Film and Dark room photography Practice- Process

Film And Dark Room Photography Practice - Process 

stage 1: Preperation

I first learnt about the different parts on a 35mm film camera. I found out everything is done manually. I truly understood shutter speed on a 35mm film camera because everything is manual and therefore I understood what the lens does and how I can make my image appear brighter, by simply leaving the lens open longer so it takes in more light. You do this by switching to the higher digits on the dial. 

I learnt to remove the film, I first had to pull the leaver and role in the film into the capsule before I could open the back as the light will damage it because it is light sensitive. 

There will always be a strip of film at the end however no images go on to the film. I also learnt that every image I take I must role the button as I will not be able to take an image. As I role it it  moves to another film in which the image I take goes on to the new unused section on the film. (I used black and white film.)
Also I learnt the once I have used all my film I will not be able to roll as I have used all my film, there is also a tiny screen in which has numbers indicating how much images I have taken. 

Stage 2: Shooting 

With all the things I learnt about using a 35mm Camera I was ready to take my image. I took images of still objects indoors.

Stage 3: Developing 

I did not remove my the film as the process is technical and risky so a professional had to do it. However, I did have a chance in removing and doing the process with another film which was already exposed to light. 
The way in which I had to remove the film to prepare it to be developed was by placing the camera in a special black bag (this can be done in a darkroom without using a bag) which had holes which could only fit my hands. As a tiny bit of light will damage the film. I then took out the film from the bag and cut the bit at the end which did have any images on it. Doing this was quite difficult as I could not see anything but I quickly got the hand of it.

I loaded the film on the reel until I felt it click which meant it was all loaded. Getting the film on the reel was again difficult but I eventually go it on. Also the film had a tiny gap between the reel as the chemicals need to the film in order to prepare it for developing. 

I placed the reel into a container, this is still all done in the bag. I had to ensure the lid was placed on properly as if not the film will be exposed to light. I knew the lid was on correctly when it clicked After this the container come out the bag and chemicals can be poured into the container.

Stage 4: Dark room 

 Equipment:

Enlarger, Tongs, Stop Watch, timer, Water, stop bath, fixer and (another chemical), special lighting and photograph paper.

I used a timer as I my image had to be in the chemicals for a set period time or else my image will be over processed or not develop at all.

• I used an enlarge, I place in my strip in the enlarger and it projected my image using light on to the paper. With the enlarger there was a timer connected to it to set how long light is placed on to the paper. 

I used a stop bath to prevent the chemicals from over processing my image, which was from the fixer. 






I had to use tongs when placing my images in the chemicals as I cannot use my hands.













After my film was in the chemicals for a particular period of time I was ready to go to the Dark Room to develop it. I first took a test strip from the photographic paper. I placed the test strip on the enlarger and then this projected the image on the light sensitive paper. However, I sectioned each peace of the test strip into eight, each section was exposed to light for 2,4,6,8,12,14,16 seconds to test how long which was the best amount of time to expose my final images to the light from the enlarger. To see anything on the test strips I had to place it in the developer for 2 minutes, then in another chemical bath, then in the stop bath to prevent the chemicals from over working and finally left it running under the tap to remove the chemicals completely. I used the tongs at all times and the timer as well as keeping an eye on the analog clock. When I finally saw the image on the strip the image was blurry (as you can see on the right). Therefore I chose another image from my film strip and repeated the process with the test strips but exposing each section with less light as the other ones were expose to much light as you can see from the dark sections. Also the second test strip I chose a wrong area of the image therefore I had to do a third one. I finally chose to expose my original image to 6 seconds of light as this was the best. At the bottom you will see my image.

test strips

my photo 

Still Life photographs using light to create mood

My Still Life Photography- Using Light To Create Mood 

The light is focused on the left side of the object where as the right side of the object is left in the dark, however I also had to manipulate the shutter speed to produce this sombre mood. The way in which I manipulated the shutter speed was by switching the dial to 's' and increasing the speed of the shutter closer, as therefore less light will be coming in the lens creating this mood. My favorite feature of this image is how the right hand of the object is in the darkness and blends with it but the other remains seen. 

