Introduction
For this assignment, my main point of focus will be on the looking at the different type of materials, techniques and process to be used in conjunction with the theme that I choose and alongside the artists that I have researched. I will research specific photographic artists and explore their methods.
My research needs to show that am able to give a great understanding of the different type of materials, techniques and process this will be demonstrated by different workshops.
From each workshop that I will undertake it will help to demo straight that am able to use a different type of materials, with different photograph techniques and many ways of processing my work to get a different outcome each time. I need to document each different workshop that I undertook and to talk about what the effects and if it was effective or not with the final outcome. For each workshop I must use different materials, techniques and process from the last one I did this will show that am able to use a variety of materials, techniques and processes.
Research: A PowerPoint In-depth analysis of different artist and their use of materials
William fox talbot - the founding farther photography
Fox Talbot is well known and documented as the founding father of photography, even though he had competition from other scientists.
Joseph Niephore Niepce had found a way to print a picture on bitumen; also, there was Thomas Wedgwood who came up with photograms, however, couldn't get a picture to stay on paper without fading. On the other hand, Fox Talbot was the first to manage to find a way for the image to remain on paper. Therefore, this is why people today claim him to be the founding father of photography.
Talbot was an English scientist (1800 - 1877), at the age of seventeen he went to Cambridge University. In 1883 he became the inventor of photography and the first person to get an image to stay on a paper without fading. He created all of his images on salted paper print, from a paper negative; the traditional darkroom practice. He invented the three primary elements of photography: development, fixing and printing.
Chris McCaw - sunsets
Chris McCaw is a contemporary American photographer. He has been working in the darkroom since the age of 13. After high school, his passion for photography grew, taught himself everything that he could learn about the subject. However, he fell in love with using a large format camera and in 1992 he got his first 4" x 5". as the year went by, he started to adore using platinum/palladium printing process and even large camera. Now today he is making a living through the platinum/ palladium of analogue photographic mediums with him project being titled sunburnt.
The image that I’m talking about is part of a body of work each image is black and white also each one is called Sunburned. This image looks it been folded into four sections and burned a little down the fold lines, however it turns out that it real just four big images each of them printed on 4”x10” unique gelatin silver paper negative then burnt on one side. Inside each segment, there is part of what seems to be a mountain or a hill. A black dot that is supposed to be the sun at different times of the day as the sun is setting, on the other hand, if the image was flipped over it could show that the sun is rising. It not clear if his allowed for thirty minutes exposure time or is each print done with thirty minutes apart to allow for the sun to move across the sky.
McCaws works in the old darkroom film camera style where his work is allowed to have a long exposure time that is needed for his photography. McCaw's work usually is a play on words such as Sunburnt he would take a photo of the sunburn marks to break up the different time where the sun is in the sky it gives me the impression that he wanted to play on the word Sunburned by taking multiple exposures on with the sun in different places in the sky. Each exposure is taken develop on four unique gelatin silver paper negatives, put together to create one set of an overall outcome.
Chris McCaw image analysis
The image that I’m talking about is part of a body of work each image is black and white also each one is called Sunburned. This image looks it been folded into four sections and burned a little down the fold lines, however it turns out that it real just four big images each of them printed on 4”x10” unique gelatin silver paper negative then burnt on one side. Inside each segment, there is part of what seems to be a mountain or a hill. A black dot that is supposed to be the sun at different times of the day as the sun is setting, on the other hand, if the image was flipped over it could show that the sun is rising. It not clear if this allowed for thirty minutes exposure time or is each print done with thirty minutes apart to allow for the sun to move across the sky.
(long exposure time, film photography
burn marks to break up the different time where the sun is in the sky it gives me the impression that he wanted to play on the word Sun burned by taking mulitples. https://www.chrismccaw.com/new-page/
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However, the mean photographer that I choose to discuss are Lee Kirby, Man Ray and Davis Ayris these artists are featured in the PowerPoint just below
IDEA DEVELOPMENT
Discussing what you will do, when, how and where listing all equipment and process
Title: Pick and Mix photography
for this unit I had many of ideas that I wanted to for fill such as using a different lens for different effects wanted to carry on this by looking at double exposure
My second Idea is that want to try out different exposure times
my third Idea is to try out cameraless photography in the darkroom and mixing up a different type of materials and techniques
Different Materials
The different materials that I might come across during this unit could be a different type of paper (e.g. glossy or matt ) the use of film (e.g. standard black and white film or median format) or digital cameras. This might also include things like what type of film speed you use, what you set the exposure triangle to and even the different lens that I might want to use for this project.
