This semester, we have learned a few different ways to create a photograph, such as constructing a pinhole camera and photograms.
These are objects used to make a photogram. To make one, you place the objects on the photo paper and expose it to light for 10-12 seconds. Then you proceed to develop the photo in the sinks.
In the changing room, you transfer your film into a film tank. If the film is exposed to any light, it is ruined. That is why the changing room must have complete darkness.
Once you have gone through each step of developing, you hang your negatives in the dryer for 24 hours. On each end of the negatives, you place a weight so that they dry evenly and have no water spots.
After your negatives have dried, you slide them into negative sleeves carefully, using gloves to prevent fingerprints from staining them.
A contact sheet, pictured here, is a tool used to view every photo taken during tour shoot. You can view these photos up close at a light table.
There are different filters that control the contrast of a photo. Once you've chosen one, you place it in the enlarger as showed here.
To enlarge your photo, you place your negative in a negative carrier and place it onto the enlarger.
This dial controls the brightness of the light bulb. When making a print, you normally set 3 clicks to the left.
Before printing, you must make sure that the enlarger is focusing on the photo paper. This is called grain focusing.
This is the timer on the enlarger. How long you expose your photo for is determined by your test strip.
To make a test strip, you expose the strip in 5 second increments, one small section at time. In the end, the first section exposed should have been exposed for the longest time and the last one for the shortest time. You develop this strip and use it as a guide as to how long to expose your actual print.
Pictured here is a test strip in the stop bath (to stop it from continuing to develop). The darkroom sinks are set up in a specific order: D76 developer, stop bath, fixer (to preserve the photo), and water (to wash off all of the chemicals.
Once you have completed developing in the sinks, you must use a squeegee to remove any excess liquids from the photo to avoid spots.
After the squeegee, you place the photo into the dryer and after roughly 1 minute, it comes out dry on the other side.
In addition to learning how to develop film, we also learned how to use the right tools on our camera to take the "right" photo.
This photo was taken using a high shutter speed ( 1/2000) to capture the dogs in focus despite their fast movement.
This photo was taken using a smaller aperture to allow both subjects in the foreground and the background to be in focus (deep depth of field). Aperture is the size of the hole that opens allowing light into the camera.
This photo is an example of a triangle. The triangle is a technique where the subjects are arranged in a triangle to be more aesthetically pleasing.
This is an example of negative space. The space created can give your photo an entirely different feel than one of the same subject. The absence of content does not mean the absence of interest.
If you are in a studio, you can experiment with 3-point lighting. There are two lights pointing at the subject in the front: the key light and the fill light. There is a third light, called the back light, hidden behind the subject. To eliminate all shadows, a white board is placed out of frame (as pictured here).
Some of our work is displayed on our campus. This is our story-telling project that was shot using a Polaroid. This one was special because we got to tell a story that is open to creative interpretaion.
Overall, we have learned so much while having so much fun. This class inspired us everyday and we are looking forward to next semester!
Credits:
Victoria Ramirez Ayla Lynch