RIP Dr. WIlliam Russell Young III

 from Legacy -

William Young Obituary

Obituary published on Legacy.com by Maberry Funeral Home, Inc. on Nov. 6, 2026.
William Russell "Russ" Young, III, of Floyd, Virginia, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, on October 11, 1949, and died on November 5, 2026. He was the only child of Marilyn (nee Field) and William Russell "Bill" Young. Russ is survived by his cousin, Charles Killian.

As a young man, Russ worked as a farm hand, photographer's assistant, and meat packer. His family founded Field Packing Company, where he learned integrity, value of hard labor, philanthropy, and duty from his esteemed grandfather, Charles Field.

He continued his family's tradition as a supporter of the arts, environmental groups, and social welfare organizations. Russ was active in giving back to his community through his Masonic Lodges in the USA and Scotland; serving on boards as diverse as the Palace of the Governors history museum, The Pinhole Resource, and Brescia University, where he served several decades on those boards.

Russ was a life member of Masonic Lodge St. Andrews #25 in St. Andrews, Scotland, and a firm believer in the Masonic precepts of equality and charity, a generous friend and philanthropist who disdained public recognition, so the full extent of his generosity is unknown. The brief but electric years he lived in Scotland affirmed and further formed his values and world view.

A lifelong learner with a curious mind, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Arts in Photojournalism from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in The History of Photography from Saint Andrews University, Scotland. His contributions to photography were recognized by being awarded a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society and the National Stereoscopic Society.

Russ lectured in photography at The University of Texas at Austin and a consortium of small Midwest liberal arts colleges, ASITAW. He was especially intrigued by early photographic technology. When his students were awarded Pulitzer Prizes or were appointed Department Chairs, he felt a tremendous sense of fulfillment and pride in their successes. He found great satisfaction in using his collection of antique lenses to make beautiful landscape photos, which he sometimes used to illustrate his contributions to photo journals over the years.

His lifelong interest in history led him to become a leading expert on the use of horn and powder horns in the 18th and 19th century, becoming the pivotal founding member of The Honourable Company of Horners and judge for the Contemporary Longrifle Association and Dixon's Gun Fair. He was also an avid flintlock shooter and collector, blacksmith, medieval calligrapher, all reflecting his lack of enthusiasm for modern life.

It was Russ's wish to have no funeral or memorial service. In lieu of flowers, Russ's final request is that his friends donate to Wikimedia Foundation or the June Bug Center in Floyd.

--------------------------------

Russell Young's PhD thesis on Pictorialist Photography is most excellent

I believe this is the grandfather referred to above

From a 2023 exhibition announcement. 

Linux CLI ~ packages running under termux on Android

 Prior posts have been seriously confusing.  So, to clean up my mess...

Android Imagemagick Install and Use -

To run the Imagemagick CLI on Android requires a Linux terminal emulation -

• PlayStore search "termux"
• Install "termux"
• Open "termux" app 

To add directory access to "termux" for certain directories, open "termux" and run (where $ is simply the prompt) -

• $ termux-setup-storage 

To find, install, configure Imagemagick, run -

• $ pkg update 
• $ pkg upgrade
• $ pkg search imagemagick
• $ pkg install imagemagick

To confirm image magic is installed and contains the support desired, run -

• $ which magick
• $ magick -help
• $ magick -version

Using the above example of searching, installing, verifying and running in termux on Android devices -

imagemagick - a general image processing tool CLI

gmic - a heavy duty image processing pipelined CLI

ffmpeg - a video to frame extractor tool

exiftool - an exif info display tool 

Therefore: Commands executed on Linux execute on Android using "termux" as the Linux terminal emulation app. 

Linux CLI ~ just the commands

Reverting back to an earlier, cleaner list of Linux CLI image processing commands that I find useful.  These are added to as more commands are tried and verified.

Linux Command Line Interface - 

Note: For some reason when installing a new version of Linux the imagemagic ./config... showed no jpg support.  A sudo apt-get install libjpeg-dev command was required.  Similarly, libpng-dev, libtiff-dev and other image file formats seem to be missing from the build I was trying to make and needed to explicitly be found and included. 

