Possible Four Final Images

After speaking with the tutor in my tutorial he told me that these four were my best images and that I should use them in my final selection. I am going to see how the new ones I am going to shoot turn out and then have a look at my final images again.

Contact Sheet Review

Tuesday afternoon we showed our contact sheets to the group so that we could receive feedback and so that the tutor could see the work that we had done so far.

At first the review was not very helpful as I was wanting some feedback about the subject I had photographed however there was more technical information given about why the sides of my print had been developed more than the middle.

But I did get some comments about my subject and a possible direction to take the final five in.

After my tutorial with the tutor this morning I am planning to go and take a few more photographs that will help me create a sequence with my final five (if the weather clears up as I am wanting clear skies and contrast in the photographs.)

Another Four Photographs - Contact Sheet

These are the contact sheets of the images I took, I think the first and the third images are more well composed then the other two as the second image looks as though I have squashed the view of the railings into one corner and the last image is focusing more on the wall than on the rocks and the waves which is what I had wanted. The shadows in the first image add just a little extra detail which makes the photograph more interesting and the way I have composed the third image makes it feel as though the viewer is stood on those stairs looking down them.

Another Four Photographs

We went out on another shoot as the weather was bright and sunny and the contrast would be great, I focused on a railing and set of stairs as the shape the lines created led the viewer right through the photograph, the shadows were also interesting as it almost looks like a reflection on the floor. I took an image facing out towards the sea with the Highlands in the distance, I am not sure about how this image will turn out compared to what I was thinking but I am hopeful it will work.

I have developed these and should hopefully be in the darkroom printing contact sheets this afternoon.

The Next Four Photographs - Contact Sheet

So we got into the darkroom to make contact sheets of all the negatives and this is what my prints look like:

I am happy with how they came out as they are well exposed and they are all in focus. With the second image I wanted to play with the depth of field so I focused on the wall in the foreground and used a shallow depth of field to have the rocks in the background slightly out of focus.

The last two images are my personal favourites from this shoot as I feel I took more care in composing them compared to the first two. 

The sides of the prints have been developed slightly more than the rest, this is because of the clips that hold the negative in the developer means the developer chemical runs down over that section more than the others.

Machine Processing or Tray Chemicals

In the darkroom there is two different ways to develop the contact sheets and enlargements; tray chemicals or a processing machine.

Tray Chemicals

Are more used when using resin coated paper and the technician does not recommend the students using the chemicals if we are not using this type of paper as it is an unnecessary health and safety risk, we were also told that is wasting chemicals because so much is left unused.

Some people prefer using the chemicals because they like to watch the process to make sure it has gone right and easily take the paper out of the process if it is not right. Another reason is that they can make sure the print does not get scratched or damaged during the process.

Machine Processing

This is a handy machine that develops, fixes and washes the prints. the technicians recommend this process as there is no chemical waste and it is safer as the chemicals are contained and there is no chance of spilling them on ourselves.

This process is easier than the trays because the whole process is automatic however there are some problems that can occur with this process; sometimes prints come out with scratches on them because of the rollers, and there is always a chance of the machine breaking if people are impatient and do not leave a suitable gap between the prints another thing that can happen if people are impatient is prints get stuck together so they are not developed fully.


I like to use the chemicals because it feels like I am doing more work and not just sitting around waiting for the machine.

Using the Enlarger

Once the film has been developed it is called a negative, this is because the black appears white and the whites appear black. In the darkroom is where a positive image is created, first in the form of a contact sheet.

Contact sheets are very useful to keep with the negatives as they show exactly what the image will look like when enlarged into a full print, they are easier to look at than the negatives as all the exact details can be seen on the contact sheet. Contact sheets are named as such because the negative is in contact with the light sensitive paper.

The negative is reversed into a positive because as the light from the enlarger exposes the paper the black on the negative blocks light coming through and the whites expose the paper; this means that where the paper is exposed it turns black and where there are blocks (the black and grey on the negative) it leaves the paper white and varying tones of grey.

The university has two different enlargers in it's black and white darkroom, for this project one type is being used for making contact sheets and the other is being used for making prints as this enlarger is the only type larger enough to hold the 5x4 negatives. One problem with this is that there are not enough devere enlargers for everybody to use and equipment is going to be difficult to get hold of.


Step by Step Using the Enlarger


Collect the negative carrier, lens, filters, contact board and focus finder from the photography store.

Make sure you have paper and negatives.

In the darkroom attach the lens and slide the negative carrier in.

