Archive

Monthly Archives: March 2013

Creative Applications of Photography March 20th

March 20, 2013
HNC
Leave a comment

This week we tried another couple of non camera photographic techniques.  The first one being a Cyanotype or Blueprint.  Paper is painted with a solution, left to dry and then either items or an acetate print are placed on top and the whole thing exposed to UV light for 15-20 minutes.  The paper is then washed in water and then dried.  I did a fairly simple one onto a piece of paper from my watch project.  I placed some negatives, a protractor and a large paperclip onto the paper before exposing to UV:

Cyanotype

Cyanotype

We then tried a Polaroid Lift.  Because the camera’s are so hard to come by the college has a machine that prints a 35mm negative or an acetate onto a polaroid.  What you can then do is soak the picture in hot water and the image on a thin film comes away from the white card.  There are a couple of things that can then be done with this:

  • The thin film can then be arranged on a piece of card. Either as flat as possible or most likely crumpled.
  • The black paper that is peeled off the polaroid picture can be pressed onto paper and whatever residue is left is transferred.
Polaroid Lift on paper

Polaroid Lift on paper

 

Polaroid residue left on backing

Polaroid residue left on backing

 

Polaroid backing residue

Polaroid backing residue

Creative Applications of Photography March 13th

March 13, 2013
HNC
Leave a comment

This week, we explored some more photographic techniques.  Building on the photogram work from last week in the darkroom and using the enlargers.

We started by distressing negatives, literally taking some of the ones we’d got from our medium format shoot then scratching and burning them!  We then started with the same 5 second test strips as before to find the correct exposure, then onto a full A4 print:

Distressed negative 5 second test strip

Distressed negative 5 second test strip

Distressed negative A4 print

Distressed negative A4 print

Something else we also did was to use various bleaches and dyes to colour photographs and photograms.  I used one of the photograms that I had done the previous week using nuts and screws:

Coloured photogram

Coloured photogram

Creative Applications of Photography March 6th

March 6, 2013
HNC
Leave a comment

With our next HNC unit we’ve moved away from using a camera, to looking at some of the historical process’ and creative techniques that are available.  These are not necessarily about getting the best, sharpest image, but making something creative.

We started in the darkroom looking at Photograms.  This is a process of placing objects onto photographic paper and then using an enlarger to shine light onto the arrangement, thus creating a negative.  This is then developed using the darkroom chemicals.

To get the correct exposure time, as with developing a negative, a test strip is done where card is used to gradually shade less of the photographic paper so that exposures of 5, 10, 15 etc. seconds can be seen.  This process can be repeated if necessary with different enlarger settings.The best time is then chosen for the final image.  (Below are scans of photo paper after developing)

Photogram 5 sec test strip

Photogram 5 Second gap test strip

Photogram Sun Catcher A4

Photogram full size. Sun catcher and fixings

We then repeated the process with negatives that we had shot before on medium format camera’s:

Photo develop 5 sec test strip

Negative 5 second increment test strip

First Developed A4 Photo

Negative A4 print

 

Final Sekonda watch studio shoot

March 3, 2013
HNC
Leave a comment

Note: Quick edit, got a Merit for the project, really happy with that!

So, after a pretty successful 1st studio shoot I was keen to make some adjustments and improvements  to my theme.  My main aim was to make the product look bigger and get some champagne in the glasses.

I started without champagne trying to set the shot up.  I really struggled to get what I wanted because the sheet of stainless steel I was using was too short.  I couldn’t get the champagne bottle and glasses far away enough to get the right angle.  Also, because the black cloth on the table and the background on the wall were different blacks I was getting a bit of a striped effect:

Sekonda FS striped (1)

I then tried getting rid of the stainless steel and pulling the black cloth up over an object in the background to give a more consistent colour:

Sekonda black background

These looked better.  It then took me a while to rotate the watch to try and avoid reflections and adjust the position of the champagne bottle of glasses.

I then tried some champagne in the glasses and another student suggested putting lipstick on and drinking of one glass, which was a nice touch.  So my best shot from the day, before ‘photoshopping’ was:

Best Pre PS

After some photoshopping to remove scratches, dust specs and some other adjustments my final image:

Best Post PSI’m still a little frustrated by some of the reflections, but am very happy with my work to remove some of the marks and the dark ‘seksy’ look i’ve given to the watch.

All handed in and awaiting marking now…

One final thing:

At the end of the shoot, after sampling the champagne.  We decided a shot of the watch on the stainless steel, surrounded by champagne would look nice:

Seksy ChampagneWe we’re quite pleased in the end!