A funny thing happened on the way from the scanner....

[adrian jordin]

I have a sizable collection of 35mm transparencies which I am gradually converting to digital.
This photo was one I had originally taken some years ago on the Severn Valley Railway at the engine sheds at Bridgnorth.

Earlier this year, I scanned this and spent a happy hour or two playing with photoshop, correcting colours and editing out power lines, etc till I had a photo I liked.

It was only then I noticed the writing was back to front...
I had put the slide in the scanner the wrong way up...but no problem, one quick change in PS to flip the image and that was where the problem started.


image0111001 by jordin57, on Flickr

I found I didn't like the picture that way round!
I tried it several times and to me it does make a difference having the engine goig left to right.
So, am I weird or what?

(BTW, in the end I cut out the lettering and flipped that.)

 

[Dave Moss]

No just tried it flipped and it doesnt look right for some reason but the original must have been left to right

 

[adrian jordin]

This is the original...(from a negative not a transparency now that I check...)



notice the numbers on the side.

 

[Dave Moss]

As its a Neg the number will be back to front as when you print it you would turn the numbers around

 

[Ralph Thornton]

If the original real life scene had the engine facing right to left I thnk the only people who would not like the left tonight version are those who demand a certain faithfulness to the actual scene. IMHO the left to right image is easier on my eyes. Perhaps it's because I read left to right? In any case the image you created is very nice.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I bet Leonardo da vinci would have liked the right to left version...
Or anyone who writes Arabic or Hebrew

Seriously though, yeah i can see why it would work better this way!

As its a Neg the number will be back to front as when you print it you would turn the numbers around

the neg wouldn't have swapped the numbers round any more than any other format (digital/positive etc) does??
easiest to understand when imagining it as a camera obscura i think What is a camera obscura?
Even the image projected on to your retina is upside down and back to front, its just your brain swaps it around for you...
its the nature of the physics of light/a lens!

sorry if im teaching granny to suck eggs here, just felt it needed clearing up!