Film types and storage Devices

Film types and storage devices 

Photographic film

Undeveloped Arista black-and-white film

Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals.The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film.

Light is neither a wave nor a particle, but has properties of both. Light can be focused like a wave, but its energy is distributed in discrete packets called photons. The energy of each photon is inversely related to the wavelength of the light -- blue light is the most energetic, while red light has the least energy per photon of exposure. Ultraviolet light (UV) is more energetic, but invisible to human eyes. Infrared light is also invisible, but if it is strong enough our skin detects it as heat.

It is the energy in each photon of light that causes a chemical change to the photographic detectors that are coated on the film. The process whereby electromagnetic energy causes chemical changes to matter is known as photochemistry. By carefully engineering materials, they can be chemically stable until they are exposed to radiation (light). Photochemistry comes in many different forms. For example, specially formulated plastics can be hardened (cured) by exposure to ultraviolet light, but exposure to visible light has no effect. 

                                  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/film.htm 

Color

Experiments with color photography began almost as early as photography itself, but the three-color principle underlying all practical processes was not set forth until 1855, not demonstrated until 1861, and not generally accepted as "real" color photography until it had become an undeniable commercial reality in the early 20th century. Although color photographs of good quality were being made by the 1890s, they required special equipment, long exposures, complex printing or display procedures and highly specialized skills, so they were then exceedingly rare.

The first practical and commercially successful color "film" was the Lumière Autochrome, a glass plate product introduced in 1907. It was expensive and not sensitive enough for hand-held "snapshot" use. 

Storage device - memory card

A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state electronic flash memory data storage device used with digital cameras, handheld and Mobile computers, telephones, music players, video game consoles, and other electronics. 
Nowadays, most new PCs have built-in slots for a variety of memory cards; Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD, etc. Some digital gadgets support more than one memory card to ensure compatibility.there are many types of storage memory card Secure Digital (SD), Mini Secure Digital (miniSD), Compact Flash (CF) Type 1, Compact Flash (CF) Type 2 to several other more. 

Secure Digital (SD):

A widely used format of small size and available in high capacities. SD is being used more and more in compact digital cameras and other portable electronics due to its small size. Many notebook computers have built in SD card slots to allow easy data transfer without the need for adaptors. At this time, the SD card format looks to be the most likely to become a standard, and is probably the safest bet as far a future support goes. A locking tab is provided to prevent accidental erasure.

Secure Digital card (SD)

Bibliography 

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/buying-advice/technology_guides/understanding-memory-cards/

Macro Lens

Macro Lens

Shallow of depth field

Macro lens is extreme close- up photography, usually of very 
small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size. Macro photography (or photomicrography or macro-graph, and sometimes called macro-photography.

Alice through the Macro Lens [2012] 

The ratio of the subject size on the film plane (or sensor plane) to the actual subject size is known as the reproduction ratio. Likewise, a macro lens is classically a lens capable of reproduction ratios greater than 1:1, although it often refers to any lens with a large reproduction ratio, despite rarely exceeding 1:1.1.

Today, the term 'macro' is more widely used to describe equipment with some sort of close-focusing capability, and lenses with up to 1:4 magnification ratios (quarter life size) are often billed as having macro functionality.

Dedicated macro lenses are not cheap ranging from £649.99  for a sigma 05mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM and for a Samsung silent focusing available for around £530 but they are optimized to operate at closer than normal distance.

    

Bibliography 

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/08/23/what-is-a-macro-lens-magnification-minimum-focus-distance/

Telephoto Lens

Telephoto Lens

                                                                                                  A collection of telephoto lenses

Telephoto lenses are now and then taken into the further sub-types of medium telephoto: lenses covering between a 30° and 10° field of view (85mm to 135mm in 35mm film format), and super telephoto: lenses covering between 8° through less than 1° field of view (over 300mm in 35mm film format). In photography and cinematography, a telephoto lens is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length.^[1] This is done by incorporating a special lens group known as a telephoto group that extends the light path to create a long-focus lens in a much shorter overall design. The angle of view and other effects of long-focus lenses are the same for telephoto lenses of the same specified focal length. before andafter 

Telephoto lenses compress the sense of depth, whereas wide angle lenses exaggerate the sense of depth. Since spaciousness is an important quality in many landscapes, the rationale is that wide angle lenses are therefore better suited.

