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!

a book by jeff luker

Stuck in the middle with you - Anne Gallois & Aurélien Arbet

http://iheartphotograph.blogspot.com/2010/11/stuck-in-middle-with-you-anne-gallois.html



I thought this publication was lovely. I love the images and i think the contrast and grainyness adds a sort of bleakness to the photos. I dont think its necessary to have deep contrasts and a perfect image always. The way they have come out forces the viewer to see what the photographer was seeing at that time . The fact that the images were taken on film helps you understand the image and look into it more. I find with so many digital photographers around sharp obviously digital images carry less value with them. Its as though there was less though put into the image and it was likely a point and shoot. There would be less atmosphere without the grainyness in the images and this consideration makes me appreciate the image even more.

Inspiration

I find i get most of my inspiration from my favourite website www.booooooom.com which is updated daily. Its a website that sources artists work through selection from a large pool on flickr.com. More often than not its work by artists that arent well known which means i focus less on aiming to be like a particular, well known photographer. Instead i follow the broad theme of work posted daily and take inspiration from it all. I recommend the website to anyone its awesome.

Still cant remember the name of the photographer but i found another whos B+W photos are amazing. I really love documentary photography. It fascinates me seeing how a person/community can live so differently to the way i do. A well executed photograph boasts so much feeling, particularly in B+W where the subjects personality really shines through.

"Black and white prints have a refined quality about them. The simplicity and uncluttered look give the subject a polished, high-class feel. Without the distractions of color, the picture begs each viewer to recognize the individuality and uniqueness of the subject".


Heres some of documentary photographer Ian berrys photos

Fishing

These are 3 images i took in the first year but thought id blog them as i loved the contrasts and thought they were suited to what im doing. I particularly like the motion blur in the third image. It reminds me of a certain photographers style i cannot remember the name of. Soon as i remember i'll blog it!

Another image i took in the summer but edited on photoshop using the techniques i recently learnt.

I took this photo down an alley in shanghai during the summer. I scanned in the negative and eddited it on photoshop using a few of the techniques ive been learning from the net.

Shooting in sunlight

* f16 Rule: The correct exposure for an average subject in bright sunlight is 1 over the ISO number of the film, with the camera's lens opening set at f16.

This rule allows you to estimate the exposures you'll need with a film based on its ISO rating. For an ISO 50 film, this is 1/50th second at f16. For an ISO 400 film, it's 1/400th second at f16. If your camera's shutter doesn't have exactly the speed given by the rule, just choose the next higher speed. For ISO 50, you can use 1/60 second. For ISO 400 film, use 1/500 second.

The 50 ASA [slow] films are the correct choice when:
* the finished enlargement must have minimum 'graininess', or
* the finished enlargement must have maximum detail, or
* the light will be strong enough to allow an acceptable combination of shutter speeds and lens openings.

The ISO 400 [fast] films are the correct choice when:
* graininess is not very important or perhaps even desired, or
* the amount of light available will be low, or
* shutter speeds must be high in order to stop motion.

On a perfect, clear, sunny day, f/16 is to be used. Days that aren’t clear and sunny can still use the Sunny 16 rule with some minor changes. Extremely bright days with distinct shadows use f/22. Hazy sun and soft shadows use f/11, cloudly days with barely visible shadows use f/8, and overcast days with no shadows use f/5.6. The same shutter speed rule applies. In our example of using ISO film speed 100, the shutter speed will always be 1/125, regardless of the aperture used.

Black & white film photographers make use of color filters to change the captured tones in their photographs. Ever see those monochrome images with dark skies and puffy white clouds? That’s not natural; it requires the use of color filtering to produce the desired effect.

Using an actual color filter with a digital camera is perfectly acceptable and it has its merits, but it’s not completely necessary. Software like Photoshop has the ability to apply non-destructive color filters. It also has the ability to produce the same results as a color filter during the black & white conversion. For those of you using Photoshop CS3, you’ll see that the black & white adjustment dialog has several preset filters that can be applied and modified to suit the photo.

Ive concentrated on taking photographs during sunny days and evenings in the hope that the beautiful colours and shadows will show through in my photographs. However as ive been using mainly B+W ive realised the bright sun can bleach out a lot of the photograph as opposed to highlighting it. Instead of creating clear deep contrasts the lighter areas are often burnt away. I researched this on the net and found this :

When to Shoot
Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. So an dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot out door shots.
Ironically these are the days that those who shoot only in color sit at home complaining about the ‘poor light’. So next time you find yourself with a dark and gloomy day – shoot some black and white shots.

For the next shoot i do ill do it either inside or on an overcast day. I should then be able to make a comparison between images and decide which i prefer and why.

Converting digital colour to Black and White

There is a right way and a wrong way to convert the images. The 'wrong' way, or perhaps the easy way, is use the desaturate function (click on "image", "adjustments" and "desaturate" in Photoshop). This simply discards all color information. The better way, which gives you a lot more control over exactly how certain colors are converted into black and white is to use the Channel Mixer. Click on "image" "adjustments" and "channel mixer". Then make sure the "Monochrome" checkbox is selected. Now, by moving the "Red", "Green" and ""Blue" sliders about, you will be able to adjust the individual brightnesses of specific colors. Very subtle changes in how you choose to convert the colors will lead to strikingly different effects. As always, the proof of the picture is in the seeing, and the examples below amply demonstrates the power of this technique.

http://www.illustratedphotography.com/files/fck-files/digital-black-and-white-photography-6.jpg

Natural light

I love natural light and i love the shadows it can make. It can highlight aspects of people and objects much like a photographic spotlight in a studio. However i think the rarity of shadows and highlights casted by natural light give the image more value and create a greater interest for me. Patterns are created which may never appear again and a natural orange glow, i feel cannot be beaten for use in photography.