 

Magick commands - 

magick some_image.png Hald_CLUT_x.png -hald-clut result_image.jpg - Takes a base image and applies a 4k by 4k LUT from the command line, requires Imagemagick v7+.  Built by hand on MintOS Linux as this version isn't yet available from a software repository.  

magick -background transparent *.JPG -resize "1600x1600>" -gravity center -extent 2000x2000 -evaluate-sequence mean averaged_image_output.jpg - Image averaging command where the frame size is set by -extent in this example to 2000x2000 pixels and input files are -resized on the long dimension to 1600

magick -background transparent *.JPG -rotate "90>"  -resize "1600x1600>" -gravity center -extent 2000x2000 -evaluate-sequence mean averaged_image_output.jpg - Same as above, except this rotates images to align horizontal and vertical.

magick *.JPG -gravity center -evaluate-sequence mean -level x%,xx% -sigmoidal-contrast y,yy% outputfilename.jpg - Resizing nothing and taking the image files as they come, no reorientation, "-level" added where the first number pulled the black level to the right and the second number sets the white level.  Added "-sidmoidal-contrast" that adds an "S shaped contrast curve" where the first number is also the moving of the black level to the right and the second number defines the steepness of the contrast curve.

Mogrify commands - takes a blob of files and outputs either in place or to something specific

mogrify -format jpg *.png - change file format from png to jpg

mogrify -resize 1920 *.jpg – resizing command

mogrify -bordercolor black -border 10x10 *.jpg – adding a thin black edge to images

mogrify -bordercolor white -border 400x400 *.jpg – adding a white border to images

magick image1.jpg image2.jpg +append output.jpg - place two images side by side left to right

 

Bash scripts - for taking a blob of files and outputting to specified name prefix blob

With magick we can use a Bash script to CLUT sample colorize a batch of images as follows...

for i in *.JPG; do magick "$i" Hald_CLUT_4kx4k.png -hald-clut "Tinted$i"; done - Takes a HaldCLUT and applies colors/tints to multiple files while renaming the output so as to not collide with the original images

for i in *.jpg; do magick "$i" -colorspace Gray  "BW_$i"; done – Bash script to convert a bunch of files into black and white updated from depricated "convert" command

for i in *.jpg; do convert "$i" -colorspace Gray  "BW_$i"; done – Bash script to convert a bunch of files into black and white

for i in {0..xxxx..x00}; do magick "inputfilename.jpg" -crop Xdimension_x_Ydimension+0+$i +repage "OutputFilename$i.jpg"; done - A bash script to sectional slice an image file 

 

Gmic Commands -

gmic -input <filename.file-extension> scale_dcci2x , cut 0,255 round output <theOutputFileName>.<fileExtension> - command to perform a DCCI2x upsize - on Linux or Android "termux", where <fileExtension> can be .tif or .jpg, etc

----------- other commands -----------

exiftool -a -u -s -G1 <file_name> - to read EXIF image file data

LibreOffice : Impress

• menu Insert | Media | Photo Album :: Slide Layout 

Index ~ Topics that Interested Me

I got looking around this blog and my old Hevanet site and realized, there's a ton of stuff scattered here and there.  The exercise sent me down Memory Lane and helped me wonder what have I done?  Why?  Did I accomplish anything?  Something?  A lot?

So I set about choosing topics that seemed most important to me and organized them into this, a short list of "stuff" that I've poked at, pondered, considered, tested, and wrote about.

 

In links and a with little commentary...

Large and Medium film format lens testing ~

The original Hevanet site -  

• https://web.hevanet.com/cperez/index1.html

From this site (essentially copies of the above, but with additional posts as I started to transition to digital) -  

• Large Format Lens Tests 
• Medium Format Lens Tests

It set a foundation for my understanding commercially available optics for photography. Yes, there are gaping holes in the overall subject of "lens testing" - such as aberrations of various sorts, contrast transfer (MTF), field distortion, and field curvature.  Alas, I wanted to start somewhere and this was it. 

