March 17th // The format wars

Favourite format: My favourite format is film.

Benefits of this format: A benefit to this format is having that hard copy of the image so you can re-use again and again, until you lose it but then you can/maybe will always find it again unlike digital when it gets deleted its gone forever unless backed up.

Negatives related to this format: Can’t see your images right away. Its slow/ can take its time to shoot, process and print. Not always 100% guaranteed to have your images on the film. When processed and you have your film back if it gets scratched the film is damaged and its hard to fix. Only limited to 24 or 36 images per roll (35mm film) 12 images (medium format) 2 pieces of film per slot (larger format.)

What makes this your favourite format?: I feel that film is my favourite format because you get a hard copy of your image and I love the excitement I get when I’m looking at my film on the light box seeing how my images have come out.

Least favourite format: Larger format, until I used it the other week and processed the film myself, now I am warming to it because its another film based photography and because of that I would say that at this moment in time digital would be my least favourite.

Benefits of this format: You get to see your images right away after taking them. You can edit them, such as crop them or turn them black and white from the back of the camera. Can delete an image if I don’t like it and it won’t use up a space like on film. High quality images.

Negatives related to this format: If you delete an image you can’t get them back if you delete them from the camera. The camera’s are expensive to buy but in the long run they are worth their money.

What make this your least favourite format: Its only my least favourite because I love shooting film so much.

Now using my own images from the two formats i have talked about film (35mm) and digital I am going to compare them.

(First image of the sea is 35mm film and the second image is digital)

These to images are very different and their format does help with this. The photograph of the sea was taken on 35mm film and I think the coldest/ tint of blue helps to soften the image and just add that little something to the image. The other image the portrait of Gemma was taken on digital and you can tell because of how crisp the image is and also the sharpness in Gemma her self.

March 13th // Digital and film comparison

My group was group 1, it was made up of me, Gemma Bradshaw, Ellie-Jay Heatley, Corey Wong and Lauren Norris. As group 1 we was told to re-create the image above. We had to split into two’s and re-create the image on digital and film. We timed our selves from start to finish to see how long each process would take.

Corey and Lauren worked together and they had to re-create the image by using digital, once they had taken the image they had to edit it into black and white. From start to finish the time was 0:41:43

Me, Gemma and Ellie was then left to re-create the image by using black and white 35mm film, by using black and white film it allowed us to process the film our selfs. Once we had processed the film we had to make a print of the image in the darkroom. From start to finish the time was 1:43:53

Corey “I would pick digital because it was easier to immediately view your images after you took the shot which was helpful when doing this task.”
I agree with Corey on using digital to re-create something because if you need it to look 100% or as close as you can to whatever it maybe then digital is defiantly the format to use because you can see you image right away so you know if you can getting the right photo or not. But I love shooting film so I would use film for shooting something else.
Film: Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
-You get a hard copy, by getting the negative.
-It makes you slow down and makes you really think about your images.
-Small and compact.
-You cant delete any images.
Con’s
-Can’t delete images so if you don’t like the shot or think it went wrong it has used a shot up.
-Limited to on 24 or 36 images.
-It can be expensive by buying film, and paying for the film to be processed and to have the images printed.
-You have to wait for the film to be developed so you can see if your images worked out or it they failed.
Digital Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
-Its quick.
-You can see your images right away.
-You can chose which images you want to keep or delete so then you can take more images.
Con’s
-Its too easy to just keep shooting and not to really think about creating an image.
-The camera and lens’ are expensive.
-Easy to shoot on auto and not actually understand how the camera works.