because of the changes events due to being in lockdown and unable to get in class as normal I thought that I might adeped my work from going through with practical work and not doing workshops that were set to be done for this unit I have now chosen to talk about the different type of material I would use for a project, and explain what their effects would have been, the techniques that can be done with the materials and how to mix up the different type of materials to come with other techniques and document the different type of processing that can be done to achieve a specific effect.
Darkroom Materials
in the darkroom the is many different materials that can be used these materials are also only used for when using film photography.
the type of materials is the different type of film that can be used within the camera the film is available in each ISO film speed. it is in refect to how sensitive the film is to light. brighter the light lower the film speed need to be. film speed can range from 100 being the lowest and can range right up to 3200 which is used for very low lighting contains.
for film photography, the film is always kept inside of canister that protects that film from getting exposures to light when not getting used when loading the film into the camera you need to make sure that It is done in the dark so you don't waste the any of the shots that are available on each roll of film
this video shows how to load film correctly ( if the film is loaded in the light you normally end up with the first three frames to already be exposed to light but this is fine as those extra three frames are given in case you need to reload your camera when you run out frames on a roll and you still need to carry on shooting so you can refill your camera and carry on shooting)
Enlarger
The enlarger allows you to place your negative into the film career and projects the image down onto the baseboard. You would use the enlarger lens and focal lens to make sure the image is at the right size and is in focus at the point that is of satisfaction to you. If in doubt and you think the picture isn't in focus, you can use the loupe (focusing magnifier) to check the clarity of the film grain.
Paper
all paper that is for using to print the photos that are on the film roll will be very light-sensitive and can only be exposed either the light from the enlarger and the red light from the darkroom it can't be exposed to other lights until it gone through the development stages
Darkroom techniques
Solarisation
This was done by mistake that was founded by the apprentice of a photo scientist who accidentally turned on the white light in the middle of processing images, however, they were surprise with the effect of the outcome as it revises the tones of the images.
I did this technique last year when when I was doing chemigrams which leas into me getting side tracked into doing solarisation as I enjoyed working out how much light and what strength of light I need to recrate the effect of solarisation while mixing up the idea of doing the chemigrams and I was amazed by the results of doing solarisation and the change of tones in each image.
when a photo has been solarise the tone would normally swop over so just like in the images above the white tones where changed into dark tone and dark tone would be reversed into lighter tone.
Silver drips
Silver drips is a technique that is done once you exposed light to the light-sensitive paper for form a. once that is done instead of putting the image into a tray of developer you have the image standing upright and paint the developer on or instead of painting you can use the brush to splatter the developer onto the paper no matter what you choice to do it makes the final outcome a one of a kind as it cant be recreated after you done applying the developer you the put the paper into the fix then into the wash as normal.
cameraless photography ( Pin Hole, photograms)
these are perhaps my favourite type of photography as I enjoy the creative side of cameraless photography and the unknown of what the result would turn out to be for example when it comes to pinhole photography this is done by placing the light-sensitive paper into a pitch black contanter of any size and have it pined back on one side and the other side you will place a pin hole size to allow for light to pass though and expose to paper after a some time as passed which is all depending on the lighting contion for example you if is every sunny you only need to expose the light to the paper for 30 seconds and if seem to be a bit overcast then you would adjust the time for a couple of minutes.
with pinhole photography longer the light has exposed the paper it will help to pick up more motion however if the paper gets overexposed the image could end up more becoming more blacked out, on other hands, if the image is underexposed fewer things would be picked up or/and lighter image will become. this is why it is important to work out the exposure time before heading out with the equipment and capturing the image
once you have exposed the paper you then go into the processing stages as normal
A photogram
This a type of photography where people can become more creative as it is like pinhole photography however you don't need to leave the darkroom at all because the main difference is instead of placing paper inside of an object you just placing the paper on to enlarger board then you can become creative by place object that is opaque on to the paper then exposing it to light for no longer than this technique well used by the photographer Man Ray who personalised the technique by the way of him printing the photogram.
