light table
a table with built-in lights under a ground glass (or similar) top used for spotting negatives, opaquing positives, tracing, examining, making overlays, and cutting of stencil film.
Light Tables: For many years I examined my slides on an inexpensive Tundra portable light box with a 4x5" viewing area. It takes 4 AA batteries, and eats them voraciously.
Good Light Tables
For those who ask, I think the best light tables are made by Just Normlicht.
I've never been able to afford one; I use a crummy German-made Kaiser, and before that, a $40 American-made Logan.
Light Table
When working on a project such as a slide show, Web site, or publication, there comes a point when you'd like to see the photos you've taken arranged more like they will appear in the finished work.
Examining Results The duplicate slide should be laid on a light table and compared to the original. If you bracketed your exposure, determine which exposure provides the correct density.
Once look at transparencies on the light table, it will be difficult to use 4x5 again, and you may be tempted to sell your 4x5 ! This is what happened to me in 1995, after buying a 5x7 for my 4x5 in 1993.
A cloudless blue sky can work well, as can the surface of a light table if you still have one from your slide film days. I just set the lens face down on my light table and fire the shutter. Focus doesn't really matter.
"Once my film is edited on the light table, virtually my entire workflow from that point on is in a digital environment," says Kay. "After I complete the film-editing process, all the best images migrate over to my scanner.
While the emulsion shooters were gathered around the light table examining analog images with a loupe, I found myself editing my digital images on my laptop.
The thumbnail GUI is called VLT for 'Virtual Light Table'. DC will thumbnail RAW, JPEG and TIFF (8bit TIFF only in DC VLT).
You can place a very large reflector on your strobe, point it straight up and set a piece of Plexiglas on it to make a "light table". You can get thin sheets of Plexi in different colors to make some interesting backgrounds as well.
Designations such as D50 are used to classify color temperatures of light tables and viewing booths.
It helps if you have access to a light table here, but you can just as easily hold your negatives into any light source to examine them.
The Blend mode Multiply darkens an image, similar to registering two identical transparencies on a light table. The Blend mode Screen lightens an image, similar to projecting two transparencies in the same location.
Taking your ease you can look at the image - no peering and peeping through a tiny little finder - and examine the slide on the light table so to speak. Especially combined with a tripod, this is a great way of working.
By reducing the amount of UV light, you can capture a photographic image that more closely resembles the image in the light table of your mind.
" No, the idea is not to fill your card with mediocre images, but sometimes there is a reason we want to capture an image that we can't figure out. Take it, move on, and then when you look at it on the light table--digital or otherwise--see if you ...
Pin registration can also be used for unsharp masks, making registration instantaneous, but it is not absolutely necessary. Without it, registration should take 15-45 seconds at most, on a light table.
It makes it possible to lay out on a light table or project several images and make a quick decision as to what to print. I have worked with both negatives and transparencies.
 See also: Light, Image, Camera, Photograph, Digital
  
|
RSS
