The End

Ive seriously enjoyed doing this brief. We had a lot of freedom and time to explore our own ability and as a result i learnt a lot about what i could do and what i could not do. As the emphasis on the brief was to improve our technical ability i set about by making a list of things i definately could do and then things i wanted to be able to do. I have a great interest in film photography and often avoided digital in hope to perfect my film photog. Therefore i thought the best place to start was the dark room. I did Photography in 6th form and so i had a fair knowledge of how to get around and start printing and processing images. Soon after getting started in the dark room i realised what exactly i wanted to be able to do : Perfecting Contrast in my black and white images as well as learning how to use, process and print medium format film.
I began using contrast filters to change contrast and soon realised i was able to affect contrast by how long i developed the image under the enlarger as well. I played with these two variables before discovering another. You can adjust the amount of light that comes through the enlarger lens which also affects contrast. As a result of this the dimmer the light projection is the longer you need to expose the image for (to make sure an image appears). However i discovered the longer you leave the image with a dim light projection the more detail and sharpness you get after wet processing.
I went through a lot of photo paper and cash before i started seeing contrasts that i was aiming for but eventually i did produce some well balanced final images.
Another technical ability i decided to improve was my ability to use a twin lens medium fomat camera. originally i found the tlr's intimidating and fiddley to use but again after lots of trial and error i have come to terms with how it works and how to use it. One of the most important things i learnt was to write down the aperture, shutter speed and ISO of every shot. This enabled me to go back and check why the image turned out the way it did and thus saved me a lot of time. My favourite image i took with the tlr is the one of Florence, its an early morning sunlight that beams in the kitchen and highlights her face. Ive since taken a few good ones but to be honest am still struggling getting the lighting conditions right. I think the answer to my problems would be to purchase a good light meter.
I did a lot of trial and error this brief, a lot of which was very time consuming, developing and producings film etc. Which lead me to the realisation that perhaps digital photography would be the way forward if i wanted to produce larger amounts of good quality, well considered images. Bearing this in mind i began learning digtal techniques for editing photos on photoshop. Black and white photography is my most favourite which is also why i feel ive avoided digital. I was doubtful that digital could produce a beautiful B+W picture as i really enjoy the grain and personal feel a film photo has.
I then decided that it was time to learn and pick up digital B+W photog and the techniques needed to produce the perfect image. For the last week i used only digital cameras and was both pleased and impressed with the results.
All in all i thought Com. Tech. was fantastic and a great opurtunity to learn and practice things that were self directed and suited to me. I was able to taylor the brief to exactly what i wanted to do and as a result benefited greatly. I've learnt techniques i will continue to use and have discovered a new interest for digital photography. I will still continue with film but this brief has indirectly shown me through my mistakes that there are great advantages of using digital. I still have a lot to learn particularly content wise. What i mean is, this brief was aimed at getting us producing lots to improve technical ability. This is a great way to practice and improve technical skills but didnt take into consideration content of what was being photographed. I want to become a documentary photographer and so one of the key points is conisedering content and anticipating what i will shoot. This brief did not challenge me in that way so i will be sure to focus on content of my shoots as we are given more briefings. Having said that i will aslo continue to improve my technical skills though ways in which i did during this brief. It was perfect for quick technical learning.

BW digital

Changing of the guard (35mm olympus trip)

35mm + BW Digital

35mm + BW Digital

Digital

Been busy busy busy taking lots of photos and again trial and erroring in the dark room. I think i need a break from the dark room i feel like im starting to suffer from SAD!
I went to London overnight and took my film camera (trip35mm) and was lucky enough to stumble upon the changing of the guard. Very impressive! think my photos capture it well. The D.Zuiko lens on the camera is suprisingly good and captures colours vividly without the need to saturate once scanned in. The alternative is to use VS film which is 'very saturated'. Ive had good results with this too.
Anyway here are my final photos for com tech. Some taken at home with photographic lighting and others from london, leeds and tropical world!