Check the size of the light and adjust it so it covers the size of the contact board, then stop the lens down by two or three.

With the light off set up a test strip with the negative ontop and expose for 5secs, then cover most of the image with a strip of card.

Then move the card and expose more of the negative for 5secs, continue this until only a small section of the negative remains covered.

Develop using either tray chemicals or a processing machine.

Decide on a time to print the contact sheet on, then print and develop it.

If you are going to print an enlargement of the negatives then in the darkroom slide the negative carrier out and in the light line the negative up with the sides of the carrier ( shiny side up and so the bottom of the image is at the back of the negative carrier )

Slide the negative carrier back in the enlarger and turn the focusing light on (not before checking your paper is all covered) then size the image to about what you need it to be and then focus it by eye; fine focusing can be done with the focus finder, using the magnified reflection to find the grain which comes from the negative. 

Now run a test strip the same way as the contact sheet, develop it, decide a time and use a full sheet to expose the full image and develop.

Some minor changes may be required such as dodging and burning to bring in more details in sections of the print. Dodging is done by covering a section of the paper between the paper and the lens, this gives the covered section less time than the rest and makes look lighter, this is useful for recovering details that have been lost in shadow. Burning involves leaving the section exposed to give it more exposed making this darker than it should have been, this is useful for when sky has no detail and some can be brought in.

Filters can also be used to change the contrast; using a 0 filter will bring out the whites and using 5 filter will affect the blacks. The filters inbetween affect both by some varying degree, however the 3.5 filter will print as though there are no filters in as it affects black and white equally.

Developing The Next Four Photographs

Setting up in the processing room

Developing the film is quite different to working with the 35mm film as everything happens in a light tight room and if something goes wrong you have to solve it while in the room (or take all your negatives off the frames and load them back into a light tight bag, leave the room and solve the issue then reload the negatives back onto the frames - yes this happened to me)

Before we could go in to develop we had to warm the developer up as it was too cold to use, this took a while but eventually we got the temperature up to 20 degrees and were able to go into the room.

Heating up the Developer

Developing times due to temperature

Me and a friend both went into develop our films together and we found that we work well as a team in the process: I struggle with loading the film onto the frames but have no problem doing the developing process.

We started by only developing one negative each to test the developing time as it was quite used developer, we estimated that we should develop for around 10 mins instead of 7 mins and this worked great as the negative came out well contrasted.

We then developed the rest and should be printing contact sheets soon so I will uploading them soon.

Meeting Ian Macdonald

Ian Macdonald gave our course a small preview of some of his prints and this was helpful to me because I had not seen many actual prints (that have not been done by me or on a wall in an exhibition) and seeing the amount of detail possible in them was inspiring.

He also showed us the affect the type of paper has on the overall look of the image, some papers are warm and some are colder, he also showed us glossy and matt prints and personally I prefer the matt as there is less light reflections covering some of the image.

The amount of care and detail that goes into every print is amazing as I had not realised how much it takes for prints to be completed, fixing little speckle marks that have appeared on the paper is not something I have ever thought about doing but it made me realise that even experienced film photographers get dust and little scratches on their negatives and it made me less worried about the prints not being perfect.

Getting Equipment Issues

Ok so once again there is no double dark slides left in the store in the department. People have taken all of the dark slides out or people have not returned them, so I can't photograph anything till probably late this afternoon.

I decided to look online to see if I could get my own so that this problem did not come up again and right now I can't afford to buy my own as on average it costs £40 just for one and I would want a few.

Hopefully some come back into the store for this afternoon so that I can go out and take some photographs as I won't be able to over Easter break and there won't be much time after the holidays.

The Next Four Photographs - Location Scout

Me and a few friends went on a location scout and I took some photographs of possible things I could return and photograph.

I explored close up details within the landscape as I found these to be more interesting than the wider view.

I am going to look at the stairs and railings and I would like to look at the life buoy.

First two photographs

26.3.14

26.3.14

These are the images I took on my first trip out with the camera, the first image is the best as I have been more creative and the image is more interesting. I am going to try retaking the second image but making it more interesting to look at.

Developing

So today I am going to be developing the two prints I made last week, I'm quite nervous as I've never done this before as I have to use a completely light tight loading room to develop, stop bath and fix the print.

It also makes me more nervous because my prints are in the same light tight storage bag as two other members of the group so I am developing those as well as I have no way of knowing which prints are mine and separating them. I don't want to do anything wrong as I feel awful for things getting damaged or not developing properly.


Update

Everything came out great so I will be heading into the darkroom to make a contact sheet this afternoon.