Historical Process - Cyanotype

The historical process I choose to work with was Cyanotype.

For this process potassium ferricyanide and ammonium ferric nitrate were mixed at a 50% ratio.

This solution was then applied to canvas and left to dry in a dark cupboard, once dry, a negative image on acetate was applied to the canvas and held in place in a glass frame, this was taken outside to develop in the sun for approx 10 to 12 minutes. Once developed it was rinsed under cold water to remove all the residue and then put into a tray of hydrogen peroxide to darken the image where required.


Developing In the Sun

One of the finish results taken on mobile phone

Colour Transparencies

Reversal film produces a positive image on a transparent base. The film is processed to produce transparencies. This means that what you see on camera is the resulting image.

They are then made into a slide, the most common of which is 35 mm slide, with the image framed in a 2×2" cardboard or plastic mount.

These films are the preferred film choice of professional photographers for images intended for reproduction in print media. This is because of the films' high contrast and high image resolution compared to negative (print) films.

You can get a wider range of tones and colours on a slide than a print, just as an image on a monitor will be more vibrant than any print.

We did a range of colour transparencies on a medium format camera in class.

Colour Negative Film

In photography a negative is an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because of the extremely light-sensitive chemicals a camera film must use to capture an image quickly enough for ordinary picture-taking, which are darkened, rather than bleached, by exposure to light and subsequent photographic processing.

Colour negative film is not normally used used for reproduction work as most organisations prefer transparancies. When choosing a film you need to pick the right film for the intended photo.

The positive uses of film are:- Better Dynamic range - In Black and White. Allows for minor focusing issues along with  minor exposure issues and film has a higher resolution than digital.

I went out on a Friday evening with and old Minolta AF25 point and shoot loaded with AGFA Vista Plus 200 and took the following photos.

 

 

Sources - Wikipedia and 35mm handbook

Diane Arbus - Photographer Research

Diane Arbus ( March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs,giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.". Arbus believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws. A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her. WIKIPEDIA

As part of my specialist location, I intend to shoot people we would not usually gain access to and Diane Arbus does just that, although I would not call my intended people freaks!

Other Media - mobile Phone & Audio

When I did the 2 test shoots I took some photos of the cast rehearsing along with an audio recording

To Die For Entertainment - Final & Evaluation

Here are some of the final images from the To Die For Entertainment Photo shoot. I have picked a varying range from publicity shots to cast portraits to show the range of styles I did on the day.

I was asked to take a variety of photos for the company to use as publicity for one of their up and coming shows, the images would be used on the web to advertise on social network and also to design a poster. I was very successful in doing this, one of the images was used to make a flyer and poster and another was used by the local press to advertise the event.

Overall I was pleased with the standard of images I produced and the imaginative way that I shot them. The sky in the outdoor shots is missing detail but on the day the sky was grey and flat so it wasn't even possible to bring back any detail in photoshop or lightroom, this isnt too much of a problem as the shoot was about the characters in the images and not about the surrounding environment. I would like to have tried some with off camera flash but did not have one available.

I achieved my planned intentions, images edited in lightroom and cropped in windows live.

Digital Montage - Research - Ralph Ueltzhoeffer

In 2002 Ralph Ueltzhoeffer creates the first biographical-portrait and released them via Internet (2005). The popularity of text portraits got most fame by the death of Michael Jackson, thereupon the US software company Adobe developed a plugin for Photoshop CS. Ueltzhoeffer's artistic research is dedicated to the relationship of visual and written information in the digital sphere and their relevance for the beliefs one produces from these data. His search for new forms synchronizing visual and written information reacts and reflects on the internet as an open and central source of information in times of globalization and digitalization of data.

Although not digital montage per se, i wanted to create as part of my montage a portrait Ueltzhoeffer style using a portrait of Margeret Thatcher and the text of section 28 legislation from wikipedia.

Some of his work:-