March 11th // Alan’s lesson // Salt printing

Salt printing is where you can create a print of an object or negative by using photographic salt and sunlight (UV light)

To create the mixture for this process you will need to mix
To create a salt print:
Add 10g of photographic salt (Sodium Chloride, NaCl) to 500ml of water and mix together, then coat a piece of water colour paper with the mixture. (Water colour paper works best because the surface has little pockets in it and the salt settles in them pockets.) Then dry the paper. When the paper is dry add a thin layer of Silver Nitrate (AgNO3) (this mixed with the Sodium Chloride will now become Silver Chloride, AgCl) this is what makes the paper light sensitive, then you need to dry it, a quick way to do this is by using a hair dryer (this is what I used) when you have done that the paper is now light sensitive so you need to put it in a dark box, where no light can get to it. When ready to use you place your object or negative on the paper and then you put glass over the negative so it stays in place on the paper, then you expose it to the light. (Depending on the weather and how sunny it is will depend on the exposure time.) When you are happy with your print you then wash it in water, leave it to dry and then you have your salt print.

These salt prints are mine and Gemma Bradshaw’s

March 10th // Powerpoint of photographers // My top 10 photographers

  Steve McCurry; Afghan girl; 23rd April 1950, Darby, Pennsylvania, USA, Portraits (colour)

Dorothea Lange; Migrant mother; 26th May 1895, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, Portraits and landscapes (black and white)

Eddie Adams; Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon police chief; 12th June 1933, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, USA, Documentary (black and white)

Kevin Carter; Stricken child crawling towards a food camp; 13th September 1960, Johannesburg, South Africa, Documentary (colour)

Elliott Erwitt; Segregated water fountains; 26th July 1928, Paris, France, Documentary (black and white)

Malcolm Browne; Burning monk, the self-immolation; 17th April 1931, New York City, New York, USA, Documentary (black and white)

These are my top 10 photographer

*Not in order*

Julian Germain, Joel Meyerowitz, Jack Alexander, Jason Lazarus, Scott W Mason, Ryan Gee, Toby Orme, Emily Coxhead, Tim Flach, Natalie Wilson.

7/10 Male

3/10 Female

10/10 Colour (1 uses colour and black and white together)

1/10 Black and white (1 uses colour and black and white together)

7/10 Documentary or street or location

1/10 Fashion

2/10 Studio

4/10 Film

6/10 Digital

Genres: The photographers on my list are mainly male documentary photographer who shot in colour.

March 10th // Different photography formats // Our different formats

For this lesson we had to use three different types of format we had to use digital, large format, medium format and 35mm film. In all of the photos we used the same subject at least once just to show how the subject reacted or was shown different on each format. For this our subject was a cone on the brick wall. I loaded the large format film into the slides which was only my second time doing it, but last time I had done that was last year in first year. We had to work out the aperture and the shutter speed. I also processed the larger format film for the first time and I was proud of the out come. I believe that the medium format film came out the best I think that subject we kept the same, the cone came out well in the image i also like how our other image on the medium format came out. On the 35mm we took 4 images two of trees and the other two images were of the cone subject.

35mm film

Medium film format

Large format

Digital image (colour)

March 6th-12th // Photographic history presentation

I think for this presentation it went well, I kept the slide clean and crisp not over crowded with information I just had simple sort sentence so everyone could follow on what point I was making. For this presentation i achieved a distinction.

March 5th // Photography the problem child

Is photography art? Yes I believe that it is because you see it in galleries and that’s where you see art/ paintings.

Who and what movement thought photography was cheating and which movements embraced it as an art form? I believe that photography isn’t cheating  unless it is edited unlike different art forms such as painting and drawing. With photographs you can see everything that is happening. With painting you don’t know if what is in the image is real or not because with painting you can add anything onto the image.

How do we tackle statements like ‘it’s easy to take a photo’ or ‘it takes me a month to one image?’ Yes it maybe be easy to take a photo but it’s not easy to get a good photo. Just because you can pick up your phone or camera to take a photo doesn’t make you a photographer. The ‘it takes a month to get one image’ by this statement I think it’s from when people used film cameras because you used to have to wait until you finished the roll of film, then you have to wait for the film to be processed and then when you have the film back you have to take it into the darkroom to get the final print.

What makes photography art? Photography is art because you make it you create the image and the scene if you set it up.

