#Photographic workflow

[thepelagiclens]

Thinking Out Loud About the Photographic Image Post-Processing Process

Thinking Out Loud About the Photographic Image Post Processing Mindset. What Path Defines Your Approach to an Image Processing Workflow?

[youdonthavetocallmedarlinnn]

[massi-arezki]

Lightroom Classic, mon flux de travail complet. Comment je gère toutes mes photos depuis un seul logiciel ?

Je vous avais parlé de la force de  Lightroom Classic dans un précédent article. Je vais à présent vous parler de ma façon d’utiliser ce logiciel et je vais vous expliquer mon workflow complet pour l’editing et l’organisation de mes photos. Avant de continuer cet article, je vous invite fortement à lire mon article qui parle de la suite Adobe Lightroom, où j’ai présenté les différents logiciels…

[weddingworkflows]

Wedding Photographer Workflow

Wedding Workflows is the ultimate destination for wedding photographers looking for specialized virtual assistants to streamline their Wedding Photographer Workflow. Our website provides a variety of services tailored specifically to meet the needs of wedding photographers. Whether you're seeking assistance in perfecting your photo edits or managing client interactions, our dedicated assistants are here to simplify your tasks. We understand the challenges involved in coordinating all aspects of a wedding, especially when ensuring that the photos turn out exceptional. That's why our experienced assistants are always on hand to offer precise support tailored to your needs. Whether it's simplifying the editing process or addressing client inquiries, we're committed to ensuring your journey from start to finish is smooth and successful.

[xoashdurham]

Review of Aftershoot: AI Culling and Editing for Photographers

If you've been looking for AI culling and editing for photographers, you gotta read my review of Aftershoot (plus get a 10% discount!!).

AI is here, y’all. For years (and years), I have begged the technology gods to come up with some sort of program that will cull weddings and photography sessions for me. Culling is, by far, my least favorite part of being a photographer. Not only because I am emotionally invested in the images, but, it’s time consuming to go through hundreds (if not thousands) of photos and check for things like…

[a-dream-seeking-light]

orion trapezium core by u/brownieboy2222 via r/astrophotography

photographer’s notes:  

Stacked and processed in pixinsight with RC Astro plug ins. Used HDR composition to not blow out the core

Scope:Askar 103APO, Camera: ASI533MC pro, mount: HEQ5, Askar 52mm guide scope + asi 120 guide camera. Optolong Lenhance dual narrowband filter

This was a lengthy processing workflow for me. First time trying HDR comp and I think it came out pretty well

[sirfrogsworth]

This man just loves shooting movies on "hard mode."

The 15 perf, 70mm film he uses is pretty special. In very limited circumstances, it can have the same detail as an 80 megapixel medium format camera. Roughly 12K if you average out the sharpness of the lens (the center is sharper).

It's gotta be the lowest speed film and on a tripod and *nothing* can be moving and there has to be plenty of light and the lens needs to be sharp enough to resolve that much detail and the air cannot be too moist or dusty... but yeah, sure... theoretically you can get a tiny circle in the center of the frame to be 18K. With the entire frame averaging out to be 12K.

And as you watch that 12K image on a 100 foot IMAX screen you can say to yourself, "Cillian Murphy should really try a pore cleanser."

But Nolan *rarely* uses it under those ideal conditions. So he is mostly preserving the resolution of the grain structure.

I know people go to movies to admire the high-resolution film grain structure. Right? Any grain nerds reading this?

So why is he doing this?

There is the "film look" that is a bit of a cheat code to reduce the need for extensive color grading. People just like the look of film. It has a nostalgic aesthetic that gives us comfort. All of the films of my childhood were on film. All of my childhood photos were on film.

But you can get film without film.

They have developed workflows that emulate film to a near-imperceptible level. There are filmvestigators who think they can always tell. But if it is close enough that only a few specially trained people can see the difference, it is imperceptible.

You can also hack digital to be film. Dune 2 took the digital footage and exposed it onto film and then scanned it back to digital.

Looked great.

Looked like film.

So he doesn't need to do this to get the film look.

WHY? What else could compel him to go through this considerable bother to capture his movie?

I could make an argument for gradients.

Any large format is going to capture very nice gradations. Gradations are probably the most underrated aspect of image quality. People get obsessed with Ks and megapixels, but 1080p is enough detail for most people.

