Darkroom Experimentation

In the darkroom I experimented with different techniques to see what the outcomes were like. I may carry these forward into using them for my final outcome. 

This experimentation I used the dodging and burning technique. I exposed the plane to one half of the photographic paper then moved it over and exposed the other half of paper. To make it look like there are two planes I dodged the first half that I had exposed so that it would come out with the same contrast and timings as the second plane. However there was a slight overlap in the centre where the two planes crossed. 

I experimented with making reversals of my images, I only experimented with two because I was specifically interested in seeing what the image of the people in gas masks would look like. The newspaper reversal was experimenting with another print. I think that the reversal of the people in gas masks look quite daunting and emphasise on what it would have been like in the war. 

For this print I experimented with solarisation. This was done by exposing my image to the paper for the correct amount of time them putting it in the develop for a few seconds then putting it under a light for a few seconds then putting it in the stop bath for the correct amount of time then in the fix then in the wash. 

For the next two print I experimented with exposing my image on the photographic paper then placing newspaper in the negative carrier then exposing it. I had to half the time that I would usually expose my print for otherwise it would turn out really dark. For this print I exposed the newspaper first before I exposed my print. 

On my second experiment I exposed my print first without the newspaper in the negative carrier, then placed the newspaper back in the negative carrier and exposed it for the remainder of the time. 

Darkroom Prints - Family and Brighton Photographs

Continuing my theme of the past and war time experiences I took some photos with my SLR that follow my theme. These are photographs are of family members and shots from a visit to Brighton. I experimented with different sized paper to see what the prints came out like.  

For the photographs of members of my family I tried to think of ways in which I can make the images look aged. I took photographs of old photos in albums that I have, to achieve an old look on the photographs I set up a tripod with the camera on, then arranged the photographs so that they were in focus under the camera. I took the pictures with a sheet of plastic over thew images so that the natural lighting would reflect off plastic and show up on the negatives. This created a darkened effect over the detail in the image and removed some of the contrast which is what I was hoping for. I used half a piece of 7x5 paper and a quarter of 7x5 paper. I prefer the smaller prints on the quarter of 7x5 because I think that they look more like how photographs would have been printed in the past because printing was expensive they were often printed on small pieces of photographic paper. 

These images are of my trip to brighton. I tried just to focus on things that didn't look modern, for example the lamp post and the pier. However with the shot of the deck chairs I couldn't crop out the people sitting on the beach. As it was a very sunny day this made the print have good contrast. With the first print of the  lamp post it came out a little too dark so I reduced the time the image was exposed for which resulted in a god contrast print. 

SLR Photography

SLR Photography 
I captured some still life shots using my SLR camera. I set up a small scene area with a variety of objects and used a lamp to create the lighting on the different objects. I tried to use objects that were metal so that the light would reflect off the objects.

First I done a test strip of my contact sheet to see what settings I need to set the enlarger to to make a contact sheet.

I set the contrast filter on 5, the aperture on the enlarger to f8 and the timer to 4 seconds. 

I then chose some the best compositions to use to make a perfect print with. I found the grain for every negative I chose, I then set my contrast filter to 5, enlarger aperture on f8 and made a test strip of this image. Once it had been developed I decided on how long I needed to expose it to the paper for.