My Replicates Of Fine Art

My Replicates Of Fine Art

My Mother (1982) (David Hockney)

My replicate to David Hockney's 'My Mother (1982)'

On the left hand side is David Hockney's collage, of his mother, taken from different angles, the image reflects Hockney's interest in cubism. On the right is my replicate to David Hockney's collage.

The way in which I produced this collage was by;

1. using a Nikon DSLR camera 

2. taking images from different angles of my model

3. placed my main image on Photoshop

4. cropped each of the different angled images using the quick selection tool

6. used the clone stamp tool 

5. placed them on the main image

Twisted Architecture (Nicholas Kennedy)

Replicate 

On the right hand side is my replicate to Nicolas Kennedy's surreal photography (on the right.) Through an aligned on concentric circles shift of the image in clockwise or counterclockwise, on Photoshop; 'I used the clone stamp tool' and by rotated the images I was able to produce a similar surreal image to Kennedy. Kennedy's surreal photography gives an impression of suddenly toppled buildings. as they are at a bend. The iconic Canary Wharf building and the other buildings also have that affect, and it appears as if there are several buildings which I tried to replicate form Kennedy's surreal photograph. Therefore creating a surreal affect.

Long Lens

LONG LENS

1. A long lens has a long focal length, especially as a camera attachment for taking photographs from a great distance. Long lenses must have a focal length bigger than 50mm in 35mm, or 25mm in 16mm.
   

   
   

   Still photography 

The advantages with long lenses you can give your subjects more space in situations where you don’t want to be a distraction, you have the ability to isolate the subject from its background, and to wholly make the image just about that particular subject. Long lenses thus give a photographer an alternative to the type of perspective distortion disadvantage is that in many cases (not all), there tends to be little to no context as to the whereabouts of the subject, who else was there, and why the subject may have had expressed what they were feeling.”

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-Angle Lens

 Wide lens can capture more into the lens hence the name 'wide lens' 

In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. There is definite reason for considering these shots, first: wide angle lenses are unrivaled in capturing the beauty of an immense landscape. Your eyes are capable of taking in nearly 180 degrees of a scene at once and when you've got a beautiful view, you typically want a lens that can capture as much or more than what you're seeing.Zoom lenses are both wildly impressive and highly practical in certain situations, but as a photographer you should always be ready and able to capture the bigger picture, and you'll need a wide angle lens to do it.Though wide angle lenses are most often thought of in relation to landscapes, they actually have a wide variety of applications in all kinds of settings.Finally, wide angle lens can create levels of distortion as well as both the apparent and literal range of the depth of field in wide angle photos. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-angle_lens

Landscape Photography

Often the best type of shot to capture, most of the landscape's beauty is a wide angle lens, such as mountain range or a vast windswept field. The wide-angle lens allows the viewer to be drawn into the image as well as making the Landscape look further (depth of field).

Interior 

However, taking in the sites isn't the only thing that wide angle lenses are good at. For instance, when you're indoors, walls tend to prevent you from backing up far enough to get everything you want in the frame. Anything zoomed in too far can leave you frustrated at your inability to capture anything but close details of the room you occupy. A wide angle lens will enable you to really take in the full room and capture the essence of the scene before you.

Depth of field 

Wide lens works great when wanting to capture the whole area and capturing  depth of field. As you can see the wide lens has really captured the depth of the stadium and vastness of it all. 

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-angle_lens

Labelled Film Based Camera

Film Based Camera 

Nikon Nikkormat camera

1. Film winder.
2. Shutter Release.
3. Shutter Speed Dial.^*
4. Flash Hot Shoe.
5. Film Rewind Crank.
6. Film Speed Dial.
7. Flash Synch Socket.
8. Aperture Ring.
9. Focusing Ring.
10. Lens.
11. Filter Thread.
12. Self Timer.
13. Depth of Field Preview

SLR Digital Camera