from digital “negatives”, “scanning” slides using a DSLR enabling the use of RAW and HDR, to some traditional techniques that you may have never encountered.
• Dig deep into the world of development, from B&W to Color. We’ll even take a look at compounding our own chemisty to take our control of development to the next level.
• And more that I haven’t thought of. There is over 100 years of traditional technique and everyday there is more technology we can apply to the old ways.

So hang around and see what you think.

So let’s see whats coming up in the next moth, as I copy from the draft panel in WordPress.

• The Hybrid Photographer’s Toolkit: A series of posts in which I share what equipment I use and recommend to fully setup both your traditional and digital darkrooms. The stuff I have to have every day for support my hybrid workflow.
• 30-Days Reviews: I got both SilverFast and VueScan on deck and I will share my thoughts and observations made over a full month spent with each of these killer pieces of software.
• Film Photographer Profiles: As I recently introduced, I will continue to choose some of the most talented film photographers and share their work with you. To see what I mean, look back at my profile on the talented Nick Shere.

So keep dropping by and find out for yourself what I have in store for everyone. And don’t forget to add X-Equals to your required reading as well, especially if you were here for my presets and views on the digital world. Its been a great ride so far, I can’t wait to see where we go next.

Forgot to mention, LIDF now has a Flickr Group. Join up at the LifeInDigitalFilm – The Home of the Hybrid Photographer group and lets talk! If you want to hang out and wax poetice over the digital realm of photography catch me at the X-Equals flickr group, X-Equals on flickr – share, interact, inspire.

Michael W. Gray

I would like to apologize for the lack of updates in the past month, as I have been rather busy on a litany of projects and LIDF kind of slipped to the ways side. Primarily I have been trying to polish up my scanning series, so that as the articles drop, they will be solid off the bat.

Good news though. Saturday will be the first official post in the scanning series and it will be looking at software. For those of you activly scanning already it may not be of much interest, but I feel that the choice of scanning software is second only to choosing you scanner. I won’t touch on what scanners to use, as there are differing needs and differing capabilities. However I have a few reviews waiting in the wings of the units I am familiar with, and if any of you have a scanner you would like to review, e-mail me what you got and I will run it on LIDF for all to see.

But that is coming this weekend, so look for it.

Also, since I already have you here, I would like to direct you to one of my favorite blogs I have came across in recent months. 1/125 (http://one125.net) is the creation of Nick Shere (@kukkurovaca ) and Karl Gunnarsson ( @kalli) and is a refreshing view on the world of photography. It is a tum-blog, so the posts are usually short, full of opinion and entertaining as hell. Both guys are good photographers with unique outlooks on photography, both the act of and the photographic world in general.

I highly recommend you give 1/125 a look. It covers opinions on classic works, current events and thoughts on photography. Much like me, both Nick and Karl are hybrid photographers, utilizing both film and digital in their work, so I feel their opinions may well be of interest to many LifeInDigitalFilm fans.

Also, while you are purveying the web, make sure to drop by X-Equals and check out my latest piece there, covering a quick workflow to fix bad exposures.

Anyways, just wanted to check in since I had a few minutes, I’ll see ya this weekend when we take a look at scanning software.

Later all,

Michael

Just wanted to let you all know that LIDF will pick up a bit now that the switch is done.  It is alot easier to manage WordPress than Blogger, so I hoppe my posting ceases to feel like a chore.  I will be spending a few days tweaking my install and looking for a better theme.  If anyone out there has any good leads on free or cheap WordPress themes that are 3 columns, a color scheme of Black, Silver, White, and has a slick look, please e-mail me at: michael@lifeindigitalfilm.com .

Well, keep coming back, the change I promised months ago finally came to fruition.  Next is new presets, better articles and the Cold Storage Collection Vol. 2.  Along with some other preset collections I have been working on in the past few months.

Have a great weekend,

Michael

As for the WordPress migration, that is on hold for now. I have too much going on, and I wish I could devote more time to get my setup working right, I don’t see that free time coming until late summer. I am not happy with the current incarnation, but I will be working with it throughout the summer. You can check out what’s up with it at www.lifeindigitalfilm.net, but I am not going to post to it until it’s ready, keep coming here for updates. I jumped the gun on this, and felt I could handle it, but I couldn’t at the time.

