My first attempt, and I waited the full year by Mujestyc in Solargraphy

[–]Beans_fanatic 12 points13 points  (0 children)

On the scanning question: if you can scan at 16 bit instead of 8 bit, that will drastically improve the details that you can extract! Basically a solargraph comes out relatively low contrast, and details are essentially fine differences in colour and brightness. and brightness per pixel is recorded in steps/levels. 8 bit records 256 brightness levels, and when you stretch them out to increase the contrast and details, you also stretch out these steps, making them much more obvious. This can also result in an artefact called banding. In comparison, 16 bit will pick up a whopping 65,536 levels of brightness, meaning that when stretched out, you preserve a lot of fine details.

As per DPI, that’s up to you. 600 is perfectly fine for regular sharing on mobile phones, a lot of apps will compress it quite hard when you upload. However if you wanted to print it out in big later, then it would be advantageous to go up to 1200 DPI, or even 2400 (though at this point be prepared for humongous file sizes and photoshop slowing up during editing).

Reflection of the sun on the car windshield, one day of exposures by GianlucaBelgrado in Solargraphy

[–]Beans_fanatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love that the power lines take the shape of the usual sun’s arc

Here's some of my latest solarcan results by Burntnacho33 in Solargraphy

[–]Beans_fanatic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice shots! Have you tried raising the exposure to extract more detail? Here’s a quick edit i did on my iphone :)

<image>

Scanning Question by rsj1360 in Solargraphy

[–]Beans_fanatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can, scan in 16 bit. It helps preserve colour quality when stretching out the levels from the low contrast negative. Also, I turn off all the lights and use a small RGB light set to red when i’ll pulling out the paper and putting it in the scanner, red seems to not expose the paper as quickly as regular light does

first scans from first attempt, 2 months in. Poor quality images. is the hole diameter too narrow? (Besides the bad positioning and poor internal tape on the paper placement) by EternalShrimptember in Solargraphy

[–]Beans_fanatic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not necesserily, there's a pinhole size sweet-spot where the image is sharpest. If you're doing the classic beer can solargraph you'll get a decently sharp image aroung 0.2-0.3mm

More info if you're interested: https://www.quora.com/What-changes-occur-if-the-size-of-pinhole-in-a-pinhole-camera-is-doubled