It turns out, it's really difficult to find a "bad" lens and at optimal working apertures it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between them.  In fact, in the vast majority of cases I've examined over the decades of fooling with this stuff, I've found the light gathering materials (film, sensor) to be the limiting factor to resolution.

Out of Focus Rendition ~

• Summary of Understandings
• Example of Sigma lenses - check the right side bar for a laundry list of other lenses considered

I went down this path after reading a whitepaper Zeiss published on the topic.  Looking at lenses I own I learned that zoom lenses can have very smooth behind the point of focus.  Old Nikkors seem to have a "condom ring" around an under-corrected for spherical aberration out of focus disk.  Modern fixed focus lenses seem to tame the "condom ring" fairly well.  

I confirmed for myself that overcorrected for spherical aberration lenses behind the point of focus give soap bubble specular highlights, particularly when corrected for maximum resolution in the center of the field wide open.  Many Cooke triplet, a few tessar formula lenses and most Canon FL and FD 50mm lenses exhibit this.  The cheap Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Series E is an opposite example.  It's very smooth behind the point of focus and is a touch soft wide open.

Digital Zone System ~

• Built a step-wedge to understand B&W tones in the digital realm
• RAW - Test to see how sensors behave
• In-camera JPG - Test to see how Sony ASIC's process images

I learned a tremendous amount in adapting digital to the old Adams/White Zone System.  

With film we exposed for the shadows and processed for the highlights.  In digital we have the opportunity to do the exact opposite - expose for the highlights and process for the shadows.  

Another important finding is that for current generation of digital CMOS sensors +4EV is pure white - there seems no way around this - it's simply a hard fact - for now, at least.  This needs to be kept firmly in mind when processing digital to look like film until new sensor tech is released that expands the upper end of the tonal range (think photon-counters).

On the other hand, digital sensors are very good in the shadows - often down to -6EV or  -7EV (perhaps deeper, depending on end viewing conditions - book or LCD) - well beyond what film was ever capable of.  Using this knowledge I find if I want digital whites to look a lot like film with an extended exposure shoulder, I can under-expose by -1EV, then raise the -1EV tonal value to Zone 5/0EV/118dec.

Soft Focus on Miniature Formats ~

• Then vs Now - Soft Focus tools and understanding imaging potentials
• Cosina 55m f/2.8 matrix of softness - an example (other lenses are also considered in adjacent posts) 

The goal was to see if there was a way to mimic old large format soft focus work in miniature formats (full frame, APS-C) after finding specialty soft focus lenses to be far too strong for my liking - I traded a pretty to look at but impossible to use Pentax 85mm f/2.2 Soft Focus for something more useful to me.

A key arrived in the form of an email from Russell Young, PhD - who's thesis is on Pictorial photography.  A link to a 1906 book in French proved most useful and I was able to quickly/easily adapt old calculations to understanding what might be possible in current time.

There are two aspects I found helpful.  First, front element focusing lenses often introduce optical imperfections much in the manner of old large format softies.  The early Wollensak Velostigmat Series II was the large format inspiration.  First element focusing lenses do exist, typically for old SLR 35mm systems - but hunting and gathering them can be a challenge.  

Second, a good understanding and careful use of soft focus filtration can be eminently useful in miniature formats.  There are many reasons why filters are implemented the way they are, and each delivers its own character and rendition style.

Final Comment ~

After finding very few resources (in literature, magazines, or on the internet) I realized I had to work things out for myself. 

Using my (perhaps overly) simplistic approaches to things, anyone can do what I've done in any and all of these subject areas and probably can improve on these works (see Monsieurs Puts et Cicala below).  It's all very simple and straight forward.  And yet, outside of photography club journals from the late 1800's/early 1900's and a series of lens resolution tests run by Modern Photography during the 1970's I've found nothing comparable.

