Zen Artistry in the Modern World
Digitizing Photos for the Home
​​ J. Casey Gershon
When Rick and I got married we did not have a lot of money. We had an outdoor wedding on a hillside in Huntington, Vermont. The location for the reception was an old barn that was used for Saturday night dances. It was called Jake’s country disco.
Rick paid $100 dollars to Jake and his wife who just happened to own the general store in downtown, Huntington. We often told our son Matthew that his soccer shoes cost more than where we got married. As part of our wedding plans, we needed to hire
a photographer. It so happens that we did indeed find a photographer in downtown Burlington who had a sign out front claiming
to be: “Vermont photographer of the YEAR!” That’s great we thought to ourselves. In fact, he specialized in a new photographic technique called Mist photos. As it later turned out, I think it would be more accurate to say that he specialized in missed photos.
And that’s where it all began. Rick and I, for whatever reason, came to believe that we could never quite get a good photograph
of the two of us together given our many family activities and travel adventures. Now and again, we did in fact take a good
photo that would be placed in one of our 18+ photo albums located in the closet of our home. Our son Matthew, of course,
as the most photographed kid in the world as is true for our grandson, Oliver.
I can remember the last photo album Rick and I created. The year was 2007; the same year that the first Apple iPhone came out. Suddenly, the need for traditional photo processing went away as did the need for creating photo albums. The first-generation iPhone and the multiple versions since then allow today's photographer to take as many photos as he/she might want whether
it be little league baseball games, travel and/or a group photo with family or friends. Fast forward to the year 2011 and these same photo images could be shared across multiple devices ranging from smartphones to tablets to computers. Photo albums are great. But when was the last time you sat down for an hour and scrolled through that "trip to the British Isles" photo album neatly tucked away in your closet? There’s some truth to the idea that out of sight, out of mind. But it so happens that I have saved every negative of every photo I have ever taken. Now, to be clear, we're talking some 40 plus years' worth of photos. I didn't plan this.
I just happen to have them. As I began to look at some of negatives it became very clear that many of them had already begun
to fade or yellow. This, in combination with the many iPhone photos already taken, made it clear that we needed to organize
them for future use.
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The starting point for me was the question of how-to best transfer those many negatives into a digital format. After some research,
I selected the Magnasonic FS71 film scanner that converts slides and negatives into digital images. This project took several months during the Winter of 2023 to complete. The old memories were now digitally formatted. Today, there are faster and more efficient ways to convert traditional photo negatives into a JPEG digital format using any one of a number of scanning apps. now available on one’s smartphone
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​Digital Photo Selection
​The other challenge is editing the many digital photos that one can easily take on a smartphone. The simple ease of point and click makes taking photos of that special travel location both fast and efficient. Imagine, the 30+ photos that you take at the Grand Canyon in Arizona or in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Here, the task is not about converting photos into digital format, but rather photo selection. How many variations of the same photo scene do you need to convey your travel story? And it also sometimes happens that some of the best (or most memorable) photos are the one’s taken on the fly; when people are out of position or just being themselves. The photos are sometime blurry or unbalanced but they convey the real spirit of the moment. In my view, they are every bit as important in the storytelling.
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Digital Photo Display
All this, leads us to our next question. What are the best ways to actually view digitally formatted photo? Viewing photos on
a smartphone has it limits starting with the fact that they're too small. And passing around your smartphone (we’ve all tried it)
to your friends and dinner guests featuring your most recent travel photos just doesn't cut it. And viewing your photos on desk-top computer isn't necessarily the most natural way to view or share family photos either. Computer tablets are somewhat better.
So our kids helped with the solution by purchasing us an AURA digital photo frame that displays photos in real-time. Instead of
a traditional framed picture on a countertop; imagine a continually changing photo display via a digital frame. Every 20 seconds,
a new photo appears bringing with it - images of family and friends as well as memories of the past. The photo display can be changed regularly according to various themes whether it be travel, family get togethers, an evening out with friends and/or
special event activities. It's your story to tell.
We keep our digital photo frame on the kitchen counter off to the side. I have to admit that it sometimes takes me 20 minutes
to make a cup of coffee as I briefly watch some of the many places that Rick and I have traveled and the people we have met.
But here’s the best part. It turns out that Rick and I have a number of great photos of the two of us together. Apparently, the mystic spell of Vermont’s photographer of the year was largely due to the fact that many of our best photos got allocated into separate photo albums – that of course – stayed in the closet and were never seen. The AURA display monitor now makes
it possible to have a photo album operating in real time. And more importantly, these photos do indeed get seen. This is the
digital photo album for the 21st century that brings with it a host of memories, that would otherwise have been forgotten.
The Zen artistry found in digital photo frames lies not in the technology itself, but in how it can be used to evoke a quiet, steady source of beauty.
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A Word About Digital Scanning, Transfer and Display
Photo Transfer
The goal is to transfer traditional photographic negatives into a digital format. This, in turn, will allow you to use the newly formatted photos on multiple devices including smartphones, laptop computers and tablets. Here are a few takeaway lessons in learning to digitize photos. There are now several ways to transfer a negative into JPEG format using a Smartphone app. such as FilmBox by Photomyne, FilmLab and Negaview Pro.
1. Prepare the negatives
Clean the film negatives to remove dust and place them on a bright, even backlight (tablet screen or window).
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2. Open a negative-scanning app
Use a smartphone app designed for film scanning (many apps automatically invert colors and adjust tones).
3. Capture the image
Hold the phone camera over the negative and take a photo. The app records the image of the negative.
4. Automatic inversion and correction
The app inverts the negative colors, turning the image into a normal positive photo. It may also adjust color balance,
contrast, and exposure.
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5. Crop and enhance
The user can crop the frame, straighten the image, and apply further adjustments to improve quality.
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6. Export to JPEG
The final processed image is saved as a JPEG file on one’s smartphone, laptop, tablet or computer or can be remotely
held in cloud storage.
Digital Photo Display
A digital photo frame is an electronic display device designed to show digital photographs without needing a computer or printed photos. It looks similar to a traditional picture frame. As with any technology, I had to be clear in terms of my expectations.
I needed something that was out of the way, but visually engaging. The Aura digital photo frame (and equivalent photo frames)
do not require any effort on the part of the user other than to select which photos are to be displayed. I wanted the transfer of new photos to be simple going from my phone to the display monitor via Wi-Fi. I also needed to be able to delete photos without any worries or concern. A few of the better-known digital photo frames include: Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame, Nixplay 10.1"
Smart Digital Picture Frame and Skylight Frame 10" Wi Fi Digital Picture Frame.