One of the sights I have often tried to capture
on film is the coast of Greenland, which is sometimes visible on northerly
crossings to the USA and Canada. Unfortunately, the passengers hardly ever
get to see this amazing coastline because at this stage of the flight the
window blinds are down and the movies are running. More's the pity because
it is a truly amazing spectacle. Frozen sea, icebergs, deep fjords, glaciers,
jagged mountains, ice deserts and nunataks make this a place like nowhere
else on Earth. Better than any movie.
Until fairly recently, photographers had to rely upon the skills of talented
darkroom technicians to rescue their flawed pictures. With the advent of
digital imaging, all that has changed, even for the amateur. Now any photographer
with a computer can easily manipulate and enhance pictures, even beyond
what was previously possible in the darkroom. It was to this technology
that I turned in an attempt to rescue some of my shots of Greenland.
Basically, all that is required is to get the picture into a form that a
computer can handle - and that means digital. High quality digital (filmless)
cameras are becoming available; they are expensive, but no doubt prices
will fall eventually. In the meantime, a 'normal' film image can be digitised
by scanning it from a negative, transparency or print. Alternatively, your
photographs can be transferred from film onto Photo CD. Each Photo CD holds
at least 100 images. There are many bureaux offering this service, and it's
also available at many labs at the time of getting your film developed.
Once in the digital domain, anything goes. With
the help of some very clever software the image can be manipulated in very
much the same way as a darkroom technician would, except that no darkroom
is needed - all the work is done in real time on your computer monitor.
At the click of a button it's possible to adjust the saturation, hue, contrast,
brightness, sharpness, colour balance, remove dust and scratches and do
a great deal more besides. And it's just as straightforward to apply special
effects to the image. It really is easy, and anyone can do it. Experience
and a 'photographic eye' do help of course, but there are no hard and fast
rules; it's simply a matter of experimenting with the various tools and
filters until things look right. Even in these days of high-tec computerised
photography, it's nice to know there is still no substitute for the Mk.I
eyeball.
If you need a print and true photo-realistic quality is required, the computer
file can be sent to a bureau for printing. However, many home computer printers
are quite capable of producing prints of at least good proof quality.
The accompanying pictures started life as 35mm Kodachrome
transparencies, all taken through aircraft windows from high altitude. I
scanned them on a Kodak RFS 2035 Scanner, and the enhancement was done using
Adobe Photoshop on an Apple Macintosh LC475 computer with 20Mb of RAM and
a 160Mb hard drive. The results are way beyond what I could have achieved
in the darkroom - and these are amongst my first attempts at digital imaging.
Of course, the power of digital imaging is not restricted to rescuing soggy
snapshots. The technique is being increasingly used by professionals as
a more creative (and less polluting) alternative to chemical photography.
And when it comes to restoring treasured but damaged family photos, removing
scratches and blemishes, correcting colour casts, adding or removing people
from pictures and so on, digital imaging has all the answers. There can
be little doubt that in the not too distant future, all photography will
be digital and film will be a thing of the past.
Many flight crew members regularly use home computers, and you only have
to peruse the pages of the Log to realise that many have considerable photographic
talents. If you're like me, you probably have drawers full of pictures which
don't quite make the grade. Nowadays, for a fairly modest outlay you can
purchase a good scanner - complete with software - hook it up to your PC
or Mac, and start turning out professional results.
to Dave Pattison 