It was only much later than I learned of an Erwin Puts book on Leitz optics, complete with MTF charts.  Similarly, I found Dr. Roger Cicala who turned his attention to optics and built up a special table for measuring MTF of DSLR lenses.  In both cases, as excellent as their work is, they only considered contrast transfer, so the questions of field distortion, field curvature, chromatic aberration, flare, etc remained unanswered. 

Developing as deep an understanding as I could while keeping things as simple as possible for reproducibility and clarity, along with articulating interpretations as accurately as possible, has been my goal.  Applying what I've learned over the years to my photography is increasingly gratifying.  

Testing for learning/understanding/knowledge without tangible results would, after all, be rather pointless, wouldn't it?

 

Linux CLI - more notes to self

[NOTE: What a mess I've made.  So... I split this into two different posts.  Please see subsequent posts.]

Android Imagemagick Install and Use -

To run the Imagemagick CLI on Android requires a Linux terminal emulation -

• PlayStore search "termux"
• Install "termux"
• Open "termux" app 

Now we need to add directory access to "termux", so run (where $ is simply the prompt) -

• $ termux-setup-storage 

To find, install, configure Imagemagick, run -

• $ pkg update 
• $ pkg upgrade
• $ pkg search imagemagick
• $ pkg install imagemagick

To confirm image magic is installed and contains the support desired, run -

• $ which magick
• $ magick -help
• $ magick -version

To confirm the Android file system is mounted and accessible, run something like -

• $ ls storage <- this will show which directories "termux" can see
• $ ls storage/dcim <-example of getting into the camera file system on the device

To work with Imagemagick, using a file manager app on Android, create a directory that is accessible to "termux" and organize subfolders in whatever way makes sense for manipulating image files using "magick".  For instance -

• Using an Android running file manager, in the ../dcim directory, make a new directory and label it to something meaningful, then...
• Returning to the "termux" Linux terminal emulation, do something like the following -
• $ cd storage
• $ cd dcim
• $ cd <directory created for image manipulation purposes>
• ... or simply/more directly...
• $ cd storage/dcim/<directory created for image manipulation purposes>

From the working directory you can now run any Imagemagick command you like on the files deliberately loaded into the  <directory created for image manipulation purposes>  

Any of the Imagemagick commands in the following (original) section may be executed with the expected results.  Even bash commands are executable with Imagemagick commands embedded. 

Linux Command Line Interface - 

ImageMagick has evolved and some of the commands I've used in the past are now deprecated.  So, here's an update in a new post (keeping the old post as reference).

magick some_image.png Hald_CLUT_x.png -hald-clut result_image.jpg - Takes a base image and applies a 4k by 4k LUT from the command line, requires Imagemagick v7+.  Built by hand on MintOS Linux as this version isn't yet available from a software repository.  

For some reason when installing a new version of Linux the imagemagic ./config... showed no jpg support.  A sudo apt-get install libjpeg-dev command was required.  Similarly, libpng-dev, libtiff-dev and other image file formats seem to be missing and need to be included. 

With magick we can use a Bash script to CLUT sample colorize a batch of images as follows...

for i in *.jpg; do magick "$i" -colorspace Gray  "BW_$i"; done – Bash script to convert a bunch of files into black and white updated from depricated "convert" command

for i in *.JPG; do magick "$i" Hald_CLUT_4kx4k.png -hald-clut "Tinted$i"; done - Takes a HaldCLUT and applies colors/tints to multiple files while renaming the output so as to not collide with the original images

magick -background transparent *.JPG -resize "1600x1600>" -gravity center -extent 2000x2000 -evaluate-sequence mean averaged_image_output.jpg - Image averaging command where the frame size is set by -extent and input files are -resized as specified

magick -background transparent *.JPG -rotate "90>"  -resize "1600x1600>" -gravity center -extent 2000x2000 -evaluate-sequence mean averaged_image_output.jpg - Same as above, except this rotates images to align horizontal and vertical.

