DARK/ROOM

For my Independent Practice this semester, I wanted to push myself more into film photography and the dark room development. I had been doing dark room developing in college but there was so much I could at college level. I first did my induction for the dark room.

The first thing we did in the dark was Photogram. This is when you cover the photographic paper with an object and turn on the enlarger so exposes the non-covered areas of the paper.

Exposer time and test strips. To get the perfect contrast and blacks in your photos, you must expose a part of the strip by covering the whole strip and part by part exposing it until you find the right time to expose it at.

BLACK/WHITE

I was very keen practicing some more film photography so went to the media store got a Pantex ME film SLR and grabbed an ILFORD HP5+ Black & White film from Jessops. Luckily for me, this was the day of the Book Fair. I documented the whole event using only black & white film.

LOMOGRAPHY/TEST

I have very been interested in Lomography for quite awhile and when the opportunity came to buy a Lomograph camera, I took it in an instant. These were my test shots during the Lab/Make Me Think.

PUSHING/FURTHER

I documented the Lab and Rag Factory to improve my skill in film photography. I used coloured and black & white film and different camera lenses. I used a 12-24mm super wide angle lens, stock lens and a 8mm fish eye lens. I also had films with different speeds.

EVALUATION

This semester I have pushed myself into something that people have told me I have an eye for. Might be a hidden gift, but do know I love photography and enjoyed doing my Independent Practice only in this. I could have a had a Portfolio with variations of Independent work that I have been doing but I felt this would easier and I would be fully committed to showing what I have been doing rather than a half hearted attempt to do lot of different things. Learning how to use a lomograph camera was the most challenging for me. Most of my shots would be out of focus, over-exposed and had one case that the film would not rewind and I had to open it up to take out the film and this exposed a whole film role. Film does has its downsides which in a new age digital where everything is done on demand, it is slow for this but once you get your films developed and print, they can the most beautiful piece of art and the you always feel a satisfaction afterwards and hold up you pictures slight more proudly then digital snaps. Overall I feel happy that I chose to do film photography for my Independent Practise, I feel I can still go further with it, experiment and enjoy it. I have definitely achieved a huge skill.