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Archive for the 'portraits' Category

Wednesday, April 27th, 2022

Bringing a 73KG High End Scanner Back to Life

Sometimes I ask myself, how do I get myself always into these enormous projects. Maybe this is how everything is supposed to be in my life. Or somebody putting these big pieces of work in front of my and tries to find out if I will ever give up. But thats where I a have to disappoint, I hardly give up on something.
I was looking for a bigger Scanner for many years, because I wanted to be able to scan my ultra large format wet plates. In the video bellow you can watch my full story. Underneath the video I will go into some details. Find out at the bottom of that post how you can support me and my work to make this postings/videos possible.

Here are some details about the Screen Cezanne Scanner:

  • 53x34cm (13.4″ x 20.9″) reflective & transparency scan surface
  • 5300dpi
  • 32-bit CMYK, 48-bit RGB, 8-bit grayscale
  • Interface SCSI II
  • supported formats TIFF; DPS; DCS; SCITEX CT; JPEG; YCC
  • 73kg heavy
  • Software: Color Genius 2.1 and 1
Still smiling – didn’t know back than what I got myself into again

Picking it up and bringing it home was a bit of a challenge. But somehow we managed to get it into my studio. Please be sure if you get yourself such a beast, that you put it into lock position before you transport it. Then you can also unmount its wing. Check the Maintenance guide here
Get as much information as possible from the large format forum thread https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?33565-Screen-Cezanne-Users-Unite

unmounting the wing makes life easier

Yes, I could have just used the Power Mac (433mhz) that came with the Scanner and it would have been all over. But, then I had to use the use Firewire hdd, or USB 1 connections. Did anybody of you guys ever tried to copy large image files via usb 1.1? So USB 1.1 transfers with about 12 mbit, thats little under one megabyte a second. Believe me, you don’t won’t to copy many gigabytes over that connection. Other than that, the original Mac was pretty slow wit MacOs 9. All tools I describe here are listed here list.mhaustria.com

There cam a working Power Mac with the scanner – but it was pretty slow

Thats the reason I got a used Power Mac G4 Quicksilver with dual 1.2 ghz and 2gig (I said wrongly 4gb in the video) of ram. You can see in the video how cool it is and that it came with an Apple Cinema Display in its original packaging.

picking up the new (old) Mac at night
what a beauty

While I set everything up, I got a scary surprise over night, luckily nothing was damaged. More about that in the video.

lot of broken things, but nothing really broken

Even it was much faster, I needed to upgrade it with an USB 2 card (be sure to get one with a specific new chipset – (links to it at and everything else here list.mhaustria.com), an ssd, a Power Domain 2930 SCSI card (I got a sealed one, check it out in the video) and an PATA/SATA Adapter. This made the Mac really quick.

felt like a little kid with all this original sealed packaging

Long story short, cloning (with carbon copy cloner) everything on the ssd, did not bring any success. Because the old MacOS 9 would not run on the new Mac and the preinstalled Mac OS X would not support the SCSi controller.
Thats why I installed http://macos9lives.com and MacOS X 10.3.2 Panther from the apple website. MacOS creates easily a multi boot when you install one OS after the previous one. To connect remotely with screen sharing form Mac OS X to Mac OS X you just have to enable the feature. For Mac OS9 install this one: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/155-vine-vnc-server-3-5-for-os9

you can use screen sharing on your Mac, but sometimes I had the feeling vnc is quicker

As you can se ein the video, coping files over 1gb ethernet connection is great. I can get about 60 Megabyte a second out of it. that is more than 60 times faster than usb 1.1

Now everything was setup and ready, I worked on a ultra large format wet plate. That was a great opportunity to see what the scanner can do. This is a 30x40cm collodion wet plate. Shot on an ultra large format camera with a Voigtländer Heliar Universal 360mm F 4.5 Lens

my 30x40cm ultra large format camera
The portrait wet plate portrait session with Roman was great.