magick -background transparent *.JPG -gravity center -evaluate-sequence mean -level x%,xx% -sigmoidal-contrast y,yy% outputfilename.jpg - Resizing nothing and taking the image files as they come, no reorientation, "-level" added where the first number pulled the black level to the right and the second number sets the white level.  Added "-sidmoidal-contrast" that adds an "S shaped contrast curve" where the first number is also the moving of the black level to the right and the second number defines the steepness of the contrast curve.

for i in {0..xxxx..x00}; do magick "inputfilename.jpg" -crop Xdimension_x_Ydimension+0+$i +repage "OutputFilename$i.jpg"; done - A bash script to sectional slice an image file 

magick image1.jpg image2.jpg +append output.jpg - place two images side by side

mogrify -format jpg *.png - change file format from png to jpg

mogrify -resize 1920 *.jpg – resizing command

mogrify -bordercolor black -border 10x10 *.jpg – adding a thin black edge to images

mogrify -bordercolor white -border 400x400 *.jpg – adding a white border to images

for i in *.jpg; do convert "$i" -colorspace Gray  "BW_$i"; done – Bash script to convert a bunch of files into black and white

------- not Imagemagick, but still available on Android  using "termux" ------- 

Following the "termux" installation found above, run the following -

• $ pkg search gmic
• $ pkg install gmic  

Verify gmic is correctly installed by running -

• $ which gmic
• $ gmic -help <- Caution:Will likely scroll forever, or so it'll seem, its really long
• $ gmic -version

gmic -input <filename.file-extension> scale_dcci2x , cut 0,255 round output <theOutputFileName>.<fileExtension> - command to perform a DCCI2x upsize - on Linux or Android "termux", where <fileExtension> can be ".tif"

--------------- not Imagemagick commands -------------------

exiftool -a -u -s -G1 <file_name> - to read EXIF image file data

LibreOffice : Impress

• menu Insert | Media | Photo Album :: Slide Layout 

 

 

------------- pre IMv7 commands ---------------

convert -background transparent *.JPG -resize "1600x1600>" -gravity center -extent 2000x2000 -evaluate-sequence mean averaged_image_output.jpg - From before the deprication which means pre-v7 versions of Imagemagick -Image averaging command where the frame size is set by -extent and input files are -resized as specified

convert *.jpg -average <averaged-filename>.jpg – averaging command

convert *.jpg -evaluate-sequence median <output file-name>.jpg  - a different averaging command

convert <filename>.<file-extension> -colorspace gray <output filename>.<file-extension> – command to convert a single image to black and white

 

Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff ~ APS-C ~ Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.8 at three apertures

Up to now I've been measuring things out of a Full Frame Sony.  As a spot-check I had a look at how things measured up on Sony APS-C. 

It's my hope that I've described things clearly enough that anyone can do this.  It takes no special equipment.  No fancy anything.  Just a few photos with understanding of how/where to measure blur.  The method was described in 1906 in Biblioteque de la Revue de Photographie -  L. de Pulligny - C. Puyo "Objectifs d'Artiste Practique et Theorie des Objectifs et Teleobjectifs Anachromatique" found at the Biblioteque national de France (BnF).

Now, to revisit a cheap Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.8 four element four group strange design first element focusing lens, the optic is very flexible.  Wide open it's soft.  Stopped down it is very well-corrected across the field.  It's very easy to use first and second element separation to induce and control softness and the aperture to define sharpness.  This is the lens where I learned about first element focusers.  This is a "do it all" kind of lens.

Here's how to read the following graphs. Please keep in mind that these are for Full Frame digital.  APS-C is slightly different from Full Frame, as we will now see.  I checked lens/filter combinations for three aperture settings.

 

 

 

Comments ~

As with the Ricoh Auto-Rikenon 50mm f/2.8, there are (at least) two things I note.

First, Blur Falloff tracks between Full Frame and APS-C, but, as expected, Blur Radius does not.  APS-C measures as larger than Full Frame.  The Blur Radius difference is easily calculated based on the physical sensor size differences and is verified in practice (direct measurement). 

Second, Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff slide left as the aperture is stopped down.  This, too, is to be expected.  The scene sharpens up and the depth of field increases, thus reducing optical imperfections and soft filter contribution. 

