>>3208058Banding always has been a bitch, here's one image from the Epson that it's quite visible on:
>>3207208I will be drum scanning that one and it should help. Some things that I've found to help with banding are careful use of a shadows luminosity mask. Most of the banding will happen in clear skies towards the edges of the image where the lens vignettes. Make a shadows luminosity mask, then darken the center with a large black round gradient so that you're only adjusting the darkest areas of the corners. Slightly lifting up on a curves layer of that mask will help. Also, any time you use a gradient mask photoshop will add a lot of banding so I've found it best to add a touch of noise (like 2% uniform) to any gradient masks. Not the image itself, but the mask layers. Levels layers are also way more likely to add banding than curves layers. Another thing to note is that banding is usually far less noticeable on print than on a screen.
>>3208059I think it's that I have the chance to go to more "exciting" places now so I'm taking those opportunities. You could say I've left my eyes open to continue to catch different things no matter where I am. I still absolutely LOVE the plains and the simplicity of them, but it's also good to ebb and flow with different subject matter over the years sometimes. I've actually spent a lot of time on the plains this year and actually worked more on the oil images, but haven't taken the time to scan them. The project seemed to be fizzing out, and as I have mentioned in other threads they've upped the security and started building ugly massive 4-story noise barriers around all the installations which has made photographing them a greater challenge.
Minimal compositions are still the golden goose and my absolutely favorites. They are a lot less likely to find in the mountains but I'm hoping I can learn to search for them better as I grow.
One from the Flint Hills of Kansas this summer. Velvia 50.