Should we be asking questions like “why print?” I think people saw painting as the normal thing but photography was something new and unusual and not many people could do it where as with painting, some skill was needed but with things such as the camera obscura you didn’t need the imagination behind it to create the painting.

What separates us from the rest of the art world? We are separated from the rest of the art world because we are able to capture time, with in a split millisecond we have that moment.

Where can you see photography progressing from today? I can see the technology of photography advancing I the equipment side of it for photographers but in the other hand I can see that photography is losing its real meaning because of the usage of apps and social networks anyone can be a “photographer”

What are the current trends in photography? I think the current trends in photography are Instagram and anywhere that you can post and image/ photo/ selfie on to.

How can we stand outs from the he mass crowd of ill informed amateur photographers? We can stand out by not posting everything everywhere, keeping it professional by having a website or even if it’s a Facebook, make sure it is a Facebook page just for your photography so that you don’t mix you personal life photos with your work photos.

March 3rd // Ansel Adams mindmap

March 3rd // John Berger ‘Ways of seeing’ // Julian Germain // Diane Arbus

In chapter one John Berger goes on to explain all about how seeing and information we already know affects the way we interpret images. He also says that a lot of things we see are changed by reproduction that we have all ready seen, such as art work as a photo it takes away the mean and the feeling on the painting.

Penguin books ISBN 978-0-141-03579-6

“Every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” In this series of work I researched into it last year so the way that I see the images are different to how I saw it for the first time. This is what we are taking about in class how because I already know about this image and I now see it differently. When I first saw this image I thought that the man was cooking a meal for his wife who had passed away because it is routine for him to cook the meals. I then later found out that he was cooking the meal for the photographer Julian Germain. Because I know the story behind the image when I saw this photo again and was asking what’s the meaning behind the image I said “thankful and appreciative” to Julian for documenting their time together.

 

I have never seen this image before so my feeling towards this image remind of some sort of horror film. I think that my perception of this image is reminding me of a horror film because the image is in black and white. The mood in this photo is creepy, its creepy because the girls are both wearing the same clothes and the twin on the right has a little smirk on her face and the twin on the left looks like she is plotting something. The way I see this image would maybe be different if i haven’t had watched certain horror films, but putting that aside I think that this image is just a snapshot of these two little girls.

Research // Film

(Photo by Ryan Cabal)

Film is one of my favourite formats to shoot on. When I shooting on film I feel that I am more selective about getting the image I want because I am always looking out for the best possible moment to get the perfect photo. When using film I am not just shooting because I can like I would on digital. I am thinking about the images I am going to make, not only because I have a limited amount of photos on the roll of film but because I don’t know what the image looks like until I have the film processed so I have to trust my gut and pray that I captured the moment at the perfect time.

I love not knowing what the film looks like until I get it back, there is just something magic and existing about seeing your images for the first time. I remember having that feeling when I was younger my step grandad gave my a Kodak throw away camera and I used all 24 shoots in a two minute walk from my house down the road to my grandmas. When I got that roll of film back I was so proud of my self I was like “mum look what I’ve done” and I think this is why I’m so in love with shooting on film.

(Photo by Romany Ebrel Prisk, taken on a Lomography Fisheye One camera)

When shooting documentary/ shooting out on the street I think that you should shoot using film as your format. I think you should use film because when you are using film your mind is on getting your images, unlike when you are shooting digital you do two things: 1) you just shoot and shoot. 2) you go back on your images you have just taken. By doing this you can be/ you are missing shots. You can’t be a flâneur if you are not looking up at the world.

When I have shot on film I normally wait unit I have a number of rolls before I get my film processed. I can put them in for processing the day same day because I could have 3 or 4 rolls of film from one shoots. Some other times it can be a month after I have shot the film. When it has been a long amount of time I really enjoy getting my film back, getting to see my negatives out on the light box and seeing how they have came out. I enjoy this part of getting my negatives back normally even if it’s 4 days after the shoot or month because it’s the first time I am seeing my images because sometimes I can be a millisecond out and miss the shoot or I could of got it perfect.