This is fun.  Knowledge.  It can be useful. 

 

Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff ~ APS-C ~ Ricoh Auto-Rikenon 50mm f/2.8

I haven't said much about the importance of digital sensor size in my little look-see into soft focus lenses and filters.  I've been measuring everything up to this point using a Full Frame Sony.  As a spot-check I had a look at how things measured up on Sony APS-C. 

Returning to a pretty little Ricoh Auto-Rikenon 50mm f/2.8 four element three group tessar design first element focusing lens for a moment, I find the optic is sharp from wide open and is well-corrected across the field.  It's really difficult to use first and second element separation to induce and control softness in this one.  I believe it to be a Cosina re-badge as it appears to be found under any number of 3rd names.  If you can't afford a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8, try one of these.  It's simply brilliant for normal work.

Here's how to read the following graphs. Please keep in mind that these are for Full Frame digital.  APS-C is slightly different from Full Frame, as we will now see.

 

 

Comments ~

There are (at least) two things I note.

First, Blur Falloff tracks between Full Frame and APS-C, but, as expected, Blur Radius does not.  APS-C Blur Radii measure larger than Full Frame.  The radius difference is easily calculated based on the physical sensor size differences and is verified in practice (direct measurement). 

Second, Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff slide left on my graphs as the aperture is stopped down.  This, too, is to be expected.  The scene sharpens up and the depth of field increases, reducing optical imperfections and changes soft filter contribution. 

This lens is perhaps a little too well corrected for trying to match early Pictorialist era print softness. 

 

Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff ~ Steinheil Auto-Cassaron 50mm f/2.8

A friend pointed me to the Steinheil Auto-Cassaron 50mm f/2.8.  It's a Cooke triplet first element focusing 35mm SLR m42 mount lens and it's rather special.  It positively glows at all apertures and all subject distances.  These first element focusers can work magic by gently introducing optical imperfections as the first and second element distance changes.

Here's how to read the following graphs. Please keep in mind that these are for Full Frame digital.  APS-C is slightly different, as we may see in future posts.

 

 

Comments ~

The lens is soft overlaying sharpness.  At all apertures.  This seems to be Steinheil's design tendency.  

ISCO (the budget design house of Jos Schneider), Schacht, Roeschlein, Staeble, and of course Zeiss by comparison, are contrastier than Steinheil from wide open.

The Steinheil 45mm f/2.8 Cassarit and 135mm f/4.5 Cassar all show similar levels of softness that veil over a distinct sharpness.  Because of the rendition I feel Steinheil can be quite useful for working small format digital into early Pictorialist-like images. 

At this point I'm finding I have many good options from which to choose.  German.  Japanese.  Cooke triplet.  Zeiss tessar.  Steinheil Antiplanet (I have a Staeble 85mm that is of this formula).  All of these are good in one way or another.  I just have to work with them to see where I can go from here. 

Blur Radius vs Blur Falloff ~ Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.2

The first first element focusing lens I stumbled on was a Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.8 four element 4 group design lens.  It's a strange beasty in terms of lens design, but these seem eminently useful for soft focus work near wide open.    Stopped down the lens is as sharp as anything in the Toy Bin.  Versatility is strong in this one.

Since this is a Pentax K-mount I can't use the first element separation to manage softness level the way I do the m42 thread mount Cosina, Steinheil, and ISCO lenses.  I don't have a helicoid for K-mount.  However, at wide apertures there are plenty of optical imperfections no matter the focus distance.

Here's how to read the following graphs. Please keep in mind that these are for Full Frame digital.  APS-C is slightly different, as we may see in future posts.

 

 

Comments ~

To me it's interesting to see how aperture effects blur.  Bare lens or filtered, aperture can help manage softness levels.

Many of the Ricoh lens/filter combinations are well within old brass-era soft focus lens ranges.  This helps explain why, intuitively, I've felt this was a good Soft Focus lens on Full Frame digital formats.

While there may never be one lens "to rule them all", this little Ricoh seems well up to the task.