Whereas having one color smoothly transition into another color is a very subtle thing that gives our brain an aesthetic buzz. It's that thing that makes people go, "Oh wow, you must have a really nice camera." It's that subconscious element in photos that helps differentiate snapshot from art.

This iPhone photo is great.

It is amazing this can be captured by a phone.

But a large format image just hits different.

And you can't always put your finger on why.

I mean, the why is because a professional photographer took the photo. (Unless that is one of those dentists with a Hasselblad.)

But if you account for the skill of the photographer, what else makes the photo special?

I think it is the gradients. The megapixels are nice. The color science is nice. But the way those tones just seamlessly shift into each other makes my brain tingle.

But the Arri 65 digital cinema camera is also large format. It has nicer lenses that weren't designed before the 90s. It doesn't cost thousands of dollars just to develop a few minutes of footage. It has more dynamic range. It can do the buttery smooth gradients. It weighs an entire 2-year-old child less than IMAX cameras.

And you don't need 4 dudes to deliver the movie to the projectionist.

And unless Christopher had them develop a silent IMAX camera, I guess all of the dialogue is going to be recorded in post.

I mean, IMAX claims they made them "30% quieter."

Which is a bit like when I inquired about an $8,000 treatment and explained that I had 0 money and the doctor offered me a 30% coupon.

So whyyyyyy?

It's heavy. It's loud. It doesn't offer better image quality.

I think it is just because film is cool and he doesn't want it to die.

I wish he would stop saying unscientific things about the magical 15/70mm film and just say "Because it is fucking cool."

I'm sold. That works for me.

By using the most extreme film camera, he brings attention to the use of film. He inspires people to learn about it and maybe even use it in their personal photography. (Film photography is very popular right now.) And he makes other big Hollywood directors think they can manage the pain in the ass of film as well.

I'm glad Nolan is this stubborn and willing to take on the challenges of using the heaviest and loudest cameras in existence.

The large format quality is good enough that it will be preserved well. We won't have a Star Wars crisis where people are trying to stitch together degraded 40 year old film to make sure Han shot first.

An 18K scan of IMAX will stand the test of time.

That doesn't mean IMAX is 18K or any other K.

The Ks don't matter! Stop talking about 18K! All you reddit r/IMAX nerds need to calm down about the Ks.

Talk about them sweet, sweet gradients.

Film is a variable resolution medium. If it is dark and you are using a Russian lens from the 50s, you might be getting 3K IMAX. You could have one scene from two angles be completely different resolutions. It's fine. No one is complaining that a movie isn't Kenough.

The only thing "scanned in 18K" means is that all of the detail will be well preserved, including that sexy grain structure.

Nice.

[cdlum]

I just wanted to say I think your art style is awesome! I was wondering if you had any tutorials on how you draw anatomy in your style (hips and legs especially)? Sorry if there's already one posted and I just didn't see it 🥲. Happy New Year :>

thanks for the kind words. i tend to draw people pretty stylized and then some so a good bit of artistic licence gets used. these tips are just what i use so feel free to take them with a grain of salt. with anatomy in particular you can kind of talk in circles because human/animal bodies are that complex so ill just zone in on the points you specified. here's a little image with a bunch of pointers:

the above image condenses a lot of the points I'd make, but basically the key parts are to start with the bare essentials and build up that complexity. using a line of action is a good way to get a quick, rough start. you draw a line out in the general direction of the pose and do your best to adhere to it to give the pose a sense of flow.

you can also draw smaller, thumbnail versions that throw a lot of caution to the wind but capture the basic energy of what you're going for. even having a tiny little stick figure version of your idea can make for a good guideline of where to take it forward.

when it comes to actual limbs, you wanna consider how they integrate and work together, kind of like how chains do. you can see on some of the parts of pear i've drawn out these wireframes to kind of portray how the mass of her legs works in a three dimensional space. for aspects like the waist/hips, i use that X technique i highlight above a lot, particularly for the lower torso. a lot of the times, even when drawing a character totally naked, imagining them wearing things like skintight underwear can help a lot to guide you in the right direction.

its also a good idea to consider things like gravity and weight to a degree. humans are essentially big meat sacks and gravity is always pulling down on that, but theres all kinds of aspects that effect that, such as character build or clothing. pear technically isn't naked in this, but i've tried to imagine her as such and take that into account.

