DSLR Induction

I thoroughly enjoyed this induction, there was something quite exciting at seeing the studios I could use in the future. The cameras, Canon EO5's, were simple to use and the way we were taught worked well for me. Learn a bit, go experiment, learn a bit more and experiment again.

At first we were told to experiment with the manual settings:

Landscape - everything in focus

Macro - short distance focus

Portrait

Night Portrait - using flash and then continued exposure

Sports - quick shutter speed

I, however, couldn't seem to take an focused shot, and it turns out a little switch on the side was set to manual focus, rather than auto. Once I'd resolved this I produced some images I was happy with.

Using the studio and flash

Then we played with drawing with light, using a separate flash, and measuring the light needed with the light meter. When the shutter is released the flash goes, and then the shutter remains open for 5 seconds. This produces a flash lit subject, and then darkness for 5 seconds to draw with light. Unfortunately 5 seconds isn't long enough to write 'Hannah', so these will have to suffice!

35mm scans

This is the first set of 35mm I've shot since adapting the Holga. Pretty pleased with a couple of the images. Struggled with the counting technique and forgot to wind on one of the frames once, and another time I wound on the frame twice and ended up with a blank! Have since seen modifications on flickr forums, whereby you tape a spiral from a spiral bound document to click in the sprocket holes which I think I'll try next time. 

At the same time of shooting, I tried to recreate the images on my digital point & shoot. The two images of the sets will be juxtaposed to each other in a sort of how-to/reference book.

Here are the successful images:

Quadruple Exposure

Double Exposure, Blue, 1st exposure disappears

Double Exposure

Long exposure with lighter

Double Exposure, Red and Blue ColourFlash

Blue ColourFlash

Long Exposure, 'NO', or in this case 'N'

Double Exposure, one with Blue Flash

Red ColourFlash and the strongest image

Testing the blue flash and forgetting to wind on.. the image behind is a triple exposure using low light, a torch and moving closer on the stairs.

Seven Exposures, didn't nail this one!

flickr & Holga scans

Been busily doing work. Really enjoying getting to use (read: play about with) the Holga for this brief. 

Have recently learned the art of uploading a URL for an image, yeah, took me awhile to figure that one out.. And I had already decided to use flickr as a platform to show the Holga images, so will use the URL rather than upload twice, now that would just be silly..

I've discovered a plethora of Lomography websites, esp Holga ones. I think its because the camera is so customisable that people help each other out and there's quite a strong community feel. In the booklet with the starter pack they list ten Holga websites, and rather humbly, put theirs tenth. 

I joined the '35mm Sprocket hole' and 'Holga' groups on flickr to upload some images and hopefully garner some comments/criticisms. So I was quite excited when I just checked and saw that four of my images in the 'Holga' group have been added as a favourite (no idea what that actually means..) Two of them have been added as favourites twice, all about 16 hours ago. Interestingly, however, is that the most viewed picture has only been viewed 7 times..! I'll keep checking back and see how it progresses. 

Ok, backtracking, I spent Thursday morning booked in to the digital print room scanning both sets of negatives, medium format and 35mm. I decided to rescan the medium format as it seems to be the most popular choice from the flickr group members in the forum. And I knew the developers wouldn't be able to print the sprocket holes and I would have to scan them. The medium format were easy, as they fit the 120 holders that come with Epson scanners, the 35mm was a little more fiddly. At first I stuck them into the 120 holders with tape and then after conferring with the technician and forum research decided to hold them down using a pane of glass from the ceramics room. This worked pretty well, but has left some circular lines where the negatives weren't pressed down enough. For some of the negatives I adjusted the contrast in the settings before scanning, and some I enhanced in photoshop after. I was really impressed with how some of the medium formats turned out, as from the prints they looked grey and lifeless but transformed into bold, striking images once scanned.

Enough rambling, its the images that matter!

Medium Format, Golden Acre Park:

Geese/Face has been added as a 'favourite'

Tunnel has been added twice

The green version has been added twice and has the highest amount of views

The Geese has been added

These final two are still my personal strongest images, but its interesting to see other people's opinions of your work. I am pleased I decided to scan these in, the difference between them is remarkable. (compare!)

Edit: On viewing the blog the images have been cropped once posted... Will try uploading the next batch set to 'small' rather than 'medium' and see if that makes a difference.

Boom Animation

This is an animation made using Final Cut HD. The images were created by our tutor and then we had to edit them together and add visual effects, music, etc. It was helpful to learn what can be done using Final Cut, as I wouldn't have considered doing an animation/known where to create one. Unfortunately when I first opened up the software I didn't realise the settings were on Anamorphic. i.e. widescreen, so the format is a little off. But all in all a fun little learning exercise.

35mm modification

There are instructions in the Holga book, but I need to see things to understand them, so have resorted to a youtube video tutorial.

This is a really helpful website, set up by a fan. Teaches you how to do modifications and the results you can expect.

http://holga.info

Holga

Here are the scans from the first Holga film on Medium format.

Tunnel, taken using red coloursplash, didn't seem to work, possibly needed a closer subject.

Double exposure trees

Single exposure

Single exposure

Double exposure, mobile phones sat on bench/geese by the lake

Eerie double tree exposure

A single exposure as far as I can remember, the ring is created by shooting directly into the sun

Long exposure on night time setting, needed a tripod. iPod in tree

Same again

The geese were lining up and being generally wonderfully bizarre

Double exposure, face/sunlight and field

Double exposure eye/pond

Triple/quadruple exposure, car fascia/trees/bottle bank

This was actually before I'd wound the camera on properly to the first photo and created a double length negative of which the developers processed half.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of saturation, as I had expected lots of reds and bright colours and leaks, but was pleased the double exposures worked well in some photos. Good for a first attempt and learning process.

 Tonight I'm adapting (read: bodging with black tape) the camera to take 35mm and exploring techniques and recreating them on digital as much as possible.

Drawing with Light

Unrelated to the current brief, but the other night I was helping my housemate out with her current project on smoking. These images will be photoshopped over masked out silhouettes shaded with smoke on paper depicting people smoking. 

Shot using - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 + tripod