Whilst chatting to my contact at the Westbridge Camera Club she (Donna) the discussion of flatbed scanner photography came up. I hadn't heard of this before and Donna forwarded some results which were interesting.
My instant reaction was 'no, this is not photography' but whilst thinking it through changed my opinion somewhat. After all, a scanner has a lens (focuses on flatbed) and a sensor, not unlike a camera.
Sure, it captures images in a completely different way, but that in my mind shouldn't be a reason to discount it.
What do you guys think? Inspired by Donna I have tried a couple of scans/shots myself, grabbing a few Maple leave just before Fall passes us by.
I guess in these cases the result is influenced ISM (Subject) movement rather than ICM. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Did you use a box as well?
I totally forgot about this. A few years back there was someone who would do flower bouquets by putting them inside the box face down and scanning. Absolutely beautiful.
Photography?
From "A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language" first ed. 1980.@
photography. (Gk) from Gk. φωτο, for φως light (above); and, γράφημα to write.
You have Light and you are Writing, so yes. Photography!
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@ Yeah, I got books like that around the house.
No, I didn't try a box, primarily as I wanted the ability to move the leaf during the scan.
These were actually taken under a black piece of cloth, but I've tried at night to create a dark background also.
You must have an interesting book collection....
I never heard of this technique before now. It's really fascinating. I'm going to check it out now. Thank you, Alan, for something new to think about.
Sounds good Jenny - hopefully you'll get results you feel comfortable with sharing.
I know this since some years. Used it myself for a macro replacement documentary having no macro lens or camera. Worked nicely!
Yes. It has no sensor. Film also. It has a image scanning unit and an image processing unit, latest in combination with a computer. Similar to a digi cam. The image scanning unit working in pixels on a line, equal to a sensor. We could deep dive on the way to read out the cmos senor and compare to find deviations.. a scaner has a fix focus optic. Loc cost cams too.
Finally: it produces a 2 dimensional data based copy of a real object. Similar to film. Do we need to be that 'religios' on photography? Whom does it help?
So: What prevents us to declare it as a kind of photography?
All valid points. Something worth experiencing with over the winter.
This is a historically well-established, if fairly uncommonly used genre of photography, Alan, usually called a photogram. It lends itself to (flattened!) flowers and botanical specimens.
I like your images! They're very "you", not just in the movement during exposure you enjoy.
My problem is fitting the tripod into the scanner...
;-)
Thanks Chris, it’s great to hear your voice.
I wasn’t aware of the history of this type of image, thanks for filling me in on that.
I hope you’re doing well and spending time shooting ( with or without the tripod😉)