if you are drawing digitally, don't be afraid to take advantage of the convenience you get with that workflow. you can retry and iterate on things a lot faster that pen and paper, and do things that aren't really feasible at all when it comes to editing and modifying your existing work. things like resizing certain bodyparts, instantly flipping the canvas, or using selection tools to completely adjust the positions of parts of your drawing. to give you an example heres a timelapse with all the little edits i made just to this demo drawing:

you don't have to use these techniques linearly, either. sometimes ill have a really solid idea for a piece in my head, and go back to basics with certain elements if they’re not coming out right or i just want to brush them up a bit more. some of the tutorial-y parts i added in i didn't actually use during the drawing but often do use so they're there just for demonstration. not every drawing i do starts as building blocks or a really basic version, often ill just start with a face and build it out from there.

i always encourage liberally using references (this can include yourself) and trying out stuff like life drawing or looking at things like existing photographs of real people/places/things if you can, the more you use learning material the better you'll draw up a mental inventory in your head that you can rely on more and more. some of these tips are things i've learned from other artists over the years (the chin one especially i remember seeing a tutorial about lol), so this is a lot of knowledge i've amassed from other sources over time myself. there are plenty of times ill use all sorts of reference material and its all in service of arriving at the final destination as smoothly as possible. learn by doing, as they say. hope this helps!

[preemshots]

ArchiveXL 1.19 update PSA: New 2.2 Photomode NPV+ QOL improvements

NEW FEATURES

add NPV/NPCs(s) directly to the 2.2 photomode character list, give them a custom icon

have up to 250 NPC installed and spawn up to 3 at once

PhotomodeEx: allows appearance selecting directly in photomode (and shows appearance names)

compatible with xBae expression pack, AMM lookat, otis tools

all photomode NPCs can now use poses with props

enables assigning weapons to NPC inventory for weapon poses

automatic synced poses: movement sliders are fixed so spawned characters all use same coordinates

TOOLS & WIKI GUIDES

how to add NPV to photomode with new wolvenkit tool

how to update custom pose packs for NPV compatibility. includes scripts to update all pose packs at once

how to add more appearances to photomode NPC (guide by xbae)

(links to be updated)

a million thank yous to psiberx for being willing to implement these changes with his magic, and manavortex for creating the wolvenkit tool to automate NPV conversions. thank you to everyone who helped test and give feedback for bug smashing.

i spent the last week requesting and testing without sleeping these new features for the 2.2 photomode from psiberx, as well as writing/editing the new wiki guides with manavortex.

something important to me before making requests was considering the existing workflow cyberpunk virtual photographers use between all the tools available, and what might now be possible with 2.2 that wasn't possible before. major updates can be difficult, so i'm hoping this will make VP even easier and enable more creativity. i'm excited to see everyone's VP in 2025 feature more characters and group poses!

sharing feedback or bug reports in the wolvenkit discord would be super helpful and appreciated.

enjoy!

[g1rld1ary]

Could I request an Anthony Lockwood x Reader fic where Reader falls ill and Lockwood tries his best to take care of us with a side of lots and lots of fluff <3

wc: 848

summary: lockwood takes care of you when you're ill | established relationship

me: thanks for waiting lovey! this was such a cute request hope u like!!!

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

“was that a cough?” lockwood asked as you broke the silence that had settled over the library in portland row.

“no,” you lied to his face, pointedly avoiding eye contact. “choked on a biscuit, s’all.”

“you haven’t had a biscuit in fifteen minutes,” lockwood pointed out, “i’d be worried if you just started choking.” you rolled your eyes, caught out.

“fine. i took a walk this morning and it was bit colder than i thought. my body’s just trying to adjust, i’m fine. should we go back over the case?” lockwood shook his head, tutting like a mother hen.

“you know the rules, read the sign.” he pointed through the library door into the kitchen, where the back page of a bill was pinned to the fridge. your bold handwriting read do not work when sick. sick days are bed days!!!!! now that the message was directed at you and not lockwood you thought five exclamation marks were probably overkill.

“i’m not sick, lockwood. can we just get back to work?” you smiled despite the complaint, touched at the way lockwood was fretting about you.

“no way,” he said, impetuous tone creeping into his voice. you ignored him, figuring it was just another bite back. suddenly you were hoisted into the air, grabbing onto lockwood for dear life.

“what are you doing?” you shrieked, squirming in his arms.

“taking you to bed, darling,” lockwood said, smiling softly down at you, “not like that, don’t be a perv.”

