little_tippler

I have been playing around with scanners and scanner photography for a few years now, and through looking around on the net found some interesting results of other peoples' experiments. Particularly, one guy, Mike Golembewski, who actually has turned his scanner into a "camera" of sorts. His results are far more advanced than mine!

Here are a few photos of what can be done with a scanner, and the link if you want to look at it in more depth.

Scanner Photography Project

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

mixedmedia

very interesting stuff....

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

roachboy

fascinating. for some reason, i am having trouble getting my head around how this actually works. i've been looking at the linked website for a while now--i can see the rig and understand the words concerning scanner modification, but cant quite work out how things go together.

they remind me a bit of etienne-jules marey's motion studies:



but they're different. i like the idea of reading the images as time-scores.

could someone explain to me how this works?
i know very little about cameras.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Charlatan

What a very cool concept. I so want one of these.

Tippler... can you show us some of the results you are getting, and how you set up your scanner?

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

mixedmedia

Had to come back and look at them again (and send the link to myself so I can bookmark it when I get my computer back).

But I could fall in love with one of these things.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

sadistikdreams

Wow, now that's some shit you just can't do in photoshop.

I really appreciate photographic experimentation, being somewhat of an experimenter myself. I might have to post up some photos, I was able to get some crazy distortion.

__________________
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials."
-Lin Yutang

hearts, by d.a.

little_tippler

This is far more advanced than anything I've done. I haven't actually taken my scanner apart and turned it into a camera, I've just tried using it as a camera all on its own. You can still get plenty of interesting shots. I mainly did self-portraits with it. The cool thing with the scanner is that you can get a surprising amount of detail that most cameras would have trouble capturing. I will post some of my things later on.

If you want to set up something like this, be prepared to trash a few scanners in the process. I haven't yet decided I can spare mine, heh. But I have been tempted...though photography is not my main area of work.

Edit: ok I wasn't sure whether to post my stuff but here goes...it's so easy you really can go to town with it. This I like very much, it worked well. The nicest part about the photos I have taken is that there seems to be details in there that cameras don't quite capture...not sure if it's mood or what...but I really am addicted to it.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

little_tippler

ok *bump* since my edit didn't...

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

roachboy

nice.
the lighting is lovely too.

how'd you rig this up?

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

little_tippler

there is no rig...no trickery or tomfoolery...

heh. Just put the scanner in a sideways position (I have a stand for it) and holding on to a neat little lamp I have, sat there and slowly moved as the scanner scanned me. It's easy! That's the beauty of it.

It's possible to do all kinds of things with it. You can try with no extra lighting, it makes some eerie shots. To get images of rooms or outdoors is harder...you need very bright light (though it can be done), unless you go ahead and modify the scanner (to take out the scanner light). It also works well for still life images - you get amazing detail there.

Would love to see others' attempts? Up to you...

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Charlatan

Very cool.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

roachboy

little tippler:

more attempts?
yes please.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

sapiens

This is interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I need to find a flatbed scanner...

roachboy

i am thinking the same way, sapiens.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

kramus

Very cool. I have no idea what the fellow in your link did, but I love your self-portrait.

__________________
And now to disengage the clutch of the forebrain ...
I'm going with this - if you like artwork visit http://markfineart.ca

Manuel Hong

dang, got rid of that old scanner!

__________________
Believe nothing, even if I tell it to you, unless it meets with your own good common sense and experience. - Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)