Now it is time for the first scans. The results are amazing. Just a little hint for reflective scans. Always try to use a black background, otherwise you get light bleeding into your image. The files this scanner produces are beautiful. There eis not much need of any post processing. That saves so much time. I love it.

For wet plate workshops (Nassplattenworkshops) check ws.mhaustria.com. For portraits wetplate.art or (German/Deutsch) wetplate.at and if you want to see more street portraits check street-portraits.eu


Also the negatives and positives look great. Check out the Gallery for more impressions

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
  •  

    Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

    Inspired Series – Hans Gerlach – Christian Jungwirth – Wolfgang Mlakar

    Finally the inspired series goes on. Check the project page and register for news about the book here: inspired.mhaustria.com .

    Hans Gerlach @hansgerlach

    I met Hans by accident when I bought a part for my tripod on Ebay. After some calls we decided to do a project together. Check the outcome of it here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2021/09/a-170-year-old-process-and-high-end-food-photography/ When I worked with Hans Gerlach this project, his passion about cooking and setting up a scene on a plate inspired me. Every tiny little thing was placed carefully and at the end of every session I got to eat the most wonderful food you can imagine. In the first portrait he hold a pair of tweezers, a tool he used a lot during our work together.

    Christian Jungwirth @atelierjungwieth

    I met Christian the first time during a Menschenbilder exhibition. He invited us to visit his atelier in Graz. It was a great experience to get a private tour through all these famous artworks of well known photographers. He organises lots of other exhibitions, one of them was the amazing Steve McCurry in Graz. Backlit portraits in an enormous size. Steve McCurry inspired me a lot and standing in front of these huge portraits made my eyes wet. You can find more about this exhibition here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2021/08/news-amazing-steve-mccurry-exhibition-and-a-waterhouse-stop-database/
    Christian is also an internationally popular commercial and magazine photographer. His work is stunning. Lots of people here in Austria know his famous chocolate covered portrait of Mr. Zotter of Zotter Chocolate

    Wolfgang Mlakar

    This Storie starts a little bit different. I met Wolfgang during a wet plate portrait session in Graz. He came up to me ans asked if I could do a portrait of him in his lighthouse keeper outfit. Austria is not famous for lighthouses, so I was interested what is behind all of this. He die a lot in his life, he was a forma photographer, he has a Diploma in Education for people with special needs, he worked as a photographer for the army and much more. He then had a rough time and needed to step back. He still needs help with some tasks, but at some point he decided for himself, that this can not be everything and started to help people who are in the need of help. With that he brings light into their lives.
    It was a busy shooting day, but I figured If I let him sit down by the window with his little lighthouse, it makes the most of sense.

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
  •  

    Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

    Wet Plate Talk and on location shooting at Fomo Graz

    Fomo Graz stands for Fotomonat Graz and translates to month of photography in Graz. The Fomo team invited me to do a talk and also shoot collodion wet plate portraits on location there. Thanks a lot for the invite it was such a great event and also thanks a lot to https://www.atelierjungwirth.com for letting me use your location to work on my portraits there. We had a blast, so many interested people during my talk. I really enjoyed explaining my favourite process to you guys. Also the wet plate portrait shoot was great, so many people wanted their portrait done. I think I shot 22 portraits on that day. Check out the video underneath for more impressions from this event. You an enjoy the video on a 4K screen with HDR support!

    Check out these instagram pages from the people in the video: Fomo Graz , Ana, Luke, Julia

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

  • For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

  • For private wetplate workshops (Nassplattenworkshop contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/ (German and English available)

  • Get the latest news with my newsletter here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/newsletter-2/
  •  

    Thursday, September 30th, 2021

    Wet Plate Portraits at the Salzburger Freilichtmuseum

    In todays video I show you some impressions of my on location wet plate shooting in Salzburg at the Salburher Freilichtmuseum. We had so much fun – it was great!