“it’s not my fault!”

lockwood tossed you onto his bed, busying himself with tucking you in under the covers. seeing your pathetic pout he just laughed, pressing a quick kiss to your forehead.

“oh shit,” he said, “you’re warm, do you feel feverish?”

“no,” you lied again, trying to push yourself up. lockwood shook his head, pushing you down lightly with a joking hand over your face.

“i’m getting you some medicine. stay put,” he instructed with a warning finger, ducking out of the room.

you wanted to be frustrated, to be annoyed that lockwood was babying you and interrupting your workflow. but when you thought about the warmth of lockwood’s duvet, of his smell lingering between the sheets, when you saw the framed photograph of the two of you on his nightstand, any hostility crumbled into fondness. you loved that boy, and it was easy to love him.

lockwood returned minutes later with a tray and more kindness than you could have expected. no one had ever looked after you like this.

“have you brought the whole kitchen up with you?” you laughed, propping yourself up on your arms. the tray was crammed full with a glass of water, juice, a mug of tea, medicine tablets, snacks, and a hot water bottle. it was past ridiculous, especially given the fact that you were hardly ill.

“i just want you to be comfortable, love,” lockwood answered easily, and all your teasing melted away.

he adjusted you so the tray fit nicely over your legs, pillows stuffed behind your back so you were sitting comfortably. when satisfied that you were in a good position lockwood raced around to the other side of the bed, crawling underneath the covers next to you.

“how are you feeling?” he asked, big brown eyes examining every inch of you. you laughed sweetly, enamoured by the boy in front of you.

“i feel fine, lockwood. great, even.”

“but sick?”

“but sick,” you confirmed, taking a sip of the tea he’d made you.

lockwood began to talk, chatting about whatever popped into his head as you consumed all of the beverages he’d prepared for you. you liked listening to him, lockwood was a good talker and always told the best stories. jokes in all the right places, dramatic pauses and the right amount of background information. it was one of the things that first drew you to him, you couldn’t stop begging for more stories so you could hear his voice for a few more minutes.

lockwood noticed you zoning out, immediately removing the tray from your lap and arranging you into a comfier position without being asked.

“you should nap,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear gently.

“will you tell me another story?”

“of course, darling.” lockwood never said no to you, he wasn’t wired that way.

despite the initial sickness running through your body, all you felt was love. love for lockwood and love from him. some people considered lockwood to be dramatic, some thought he had too much bravado for his own good. whilst that was all true, you knew that primarily, lockwood had kindness and generosity written into his genetic code. if he thought he could do anything to help you, he’d make sure he did it.

“anthony?” you murmured, three seconds from sleep.

“yes, my love?”

“i love you.”

“i love you too,” he leant down to kiss you softly, not caring about the germs he’d get from you. “so, so much.”

[libraford]

I'm having... thoughts about my inconsistent employment.

I didn't like having a 'permanent full time job' when I had it because it felt like a trap. Like I know it was something that I wanted for a long time because I wanted something with benefits. So I got it and they treated me like shit so I left. But it seemed like everyone around me was having careers that they were going to be in for the rest of their lives. People kept assuring me that I would 'find my place.'

Well I mean, my place is 'artist.' That's my place in the world. This is where I fit. Unfortunately that isn't a 'permanent, full time job with benefits.' So I have to find other jobs that can complement that.

I kind of like the whole 'work fall and early spring as a photographer and spring to summer as a parks employee' situation because they both inspire the art brain in different ways. I wish I was paid better. Don't we all.

My mom is desperate for me to find permanent work because she worries that I'm not making enough and that I'm miserable. I'm not making enough, but I'm not miserable. There are some situations that could be improved somewhat with more money.

Everyone I know, who thought that they had it figured out, who had permanent jobs with savings and took multiple vacations, the best health insurance in the world and full dental-

-is quitting their job. Because there was a culture change, or the workflow changed, or the investors got involved and it ceased to be fun anymore. They're miserable.

If they're not quitting, then they're being let go.

I don't think permanent jobs exist. Like... not really. I think we need to get rid of that expectation and the stigma around weird work histories. Like mine- which has a million jobs in the past few years and they're not exactly in the same field, but also like people with big gaps.

Like who gives a shit if they didn't work for two years? You don't need to know why. Maybe they were getting over an illness. Maybe they were traveling. Maybe they were looking for jobs that whole time. Maybe they laid around and smoked weed all day. None of your business. Times are tough, be reasonable- your company isn't that big of a deal.

