How I Really Use PicturesToExe

[Lin Evans]

I love to play with slideshows and really enjoy the incredible power of PicturesToExe, but my profession is primarily photographing art for clients. One of the main features I love about the new PicturesToExe is the high resolution capabilities and the power to present slow scrolling closeups of detailed art objects. The link below is to a sample of how I will use this to present art objects for my clients.

One of my favorite artists is Jon Anderson. John is a native of Arizona, but left an engineering career to pursue his artistic goals and has become the world's foremost Fiore polymer clay artist. He creates these designs in bread loaf sized polymer clay "canes". The intricate designs are then stretched again and again until they are sometimes nearly microscopic. The clay is then sliced like potato chips with each tiny tile containing the indicate design and colors which were once as large as a loaf of bread.

These tiny "tiles" of polymer clay design are then molded around animal forms made of clay or wood then the entire piece is baked in an oven which expands the clay to an ultra-smooth surface of intricate beauty. No two designs are alike and there is never any paint used - all colors and designs are entirely made of polymer clay. Even under microscopic inspection, these art pieces are incredibly beautiful and the designs have to be seen up close to be believed.

This is where PicturesToExe shines for me. It allows me to zoom in to my high resolution photos and reveal the beauty of art objects so my client's customers can better appreciate what they are purchasing.

Here's a link to a short "slideshow" consisting of one polymer clay bear. With the exception of the two text slides, only one image was used for this. It's nothing fancy, just how I use PicturesToExe in my work.

http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/JonAndersonArt.zip

Best regards,

Lin

[jevans]

Lin,

This is fantiastic art and shown to such good effect using PTE. Really impressed. See separate email about download links.

Jeff

[alrobin]

Lin,

An interesting use of PTE!

You mentioned hi-res photos - do you use a medium or large-format camera for the original photos, or are they from a multi-megapixel 35-mm camera?

I found that for panning purposes I can stitch several 35-mm photos together to approximate the result I would get from a hi-res scan of a 4"x5" transparency.

[Ken Cox]

Lin

how long to make a bear?

the process would make a good show -- if time was no problem

ken

[Lin Evans]

Lin,

This is fantiastic art and shown to such good effect using PTE. Really impressed. See separate email about download links.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Yes, it's an amazing process - I wish I could actually visit Jon's studio but it's in Bali now so unlikely -

It is sort of a different use for P2E but one which has been effective for some of my gallery clients. We use it for this type art, jewelry and other finely detailed art objects. Some of the art which my clients sell runs into the hundred thousand dollar plus costs and many of their buyers are in other countries. Being able to not only furnish their clients with photos via CD but also with a dynamic slideshow can help with the buying decisions "before" they spend the money to fly to Santa Fe, New York or other locations to examine the art in person and seal the deal.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin

how long to make a bear?

the process would make a good show -- if time was no problem

ken

Hi Ken,

That's a good question. I've never watched the whole process but Jon has it somewhat automated and his studio is in Bali now. He's trained a number of artists there who work for him and even though no two pieces are the same, they can use common design themes applied in a different manner on different pieces. I'm sure this speeds up the process.

I would love to visit his studio in Bali and photograph the operation - perhaps some day I will be able to do that - but also he probably has some processes he wants to keep proprietary and I understand reasons for that too.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Lin,

An interesting use of PTE!

You mentioned hi-res photos - do you use a medium or large-format camera for the original photos, or are they from a multi-megapixel 35-mm camera?

I found that for panning purposes I can stitch several 35-mm photos together to approximate the result I would get from a hi-res scan of a 4"x5" transparency.

Hi Al,

For many years I used medium and large format platforms for this but I've switched to all digital. I have an older Kodak MF back (16 megapixel) but I honestly get just as good results with a variety of medium resolution digital SLR's and a couple fixed lens digicams. For this particular type photo I use either an 11 megapixel Canon EOS-1DS, my 10 megapixel Sony R1 (fixed lens APS sensor), or my Sigma SD10 (10.3 megapixel sensor but only a 3.4 megapixel file). The Sigma with a Foveon X3 processor actually gives me incredible pixel sharpness and I routinely make poster sized prints on my Epson 9600 from it.

The Sony R1 is an incredible little camera for this type work with plenty of resolution and a really nice Zeiss designed lens. For extreme macro work I use the Canon 1DS with either a Canon F2.8 100mm macro lens or one of several Sigma lenses.

Stitching can indeed multiply the resolution and is a great way to get medium or large format quality from a 35mm digital. One of my web friends Max Lyons actually stitched 196 frames made with his six megapixel Canon D60 into a single seamless 1.09 gigapixel two gigabyte image made at Bryce Canyon. He had it printed in sections on a LightJet and displayed an 8x12 foot print at PMA in Las Vegas three years ago. At the time it was the first gigapixel image ever made with a 35mm platform digital camera. The results were stunning and much higher in resolution than any 8x10 LF negative scan. He actually had to write his own software to handle it because PhotoShop barfed trying to process it - LOL. I spent an hour or so at PMA examining the print and I've never seen such detail. It even trumps the fantastic BetterLight scanning prints Stephen Johnson gets. Peter Grote was also there at PMA and I spent about a half hour discussing the BetterLight with him. He had a beautiful 43 inch by 17 foot panorama printed on an Epson 9600 which he had taken in Nepal in the Annapurna's. It was fantastic, but I really think Max Lyon's print was cleaner and showed more detail. So indeed stitching works well as long as the subject is amenable. Actually the same goes for scanning backs. If the clouds are blowing, the leaves are moving, etc., there are "issues" but when conditions are right these methods are truly great.

Best regards,

Lin

[alrobin]

Lin,

That print would be something to see!

We're very fortunate with PTE now in being able to apply similar techniques to AV format. We now have the technology to view a high-res image through the monitor without shrinking it down to something less impressive.

l'm looking forward to seeing some really spectacular photography like yours in various members' shows. I hope Michel Verhoef) comes up with some large-scale cityscapes similar to the ones he has posted on Beechbrook in the past, once PTE v.5 is oficially released, and I'm looking forward to more of Andrew Busst's impressive panoramas from NZ.