Historical and Contemporary Photographers

Historical:

William Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor and photography pioneer who invented the calotype process, a precursor to photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fox Talbot went on to develop the three primary elements of photography: developing, fixing, and printing. I find Fox Talbots work to be both powerful and simple; it is the simplicity that draws me into his photographs it gives them a clean, bold, classic finish. Talbots photographs give photographers and artists today the ground on which to produce their own work. 

Irving Penn was an American photographer, specialising in fashion, portrait and still life photography. At one point Penn had taken some imagery relating with glass. The photographs I found to be the most inspirational were the photograph that use both still life (glasses, bottles) and a model. Those images show different ways of perceiving the model through different, translucent objects; showing a range of different sizes and angles in which to view the model.  

Contemporary:

Abelardo Morell is a photographer in which I have previously looked, although when given the project glass I found a few projects of Morell' that feature glass as a main subject. I found the way that Morell used light as a contributing factor in his photographs work entirely well with the main subject glass. 




Kelly Gardener's work with using glass as photograms was very inspirational as it gave me an insight as how light can travel through a translucent object in order to create a final image. I thought the that the fact Gardner used glasses with different patterns/textures/depth worked well as it gives the viewer an idea of how light from the darkroom can create interesting depth in an image.

Wen Zhang

Other Photographers:

Christopher Leedham

Laya Gerlock is a Portrait and Product photographer based in the Philippines. His passion is teaching and sharing his knowledge in Photograpy and has been doing this for 6 years.

Film Photography Research

Film photography:

35mm film has been in use for film cameras since the early 1900s, with the first twin-lens reflex and single-lens reflex cameras (TLR and SLR respectively) reaching the mainstream market around the 1920s and 1930s. Film generally has a greater dynamic range than digital, especially black and white film. Film also differs from digital in terms of resolution. Most 35mm films cannot compete against most modern digital cameras in terms of resolution. Film look a lot different than digital, the differences being, the richer, smoother finish compared to the almost plastic finish of a digital image.  

With film photography you tend think harder about what you're doing. Every frame can be assigned a physical cost, so you try a little harder to make each shot work. 

Digital Moodboards:

Reflection Digital Photoshoot

Digital Reflection Photoshoot:

Contact Prints:

With this photograph I tried to create an interesting image with the idea of reflection in mind. The reflective surface being the mirrors, although as the mirrors are at different angles it shows different unusual reflections; giving the final image an interesting, unconventional finish. 

This is a photograph I found fell under the category reflection not only to the reflective surface of the glass chess pieces but because of the reflective surface of the flooring, this gives subjects a distorted look making the image more eye-catching. 

Light Bulb

Light Bulb Shoot:
Contact Prints:

Breaking the rules

Breaking the rules in photography has become more common with contemporary uses, creating images that make you look twice, and think about the process on how the images were created. You can create this in photography through many things, a few examples being: Un-focusing your camera, placing a cover over your lens, using an old camera and remove the lens and make a pinhole or double expose the image.

 I found this photograph falls under the category "breaking the rules" as I believe it makes the viewer look twice. The way this image was taken is there are two bottles one clear the other coloured; I placed the coloured bottle behind the clear to give in the illusion that the bottle is almost inside the other.

This photograph is taken of two bottles, although neither are in focus I thought that this photograph falls into the category of "breaking the rules" as both bottles seem to float in front of the open book, neither on a solid surface (so it seems) 

 In this photograph I have experimented with the focus, although instead of the subject (the glass) being in focus the background is. To ensure that the subject says the subject I have placed so it sits almost in the centre, covering the majority of my shot.

With this photograph both subjects are not in focus, although I don't think that ruins the image; as I still think that it looks strong and bold, almost classic. The negative looks as though it has been restored giving it a historical finish.

Photographic Laboratories

ProAm:

ProAm offers the ability for its customers to print/develop film. All sizes of C41 film can be developed on formats such as: 35mm & 120 (6 x 4.5cm/ 6 x 6cm) Older negatives such as 110, 126, 127 can be processed also through being scanned then printed.

Developing prices:

CC imaging

At CC imaging they process by hand, using a precise dilution of chemicals specifically for your film. CC imaging offers for film, film developing, black and white prints, fibre printing, colour printing, lomography.

                                                                             

Developing Prices

Black and White process prices

Colour processes prices

Fibre process prices

Lomography Prices

Black and White Film Shoot Plan

GLASS: Black and white film shoot plan

This shoot main subject will be "Glass" in which I am wanting to capture strong, powerful, classic, black and white image. I have planned many shots in which I think will create successful prints. The glass subjects I will be using will be: lanterns, wine glasses, snow globes, marbles, jars etc.

For location I am wanting to use outdoors as a main location, as I am wanting to use reflections of exterior landscape in a wine glass something I came across when researching glass photography as a whole. As these images are going the be in black and white I decided I would experiment taken photographs with a historical theme as I think this could create a very worth while result. 

With props I will be needing a film camera, extra film, tri-pod and glass subjects: wine glasses, glass jars, glass lanterns. 

Colour Film Shoot Plan

GLASS: Colour Film Shoot Plan

This shoot will be based off of the subject "glass". And as this shoot is going to be in colour I would like to use vibrant colour within my photographs. I have planned out multiple shots using different glass subjects (Glasses, jars, lanterns, candles...) I will attempt to create film photographs relating to angles, and lighting. 

As for a location I wanted the majority of my photographs to have a clean, simple finish therefore I will be shooting in a studio based area. As the subject is glass I felt that if I were to photograph my objects in a location, due to the translucency of the glass, the photograph would be too busy, which is not the end result I am looking for. I am wanting to use a few frames of film to experiment with my subject outdoors, for the lanterns and wine glasses, to see how I can use exterior reflections within the glass subject. 

In regards to the style of my shoot in comparison to my black and white film shoot I would like to use bold colour to give my photographs an interesting finish, I will do this using dyes in wine glasses (in water), coloured glass, and coloured liquids. 

With props I will be needing a film camera, extra film, tri-pod and glass subjects: wine glasses, glass jars, glass lanterns, bottles, candles, mirrors. 

Risk Assessment:

Final Colour Film Photographs/Prints

Evaluation

Evaluation:

For this project the theme was "Glass", in which I had ideas instantly, from everyday objects, mirrors, reflective surfaces etc. This project is also darkroom practise based, meaning I have had the opportunity to move forward and expand on the skills I previously learnt whilst in the darkroom (both colour and black and white) 

When finding out about that this project's theme was glass I instantly thought that glass is a perfect object for photographing because the stress and differing diversity could be dramatically illuminated. 

Through researching historical and contemporary photographers I found inspirational, different ways in which I could use glass to take interesting photographs that could be inspirational or eye-catching to the viewer/s. I found that the classic finish of historical imagery mixed with contemporary techniques in what I could use in my photographs.

During this project I have completed multiple shoots in order to give me the knowledge of how the take successful photographs of glass using light and angles to my advantage, in order to later take through to the darkrooms. I have taken something away with all of the shoots I have completed, including how to use a lightmeter out of the studio, more ways on how to make more successful darkroom negatives, using a lightbox with a film camera etc. 

I enjoyed working more in depth with film photography, learning what makes a successful enlargement and negatives as well as learning the different processing in the black and white and colour darkroom. 

The problems that occurred during this project were that I don't think that I was given enough time to be in the black and white darkroom. And because of complications with film processes I was unable to actually go into the colour darkroom, therefore I had to find an alternative, that being I have to scan my negatives into a computer to then print them separately. 

Overall I found my final prints quite successful, as I think that they reflect the theme quite well.