[namu-the-orca]

Do you have any advice on how to begin drawing a cetacean? When I'm drawing terrestrial animals, I can break them down into simpler shapes pretty easily, but cetaceans are just Big Tubes and I'm completely stumped on how to start

(Disclaimer that my work is rather stylised, so I'm not looking for advice on photorealism! Just any advice you have in general. I admire your ability to understand and render these sausage-bodied beasts)

Hi! That's an interesting question. I have to admit I had to draw a couple of dolphins first to see how I actually deal with them when free-handing lol. So much of my work as of late is scientific illustration, where in many cases I can build upon my own older illustrations. The new pieces are always 100% new, but correcting a base - however poor - is easier than starting from scratch.

Before I go any further let me stress the eternal importance of references. I can draw a dolphin fine from memory but for it to be actually accurate I need references. I always use them. Especially when it comes to weird poses or angles, but even for illustrations I will reference 25-50 photographs. Use them, study them, find them. They are a resource not a cheat.

Also, years ago I actually started work on a whole series of dolphin drawing tutorials. Or rather, collections of notes and tips for different topics (anatomy, differences between males and females, colouration, variation). Looking at the files now I see I had actually written and drawn a frightening amount already. Perhaps I should try to finish them? Is that something people would be interested in? Anyway, it starts off with a word of encouragement, which I do want to share here:

Actual advice is below the cut:

ONTO METHODS - illustrations

I found that for me, my method depends on whether I'm making an illustration or a full scene painting. For illustrations - which are in flat side view - I actually embrace the sausage. I drew a dolphin for you and saved the steps of how I go about it.

And this is the first. I start with a sort of flat-bottomed airfoil shape, and then add fins and a beak in approximate locations.

Next is refining the appendages and giving a face. Shape and placement of appendages as well as eye and mouth line is all experience and/or reference work.

Then comes fixing what I messed up lol. I always make the head too big first try (would have been good for a baby dolphin though!). Using cutting/transforming/moving selections around I correct proportions to what feels correct to me (again, that part comes from having seen and drawn a lot of dolphins).

Add some markings and hooray we have a spinner dolphin! This is the part where I would seriously start consulting references to check all the details and proportions are in order. If you don't need (photo)realism you can skip that step and use refs further back in the process just to get the shape/idea/colour of the species you're trying to paint right.

MORE METHODS - for different poses

When it comes to dynamic poses, my workflow is completely different. I just start from the nose and build my dolphin from there. Because as said above, they do have anatomy. And I think the way the beak flows into the cheek, the eye bumps connect, then the curve of the throat, the attachment of the pectoral fin, the way the belly curved up towards the genital region, the slight bulge behind that, then the muscles of the peduncle which flow into the flukes - I think the relations between those separate parts are enough for me?

These are the little dolphins (and a porpoise) I sketched from memory. In all cases I started from the tip of the nose and built from there, with minimal or no adjustments/erasing along the way. It was very much outline work. Details on eyes, mouth, etc, would come later. The killer whale is a bit different and got way more detailed than the rest. With such a front view angle I do use some spherical shapes to break it down for the body and face.

Otherwise I've never really liked or used the method of breaking an animal down into shapes, it never felt logical or intuitive to me. My "method" (if you can call it that lol) just comes from having drawn a lot of dolphins. I don't know if it is necessarily helpful when you want to get a grasp of them when starting out. Regardless I do hope this answered your question somewhat and you could get something useful out of it!

Also, I realise now I mostly talked about "standard "dolphins - for whales/short-beaked smaller cetaceans/etc my process is mostly the same, except their heads just have different shapes.

[townofcrosshollow]

Y'know I'm really hoping that someday we'll get a version of generative AI that's actually, like, useful and ethical. Imagine a future where you could do a lineart pass in your favourite pen, then waffle about in an lineart editor that uses a model trained on different styles of lineart to let you modify it in post to say, a scratchy pencil or charcoal or adjust the thickness or whatever. That would be pretty cool. Or imagine an addon for Blender that could analyze a photo and recreate the lighting setup. Sick.

The problem is that in this capitalistic hellscape we've sort of lost the ability to use new technology to better humanity. A lot of people compare it to traditional art and photographs, but like... photography added new ways for traditional artists to work. We developed new methods to increase the ease of certain tasks, like rotoscoping animation or tracing photos. Somebody looked at a part of the artists' workflow, said "that could be made more efficient," and then built it.