Also, I will be getting some focus on the film side of everything, including scanning and integrating film into a Lightroom/Photoshop workflow. Possibly a few presets to expedite the manipulation of film scans in Lightroom. We’ll see what happens.

Hopefully in the next few weeks, my personal issues will clear up and allow me a bit more energy to focus into the website. As it is a full time job and part time photography is alot, but they keep my family fed…the website comes second, but I still love writing LifeInDigitalFilm.

Thanks for your continued support,

Michael

www.lifeindigitalfilm.net

When fully ready to go, I will either redirect the current lifeindigitalfilm.com or I will keep the blogger dot com site up for a while, linking to new posts on dot net. Let me know what you think is the best idea]

Just a heads up, LifeInDigitalFilm will be switching over to WordPress as a blogging platform. This switch will give me more option and more creative control over LifeInDigitalFilm. Most likely there will be no posts until the switch is complete. During this time, LifeInDigitalFilm.com will still be operational as it is. I will update this post with additional information as necessary, and give you the link to try out the new LifeInDigitalFilm before the switch is complete.

I hope to have the switch over completed as soon as possible, hopefully within the next week. If there are any delays I will let you know. I was planning on finishing up the tutorial and release a few more presets before the switch, but I decided I was going to jump on it now.

Bear with me, this is gonna be worth it.

Michael

PS: In the mean time, if you find you enjoy my presets and wish to show some support for LifeInDigitalFilm, consider purchasing my Cold Storage Preset Collection. It is a collection of many of my presets on this site, along with 12 exclusive presets. More information can be found HERE. Your purchase helps me aquire more film for emulation and pay for processing and scanning needed for emulation analysis.

Anyone who purchases (or have already purchased) the Cold Storage Collection will recieve a free upgrade to Cold Storage Vol. 2 upon its release in Late May, along with a special pack of presets just for my early supporters. More information on this will be sent to those who have ordered the Cold Storage Collection shortly before the release of Cold Storage 2. If you have already purchased the Cold Storage Collection and are using a new E-mail address send me an E-mail to help@lifeindigitalfilm.com with your new e-mail address as well as the e-mail address used for purchase so I can update my records for when I send out the upgrade links.

Just wanted to let everyone know I haven’t forgot, just a bit busy.

Thanks,

Michael

Be back soon,

Michael

Here are the releases made this week:

Tuesday: Fuji 160C
Wednesday: Fuji 160S
Friday: Foma Fomapan Classic
Sunday: Forte Fortepan 400

Had a review of the great, inexpensive canvas products from ZaZa Gallery on Thursday. Definitely check out the review and their site is you are looking to get some gallery wraps made. Great quality at a reasonable price, make them your first stop when shopping around for prices. And if you need to uprez an image for a canvas wrap project, read Dennis Hays’ write up on Genuine Fractals 6 over at X-Equals.

Saturday I made a post with a couple reminders…Vote on a winning image at the Flickr Prestting Lightroom group’s photocontest. Please drop by and vote.
And drop by X-Equals to learn more about Dripbook, a great new online portfolio service.

And now I am going to continue in my epic struggle against failing hardware and hope that I can produce more content for tomorrow. Hopefully I can get my next article for X-Equals done soon too. Need to get my screenshots and then I will have an article all about sharpening in Lightroom ready to go. Just need a working Lightroom computer. This Linux machine is fine for everything but photos…no Adobe love for Linux.

Hopefully see you tomorrow,

Michael

UPDATE: My local Hard disk is trashed, and I was unable to recover my finished presets. As it is, it should be Wednesday before I can get a new drive, and Thursday before I can finish off a preset from the WIP presets that were last saved to my server the night before. In other words, no new releases until then. I don’t know what I am going to cover the next few days, as I have no Lightroom/Photoshop PC at the moment, but releases will resume by the end of this week. And so it is written in stone, this week is best left forgotten.