INTRODUCTION

So, this is the project I decided to carry out to accomplish my final portfolio. In this blog I am going to write about the things I have learned during these four months, and about the pictures I took (most of them included also in the album of the portfolio), as well as the impressions I had about the photography in general, which I realized I can devote more time to it.

Laura Becker Alonso



LIGHT IN PHOTOGRAPHY: CAMERA OBSCURA

We have learned many things during our workshops, but as most of us have no idea (or not really), about photography, we started from the most basic idea:

Light is essential in photography. This words means, literally, “writing with light”.

The possibility of forming images using a little hole is not recently known, and it constitutes the base of the “camara obscura”. This is because, as light moves in straight line, rays from the superior part of the scene can get to the inferior part of the receptor screen from the interior of the camara, and opposite, forming an inverted image. This image is dark due to the fact that the hole is small. To produce a lighter picture, it is needed to get more light and make the rays converge, which means, FOCUS. This demands the use of lenses.

Obviously, we have to fix the image somewhere. If a material in which the light alters it, is exposed to an illuminated image, it will change the more where the light gets the more intensively way.

The silver salts employs in modern photograph materials solve this problem. The film is exposed to the light to initiate the darkening process. I will talk about the procedure of obtaining the photographs later.

CAMERA HANDLING

Basic information:

◆There are two kind of lenses: Zoom lenses and prime lenses (cannot modify the focal length)

◆ Filter thread. Lenses have a thread on the front for attaching filters and other add-ons. Some also use this thread for attaching a lens hood (you screw on the filter first, and then attach the hood to the screw thread on the front of the filter).

◆ Lens hood bayonet. This is used to mount the lens hood for lenses that don’t use screw-mount hoods (the majority).

◆ Zoom ring. Turn this ring to change the zoom setting.

◆ Zoom scale. These markings on the lens show the current focal length selected.

◆ Focus ring. This is the ring you turn to manually focus the lens.

◆ Distance scale. This is a readout that rotates in unison with the lens’s focus mechanism to show the distance at which the lens has been focused.

◆Focal length: It’s the distance between the theorical optical center of lenses and the film on sensor. It can be modified with zoom lenses

 

MAIN CONCEPTS

APERTURE OF DIAFRAGM

We can vary the quantity of light we get by varying the aperture of the diaphragm. When we photograph a dark object, we need a big aperture, to get the more quantity of light, and vice versa. Aperture ring has f numbers, from which each step means double (or half) quantity of light over the following.

It also determines the depth of field. DEPTH OF FIELD is the area of sharpness extended in front of and behind the focused object.

The more aperture, only a little part of the scene is sharp.

There is more depth of field with F8, than F4

The other aspects which vary the depth of field are the distance to the subject, and the type of lenses or zooming. The closer the camera is to the subject, less depth of field we get. Same with the zooming. The more zooming, the less depth of field.

SHUTTER SPEED

It determines the time the film is exposed to light. The less shutter speed, the less uncertainty the movement will cause, forming a frozen image. It also will get less light. If we use more shutter speed, we will get a blurry image, and more light.

125 shutter speed is used to make a frozen image of a pedestrian walking.

We can combine aperture and shutter speed to get a well exposed picture. Every time each step of the scale of aperture changes with other step of the scale of speed, the film will receive the same quantity of light.

ISO/ASA SENSIBILITY

Exposure, or quantity of light which gets to the film, is controlled by shutter speed and diaphragm. To get a well exposition, we have to know the sensibility of the film and the luminosity of the subject. This is possible by knowing the silver salts of the film.

Knowing this, we have to measure the light of the subject we are going to photograph. For this, we have different ways of measuring in the camera, centre balance, punctual or matrix way.

These are the scales of the characteristics:

Shutter speed:                                ISO/ASA                                  APERTURE
1                                                        25                                              1
2                                                        50                                              1,4
4                                                        100                                            2
8                                                        200                                            2,8
15                                                      400                                            4
30                                                      800                                            5,6
60                                                     1600                                           8
125                                                   3200                                           11
250                                                                                                      16
500                                                                                                      22
1000                                                                                                    32
2000
4000
8000

Each step is in relation with his neighbor because it means double or half amount of light to get in the picture.

FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS

After having got used to using a camera and its parts, we started with analogic ones. We had to use a film with 400 ISO sensibility, in black and white, to make different exercises:



The first ones were related with the depth of field. As I said, depth of field is the area of sharpness extended in front of and behind the focused object.

1.      First plane focused background unfocused.

We can get this with little aperture of the diaphragm, i.e 5.6

2.    First plane unfocused, background focused.

Same, with little depth of field. Focusing in the last plane, instead of the first plane, and little f number to get it.

3.      First and last plane unfocused, central plane focused.

4. All planes focused

To get all the planes focused, we need a big depth of field. We can get this with a big aperture of the diaphragm, i.e, F11.

The other exercises were related with movement. This depends on the shutter speed we use:

5.    Frozen movement.

Frozen movements are caught by using a high shutter speed. 125 shutter speed is the speed to freeze a pedestrian walking in the street, so we can measure according to this.

6. Captured movement

A captured movement is got by using a low shutter speed like 60. This creates a “halo” of movement in the picture.

7. Panning



A panning is created by using a shutter speed of, i.e, 30 to 60, and accompanying the subject which is moving while taking the picture. The effect is the frozen movement of the subject moving, and a blurry background.  

DEVELOPING

After taking the photographs, we spent our 4^th workshop in developing them.

What we first had to do is to extract the film in a dark room, being careful, we open the roll and get the film, cut the ends, and charge it in a plastic spiral. After this, before turning on the light, we have to put the spiral in a tank, so light can’t get into the film. After, we can turn on the light.

Now, it’s time to keep the process with the chemical part. Three substances are needed: Revealer, stopper and fixer. First, we have to pour the revealer in the tank. We move it rhythmically around 7 minutes. Then, we take it away, and put the stopper around 1 minute, shaking it 10 seconds. The last step is the fixer, another 7 minutes approximately. After retiring it, we wash it with water and get the film. Now, the light doesn’t affect it. We wait the film to be dry, and continue with other step.

LABORATORY/CONTACT SHEET

To do the “positivism” process, there must be two zones, the wet one and the dry one. What we first have to do is getting a contact sheet of our photographs.



To do this, we have to put in contact the negatives with the sheet of photograph paper. This one is sensitive to usual light, but not orange one (only illumination). We cut the negatives, choose one to prove the exposition time and put it against the sheet, covered with a glass.

We estimate the time by covering part by part in the negative, so there are zones which are exposed more time than others. (We can do it each 2 seconds).

To reveal it, we submerge the paper in the revealer, stopper, fixer and final washed. It is approximately one minute, 10 seconds, other minute and 20 seconds, respectively.

We dry the paper, and then we do the same with all the negatives, to do our contact sheet, using the time of exposure we find right according to the negative we have done before.

Now, we can do the ENLARGEMENT