    Thanks for the photos to: https://instagram.com/arturmughrabi https://instagram.com/bilder_schmiede https://instagram.com/drea.koch https://www.facebook.com/dachsteindesign

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

  • For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

  • For private wetplate workshops (Nassplattenworkshop contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/ (German and English available)

  • Get the latest news with my newsletter here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/newsletter-2/
  •  

    Thursday, August 19th, 2021

    News: Amazing Steve McCurry Exhibition and a Waterhouse Stop Database

    In this video I show you guys an exhibition that is a must see when you are in Austria. I am talking about the Steve McCurry exhibition in Graz www.stevemccurrygraz.com. This is one of the most amazing experiences I had in an exhibition like that. Huge (up to 4x6Meters and 133 of them) portraits of Steve McCurry that are all backlit. These backlit portraits are the only light source in the room. Just some more numbers so you guys get a better idea: 1100m2 portraits in a 2200m2 room! This just looks amazing. Find more details and see some great drone footage from the exhibition in my video.

    Mr. McCurry’s work inspired me many years ago and that was the reason why I started with portrait photography. He gave an artist talk in Graz and afterwards he signed books and spent some time with everybody. He is such a nice and friendly human beeing.

    As you can imagine, for me it was very cool to see him in person for the first time. And I couldn’t resist to take a selfie with him 🙂

    At this point also a big thanks to www.atelierjungwirth.com for bringing such an amazing exhibition and the artist talk to life and letting me use the drone video.

    And there are more great news: If somebody of you guys are missing Waterhouse stops, then I am here to help. I created a Waterhouse stop database that can help lots of people http://waterhousestops.mhaustria.com. To make this happen, it would be great if anybody who has existing Waterhouse stops would scan them, measure them and upload all the information. I will bring everything in a usable format and publish it on the website. So if someone is looking for a Waterhousstop, he can go there, print the stops on cardboard and use them. Or if you want to have them 3d printed, just contact me here https://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Thanks to Christian Klant for coming up with the idea. Now enjoy the video guys!

    Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

    Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

    Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

    For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

    For private wetplate workshops (Nassplattenworkshop contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/ (German and English available)

    Get the latest news with my newsletter here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/newsletter-2/

    Posted by Markus | Filed in exhibition, news, portraits, talk | Comment now »

     

    Wednesday, August 11th, 2021

    Inspired – Borut Peterlin – photographer and wet plate artist

    Borut’s work is very inspiring, he works with so much passion on his beautiful artworks. His documentations on his Youtube Channel are artworks by themselves. No wonder he was on my list for the inspired project. And most people don’t know, he has Ninja reflexes too – he bought my 3B lens mid air when it was on its way down to the ground. Thanks a lot for that Borut! His blog: https://borutpeterlin.wordpress.com and YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCjjZ-Qc43dF7xHBC92MAuA

    Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

    Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

    Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

    For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

    For private wetplate workshops (Nassplattenworkshop contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/ (German and English available)

    Get the latest news with my newsletter here: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/newsletter-2/

     

    Thursday, July 15th, 2021

    The First Analog Photography Festival After The Pandemic

    This was such a great experience! It was not only great to meet people again at the Camera Obscura Festival, but it was also awesome to meet artists that are interested in an analog workflow. Another great thing is, that this festival is not an exclusive “wet plate event” it is also for people who work with the analog medium in any way. That was so cool, with this option you will experience things you may not have seen before. Like Large Format Cameras build from Legos. It was so nice to meet all of you guys finally in person another big thanks to Stefan, Christian and Denis for organising this great event! If you want to be notified for the next Camera Obscura Festival, register here: http://cof.mhaustria.com

    Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

    Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

    For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/

     

    Tuesday, March 16th, 2021

    Inspired

    Today I want to inspire you with amazing people in front and behind my camera with my new collodion wet plate portrait project “inspired”. This project will be published in a book, register here to get the latest news about it inspired.mhaustria.com.

    It all started with a Dallmeyer 3B Petzval lens, my dream lens that finally found the way to me. Denis of wetplatedreams.com found it for me. The condition is amazing. So is also the date from when it was made – it’s from 1876.