And we're not really getting that with this wave of generative AI. We were getting it before the tech bro invasion- like for example I remember AI powered vocal synths way before the explosion of generative AI and they were awesome, using machine learning to improve the output of programs like Vocaloid and SynthV and make them sound more realistically human. Where is that for art? Hell, who is making that for music or anything now?

It's like in the past the typical flow was design new technology -> research the market -> come up with ways to implement the tech in the market -> perfect the implementations -> profit, but now it's design new technology -> put the unfinished technology into everything -> profit (?) At no point in the process is anybody actually stopping to think of interesting ways to implement machine learning into the real workflows of professional artists because they're all skipping like 15 steps in the product development pipeline to make max amounts of money.

If these companies were doing things the normal, traditional, useful way and trying to actually develop high quality products, all of the backlash and hostility would never have developed. If you got a focus group full of senior artist directors into a room and asked them about ways to implement AI into their workflows you would immediately come up with a better product.

Just off the top of my head...

Program that can take a 3D scene and convert it into a sketch. Immediately cuts down on workload for comic layout artists and storyboard artists

Tool that analyzes your lineart and generates basic cell shading. Pretty sure the new version of CSP has this but idk if it uses machine learning or if it's good. Makes shading way more efficient

Tool that can take basic airbrush blending and change it to different blending presets. Imagine being able to just hit a button and switch your blending to use different brushes.

Post-proces colour jitter, higher quality colour blending, easier posing for 3D rigs, all sorts of small shit

But we aren't getting any of those things because the people designing these programs fundamentally don't care about making a good or useful product

[mrghostrat]

i wanted to say thank you for normalizing (for me) tracing refs and models for things, i'm from the deviantart era of "using references is cheating" which set me back YEARS lmao so to see you unabashedly using references so directly makes me feel so much better for when i do! i need to better realize that you still have to be a good artist to make a traced photo look good, and there's SO much you add to a drawing that isn't from the reference, so it's not like i'm lying or secretly a bad artist just cuz i use the csp 1.0 models for poses sometimes....... so thanks for sharing your process!!

of course!!! and 100% agree! that's what i have to remind myself whenever the imposter syndrome sets in: there's so much you gotta add to a thing beyond the traced pose, and the reason i can do it how i do is because i'm at a very comfortable stage of my artistic development. but man i've gotten so much better at freehanding so many poses and limbs and fabric details since i started tracing more frequently, it really does help your muscle memory and help build the skill!!

and. it's just, fun. when you want to turn your brain off, like that richard ii sketch i posted. sometimes i wanna draw just for the fun of it, for the tactile experience of putting down lines and making pretty shapes appear. tracing is a godsend for that. just be transparent about your process ✨

i have all kinds of opinions abt when and where tracing is helpful as u develop as an artist, but at the end of the day everyone's art journey is their own, and they should be allowed to use whatever tools are available to them. remember that artists and animators have been tracing as part of their professional workflow since the photograph has been invented.

[sirfrogsworth]

Adventures in Cooling

The 5-star rated HVAC repair service I used kind of depressed me.

It was almost... too good?

Like, they offer 24/7 service. They have a text message system that lets you know when the tech is coming. Every tech has their own custom van that serves as a giant advertisement. The entire process is documented with a tablet computer. Every serial number and model number must be photographed. He has to follow a diagnostic checklist. And an upsell checklist. And a repair checklist. He had so many checklists that at one point he pulled a card out of his wallet to make sure he didn't forget one of the steps. He had a poorly memorized speech for every upsell. You could tell he didn't have "his" tools, but the company's tools that he borrowed.

None of this was "bad" as far as a workflow. The service was flawless and nothing was forgotten. But you could tell that every detail was micromanaged and if the tech didn't follow the procedures to the letter, he would probably get some kind of demerit.

I felt sorry for my tech. He was in his 60s and clearly had a severe chronic knee injury. He walked slower than I do. He was quite monosyllabic and difficult to make conversation with. Not unpleasant, just not great at communicating.

At one point I asked him if I was a good candidate for a heat pump and he was like, "Everyone is."

End of advice.

Oh, and the uniform.

The uniform was very silly.