The outcome of a photograph would more often reminiscent an Xray and photocopies that an actual photographs
Anna Atkins perhaps the first woman to make a photograph she is well known for being photogram to fame by the uses of seaweed and other parts of nature. When she printed her work she would add a cyan tone to her work. Her work was encouraged by working alongside her friend William Henry Fox Talbot however she would have the object pressed against the light-responsive sheet and none of them is transparent which help to give a more high contrast black and white photogram image.
Double exposure
this is something I would like to carry out as it is one of my favourite techniques to do as it something that cant be recreated again even if you try. plus I want to try this out camerless which is something that I haven't done.
this is where you expose two or more image on the same frame on the same role of film you will end up shooting on the same role twice
Double exposure in a film camera is done in two stages firstly you would shoot a role of film but you would shoot the roll of film with the film being metered correctly then once you used up each frame you would overexposure the shoot by double the amount as you are exposing the frame with twice the amount of light.
Darkroom developer and process
First of all, a photographer would take the film out of the canister and put the film onto the spiral in complete darkness because the film is so sensitive. In the tank, there are chemicals that are the same.
As for wet processing, there is a light tank and a dark tank. the photographer would use the light tanks and had to agitate the film every couple of minutes for it to develop.
After 10 minutes you must pure the chemicals out and replaced it with water. This is to clean the film and prevents further development of happening.
For 100 ISO it needs to develop for 10 minutes then be put in water for one
minute. Then a fixed chemical will make the image permanent. This is the same process of agitating it for 10 minutes and then give it a quick wipe with a sponge to remove any water
drops and dust marks. Then the films were hung out to dry.
The drying process can take are a reasonable amount of time depending on the heat in the room where it will between 10 and 30 minutes to dry.
digital materials
Studio Flashgun
camera body and the lens
Digital Techniques
Double exposure
digital double exposure is done at easier as it can be done one of two ways firstly in-camera setting you can set the camera to overlay two or three images on top of each other which will create unique abstract outcomes. The second way of doing this technique it is also the most popular way of doing thing which is by opening-up Photoshop.
the reasons that I believe this is the most of popular way of doing due to the fact that people can face more creative control over the outlook when done on photoshoot is normal known as multiple exposure.
Different shutter speed
long exposure is commonly used to capture images in slow motion for example when capturing star trails in the night sky. it gives the sense of movement to an image by creating a blurred line of lights. it is also used for landscape photography, giving a dream-like effect to final images see my example below taken shoot I did in 2019. this is done with a slow shutter speed this will allow more light to pass through the lens. In contracts, a quick exposure creates a sharper image and can capture the smallest of moments as an example photographing a water balloon bursting with a fast shutter speed can show both the ballon and the water in one shot whereas a slower shutter speed will show the movement of the water.
Racking the zoom lens
when wanting to use this effect the are three main steps to follow; firstly, the shutter speed needs to set to a longer exposure time. secondly, work out how you would like the composition and focus.and lastly when you press the shutter to allow the shutter to open and closes during the time of it being open zoom in and out before the shutter closes.
Production of image
due to the effects of this lockdown, I been unable to produce any images and would have planned to do a theme approach of pick and mix, this would include a variety of techniques to be used for one for of a body of work. such as double exposure and racking the zoom lens. Below is an example of this by Jordi Sanchez Teruel. This effect gives the impression of being close yet so far away by the feeling of movement with the long exposure. I planned to test out these techniques ( as well as other techniques we would have tried out when attending the workshops) for example in a different setting such as a big vibrant city like Birmingham.
I also planned to mix cameraless pinhole photography with solarisation to see what results I would of turn out to be, this would be creating some images with a pinhole camera at some build landscape then follow it through with normal way of developing an image at this point is where I would interpret the technique of solarisation of each image.
Another thing that I plan to do is use a different lens and different shutter speed at the same subject matter to compare the final outcome with each an example of this have in mind of using a long zoom lens and try out the different shutter speed.
I would like to experiment with these techniques mentioned above and other different techniques to show the effects in comparisons with each. By doing these over and over I can then interpret the outcomes into a book format with one page showing the image and the other page will be a description of the technique.
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