Warren Paul Harris Photography Blog

OK, if you’ve been around long enough to remember back before digital photography, you might have had an experience with film photography where you had scratches on your images.  This was not an uncommon problem, easily fixed in the darkroom if you knew the tricks (not gonna give away any trade secrets here, but it was a very easy fix).  Sometimes this was caused by burrs on the pressure plate, sometimes by dirt or a grain of sand getting into the camera, grinding a chunk out of the emulsion as the film was wound against it.

However the scratch got there, it ruined an otherwise perfectly good (sometimes great if you’re lucky – or a Pro) photograph.

Well…  I just, for the first time since I adopted digital photography, experienced the very same thing.  Impossible, you say?  I would have thought exactly the same thing right up until a week ago.

We were in Santa Fe for Christmas, our favorite destination for that particular holiday, and had the perfect White Christmas.  While at the Loretto Chapel, home of the staircase no one can explain, except to say it is a miracle, I shot some interesting images of the interior and staircase.  This particular image is of the top of this classically designed Gothic confessional with the light from a stained glass window highlighting it.  Notice the scratch running down the left side?  It is, indeed, a scratch-type aberration in the original RAW image, going through every element of the picture.  Exactly the same as a scratch.  Should be impossible.  I have completely and painstakingly removed it from the final image, but I certainly think it’s weird.

Ever see The Omen?

<insert creepy music here>

Loretto Chapel confessional with scratch