Every square inch of his shirt was meant to assure people they have a qualified technician. The one sleeve listed his certifications from some Alphabet Association that certifies such things. And then the other sleeve made sure to let me know my technician was drug tested and background checked.

The entire visit I kept trying to imagine how being stoned might negatively affect HVAC repair. I mean, if he was on a little cocaine perhaps we could have wrapped things up 30 minutes sooner. Marijuana might have helped him communicate. Opioids could make his knee feel better. I don't think shrooms would have been a good idea. If he hallucinated an angry fan monster in my A/C unit that could have been really awkward.

He was a terrible salesman—but for some reason, I fell for every upsell. Actually, I sold all of the upsells to myself in my head. I got a new filter and had him install it because I worried I would forget or I would install it improperly (not really possible, you just stick it in). But for the price I paid I could have bought 6 years worth of filters.

I just wanted everything sorted. I am so stressed and do not have the bandwidth to deal with A/C troubles. So I just said "yes" to everything. But the price kept inflating as we went along and every time it inflated he required a signature on his tablet.

This repair business had been corporatized to death and it made me miss all of my dad's friends from the old days who he would ask for favors. He always "knew a guy." He would trade car repairs for discounts on things we needed around the house. And they all worked for themselves and had their own tools and their own shitty truck and they all said, "There's your problem!" with the same masculine affect.

Their uniform was a flannel shirt and jeans and I bet some of them were high as fuck.

And this elderly gentlemen with the bum knee kept checking his checklist to make sure he checked every check because he feared managerial discipline.

He got to the sales pitch for the fluorescent dye. He was like, "Do you want this? You don't have to buy it." And I started selling it to myself in my head despite his assurance it wasn't really necessary. I worried if I had a big leak and I don't discover it until the middle of July, I would regret saying no in this moment. But then I realized he hated the dye injection process. And his poor salesmanship was mostly him not wanting his hands to be fucking radioactive yellow for the rest of the day. He tried wearing gloves to avoid it, but he still ended up with yellow hands and grumbled, "I really hate this stuff." Which was one of the few unrehearsed things he said to me the entire time.

Once the checklist was complete and the house was already starting to cool, he had one final sales pitch for me. He asked that I give his company a 5-star review and to make sure I mention his name. He told me that in July all of the techs with the most 5-star reviews will have their names put in a hat. And "the boss" will give one lucky employee a free vacation.

This vacation thing sounded like such a manipulation. And I'm sure "the boss" has instructed his techs to tell this tale of the free vacation so customers will be like, "Well, shit. I don't want this poor old guy with the shitty knee to miss out on that."

And it was then I realized just how this company got so many 5-star reviews.

Diabolical.

But the good news... my house is cold as heck.

And I keep shivering because I can't figure out the perfect setting on my thermostat. I guess I was used to the inefficiency and I will have to recalibrate.

[brumaire18]

A photographic workflow

Since I really love reading about other people's workflow, here is mine. I decided to test my Agfa Selectronic Sensor S. Therefore, I put in 24 exposures of Fomapan 200 that I bought on a roll and fed into a spooler. I also bought the film magazines. This saves money. I photograph essentially in black and white for three reasons: the first is that an element of complexity is removed from the equation, namely color. The second is economic: color film costs an inordinate amount of money. For color, I prefer to use my Canon Powershot G10. Finally because with black and white it is easier to be in control of the process from start to finish. Loading the camera, I took a ride to the northern outskirts of the city, Trento, where all the administration buildings are located. It was a cold and overcast day, the weather forecast had announced snow. Back home I pulled out the film tail using another piece of slightly wet film. At that point I inserted the magazine into my Lab-Box, which allows development in bright light, hooked the film tail, closed the lid, and loaded the film into the spiral. At this point I prepared the developing liquid, 300 ml of caffenol, which I now use all the time and with consistent results, for developing black and white negatives. I used this recipe: https://filmdev.org/recipe/show/11645https://filmdev.org/recipe/show/11645 When development was finished, I hung the film to dry. Once dry I digitized it using a Sony a7 digital camera with a 50mm macro lens from Pentax, mounted with an adapter. The camera is mounted on a moving column, while the negative is held thanks to a Lomography gadget that also produces the necessary backlighting. The camera is connected with a USB cable to the PC, which-thanks to a remote control-allows shooting from a distance, without touching the device. After capture, the negatives are processed in Darktable (open source). Images are retouched to fine-tune brightness and contrast, although in general only a few steps are required.