. . . or how the shoebox can rise from the dead.

The shoebox is a wonderful thing. Though originally designed to hold footwear, the lowly shoebox has become the symbol of our photography collections. Many of our photos and slides - you know, the ones that we always meant to put into scrapbooks or albums - are wallowing away in obscurity. They are destined to fall victim to fading memory or, worse, natural disaster. And we have the technology to help. Over the next few blogs, I'll be talking about how you take your varied collection into the digital age. The first installment -

So having reached middle age, my high school reunion is just around the corner. I was confronted with an obstacle and an opportunity - how to convert my "collection" of high school newspaper and yearbook photography into a "Hi Tech Show" from negatives that at the time were great because some image actually appeared! Didn't pan-thermic mean leave in the soup longer? And Dia-Fine translated to "perfect processing"-not. In other words a collection of under or over exposed film processed under some dubious conditions. Get the picture? Unfortunately the options have been extremely limited.

From a technological sense it should be pretty easy to get B&W slides made directly from negatives that would be suitable for display, right? Unfortunately that is not the case. The B&W negative to positive system was primarily designed for contact or projection printing. If done correctly, an exposure made based on the contrast of the original subject, combined with appropriately processing the negative will "lay down" on a mid contrast paper (number 2 or 3). While under extremely tight control, beginning with the originals exposure and processing, you could try and "reverse dupe" the negative directly to film. However, that would require perfect negatives and perfect negs are few and far between. And film, while you could fudge a little via exposure and processing, does not come in contrast grades. The other alternative is to print the pictures then copy them using either Color Slide film or via a B&W direct reversal processing. The latter is at best a quirky process limited to one's darkroom, or through a few very specialized labs. And even then the original negatives need to be pretty good.

Well so much for the traditional methods-

Once you accept that digital photography and conventional photography are the same - the understanding and use of light - things become a bit clearer. A digital camera and associated workflow and editing software are a fantastic set of tools. Gone are the limitations of highlight to shadow contrast ratio, and the limits of the Neg-Pos system. Gone are the days of smelly B&W reversal chemistry. Hello to the days when the underexposed, some badly processed, but wonderfully captured and composed images can, for the first time in their lives, be released from their silver halide shackles. BOOYAH!

Digital cameras make wonderful copy devices for both reflected and trans-illuminated subjects. The simplest way to make digital files from B&W negatives is to set up a simple backlit copy stand. Here's how I did it. Using a KODAK DCS 3700 with an auxiliary close-up lens added to the camera, I photographed the B&W negatives. This should be done at the highest resolution available. Once captured, the files can be taken into an editing package such as PhotoShop. One of the nice tools these packages have is the ability to "invert" the image, e.g. make a negative into a positive image or visa/versa. In most cases the resulting picture will not immediately look very good, so a simple application of "auto levels" will do the trick. In other cases the white and black points need to be modified or the exposure curve need adjusting. It is not inconceivable that B&W images that anyone would be proud of will appear. In fact in many cases the results will be far better this way than conventional enlargement printing would yield.

And most importantly resulting images will be suitable for a digital slide show, and even better, they are now part of a digital picture collection.

Next time, we'll talk about how to digitize your shoebox prints.

Wow, what a morning! As Susan mentioned in her blog The Inkjet Story, today we launched one of the most exciting products in Kodak history - our lineup of KODAK EASYSHARE All-in-One Printers. Broadcasting from NBC Studios in New York City, this event was hosted by Nathan and Max - stars of Kodak's marketing campaign Ink Is It! This special edition of Ink Is It! featured Antonio Perez, Kodak CEO; Molly Shannon, former Saturday Night Live cast member; and David Morrish, Senior Vice President at Best Buy with music provided by The Nerds.

I was the lucky guy who got to photograph the launch. So enjoy a few Kodak moments. And be sure to check out Nathan and Max at http://www.inkisit.com/.

Max & Nathan welcome Antonio with a shower of rose petals

The Great Unveiling - A cheer goes up as Antonio reveals the printer with a flourish

Antonio extolls the virtues of the new printers

Max & Nathan do the "Ink Dance" as a page prints

All three do a rousing sign-off chanting "Ink is It!"