    Denis is such a passionate person with a lot of knowledge when it comes to historic lenses and cameras.

    wetplatedreams

    And then there is Andreas – his passion is the building process of lens caps. It’s like he is meditating during the process of making one of his beauties. Unthinkable these days that somebody works 5+ hour on a lens cap, but he does. You can see in the video how beautiful one of his outcomes is.

    Andreas

    There were also lots of other people involved who made my inspired portrait project possible. Like Mr. Dallmeyer or Mr. Petzval. More about these gentlemen in my video.

    Now I want to talk about the people that were in front of my camera. 
    One of them is Michael White – a former Producer/Director/Author.
    His historical documentary – Azorian The Raising of the K-129 has received international praise and has been shown by Networks in the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia.
    Also his Book over the same story – Project Azorian the CIA and the Raising of the K-129 received positive critics in the US and worldwide. 
    He worked as special effects technician in his earlier career on many well known movies, like Superman the Movie, Flash Gordon, The Pink Panther, The Never Ending Story Enemy Mine, for name a few. 
    For more information on Michael White visit www.white.at.

    Another person that inspires me with his work is the tattoo artist Manuel Soultan. His tattoos look like vivid three dimensional photographs. He designs every artwork by himself to create a one of a kind tattoo. You can check out his work on his website http://www.msctattoos.at or on his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelsoultantattoos/

    This is just the beginning of the project. You can find already much more amazing people on inspired.mhaustria.com

    If you want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

     

    Sunday, October 11th, 2020

    Wet Plate Talk and Menschenbilder Exhibition in Judenburg

    click or scroll down for the English version

    Letzte Woche war ich bei der tollen Menschenbildereröffnung in Judenburg dabei. Außerdem hielt ich gleich zwei Vorträge über den Kollodium-Nassplattenprozess und über meine Herangehensweise beim Porträtieren mit diesem historischen Verfahren im Murtal Museum. Dabei hatte ich viel Spaß und lernte auch viele tolle Menschen kennen. Judenburg ist immer einen Besuch wert, neben den Menschenbildern und dem Museum gibt es auch noch das schöne Puchmuseum und den beeindruckenden Sternenturm zu sehen. Danke an Heinz Mitteregger, Karoline Straner und Philipp Odelga für die Fotos von mir. Zusätzlich nochmal Danke für die Einladung!

    Nächste Nassplattenworkshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Fine Art Shop: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/
    Unterstützt mich: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    Wollt ihr immer auf Letztstand sein, benutzt einfach meinen Newsletter ein Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

    English version

    Last week I was at the amazing Human Pictures (Menschenbilder) exhibition in Judenburg . Additionally I had two talks about the collodion wet plate process and how I approach my portraits with this technique in the Murtal Museum. I had so much fun there and met so many great people. If you are in Austria, you will like you visit in Judenburg, Beside the Museum and the current exhibition, you can visit the Puchmuseum and the planetarium Sternenturm. Thanks a lot to Heinz Mitteregger, Karoline Straner and Philipp Odelga for the photographs of myself. Also thanks a lot for the invitation.

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Fine Art Shop http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/

    become a Patreon and support me: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art
     

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
     


     

    Tuesday, September 8th, 2020

    Tribute to Borut (Peterlin) and a wet plate workshop with Michael and Philip



    click or scroll down for the English version

    Bei meinem letzten Kollodium Nassplattenworkshop haben wir eine “Tribute to Borut” Nassplatte erstellt und sonst gab es auch viel Spaß.
    Mehr dazu im Video und in der Gallery. Um einen Nassplattenworkshop zu buchen, kontaktiert mich hier: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/



    Nächste Nassplattenworkshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Fine Art Shop: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/
    become a Patreon and support me: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    Wollt ihr immer auf Letztstand sein, benutzt einfach meinen Newsletter ein Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/



    English version

    During my recent collodion wet plate workshop we did a “Tribute to Borut” wet plate. You can see in the video and gallery that we had lots of fun during the workshop and also when we made the tribute plate.
    Contact me here for a workshop: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/



    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Fine Art Shop http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/

    become a Patreon and support me: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art
     

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/